I would spend some time and read the ESRP results from each of the storage vendors you entertain. There's some excellent data and very interesting results.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb412164.aspx Pay particular attention to each vendor's hardware configuration and compare that to the amount of load (number of mailboxes) they were able to handle and still provide reasonable disk response times. (I believe under 20ms is the target). Once you've digested all of that, start obtaining price quotes from the various vendors. This is what brought Equalogics to my attention as a serious contender in the storage sector. And by the way, I currently manage two EMC CX700s and an EMC CX4-960. <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb412164.aspx> - Sean On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 1:59 PM, sms adm <sms...@gmail.com> wrote: > You want dependability, performance, *and great support*. > Netapp will be priced high, but won't come back with additional costs like > EMC and IBM have been well known to do. Their support is EXCELLENT. > > Find a vendor that will give you great service. > > > On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Sean Martin <seanmarti...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> I would also look at the Dell/Equalogics. I keep hearing talk about them >> being one of the best performing iSCSI units out there, even compared to the >> big dogs like EMC and IBM. >> >> >> >> - Sean >> >> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 12:30 PM, Pfefferkorn, Pete (pfeffepe) < >> pfeff...@ucmail.uc.edu> wrote: >> >>> We were looking at going with Dells Powervault MD3200’s andMD1200’s. >>> But we are open to other vendors/options. >>> >>> >>> >>> *Pete Pfefferkorn* >>> >>> *University of Cincinnati* >>> >>> *Email Services-Systems Engineer* >>> >>> *pete.pfefferk...@uc.edu* >>> >>> *(513)556-9076* >>> >>> * * >>> >>> >>> >>> *From:* sms adm [mailto:sms...@gmail.com] >>> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 28, 2010 4:10 PM >>> *To:* MS-Exchange Admin Issues >>> *Subject:* Re: Exchange 2010 DAG and backup options/recommendations. >>> >>> >>> >>> Who is your storage provider? >>> I just attended an EMC presentation at the Netherlands Hotel in downtown >>> Cinci for 2010, DAGs, and storage. >>> Your storage provider SHOULD have a solution. >>> >>> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 4:01 PM, Pfefferkorn, Pete (pfeffepe) < >>> pfeff...@ucmail.uc.edu> wrote: >>> >>> We are going to be moving to Exchange 2010. Basically we will have >>> 14,000 users and will allow users to go up to 4 gig mailboxes. We will have >>> 4 backends distributed between 2 on-site buildings for redundancy >>> (power/network). We will also be deploying a DAG configuration with 2 >>> copies per database. We are talking a ton of storage and the question >>> keeps arising about backups. I’ve heard with the DAG deployment, a backup >>> system isn’t really required because of the database replication, but my >>> mind keeps going back to the possibility of database corruption. Total data >>> to be backed up could be 192 terabytes, so it’s a large amount of data. I >>> was wondering what other large shops are using for that type of data. >>> Comments on backup strategies for 2010? >>> >>> >>> >>> *Pete Pfefferkorn* >>> >>> *University of Cincinnati* >>> >>> *Email Services-Systems Engineer* >>> >>> *pete.pfefferk...@uc.edu* >>> >>> *(513)556-9076* >>> >>> * * >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> smsadm >>> >> >> > > > -- > smsadm >
