+11 for Gmail. And the price is right. WJR - from my Crackberry. "If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck."
-----Original Message----- From: Jonathan Link <jonathan.l...@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:57:32 To: NT System Admin Issues<ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com> Reply-To: "NT System Admin Issues" <ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com>Subject: Re: SAN vendors Uhh... You can. Also, you'll notice that several contributors use gmail. Gmail's really good at handling list traffic. While I use this list for work related things, it doesn't belong to work. Opinions I share on this list are mine, and are not my employer's. It also helps with not having to have a huge disclaimer (ours is largish). On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 8:53 AM, John Aldrich <jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com>wrote: > Well, I wouldn't say "contractually obligated" but I would put it as > "strongly encouraged." I'll try and remember to switch to plain text for > this list. :-) Won't guarantee I'll remember, but I'll try. One thing I like > about my email client at home (Linux) is that I can change certain settings > for each mailing list I'm on, such as when posting to the list, I can choose > which email address to use, etc. I wish Outlook had similar capabilities. > :-( > > > > From: William J. Robbins [mailto:dangerw...@gmail.com] > Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 5:10 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: SAN vendors > > Gotcha. So are you contractually obligated to send that swatch as > advertisement through the inter-tubes? > > That's one hefty sig line and I've made some doosies myself. > > WJR > - from my Crackberry. > > "If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck." >________________________________________ > From: "John Aldrich" <jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com> > Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:05:27 -0400 > To: NT System Admin Issues<ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com> > ReplyTo: "NT System Admin Issues" <ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com> > Subject: RE: SAN vendors > > The Sig line is a small picture of one of our carpets. As for staff… the > only staff I’ve ever had got swiped for Claims/Tech. > > > > From: William J. Robbins [mailto:dangerw...@gmail.com] > Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 5:01 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: SAN vendors > > Well that'll do it I reckon. > > So did you have staff and they just swept them under the rug? Or did you > inherit a promised team that never materialized? > > Speaking of rugs, whilst I'm asking questions, what the hell is that in > your sig line? > > WJR > - from my Crackberry. > > "If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck." >________________________________________ > From: "John Aldrich" <jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com> > Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:35:40 -0400 > To: NT System Admin Issues<ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com> > ReplyTo: "NT System Admin Issues" <ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com> > Subject: RE: SAN vendors > > I’m the only person in the IT department. ☺ > > > > From: William Robbins [mailto:dangerw...@gmail.com] > Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 3:51 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: SAN vendors > > A point of curiosity here if you will...why are you, as an IT manger > playing with SAN equipment? Isn't this a task you can/should delegate? > > (Or maybe I've been listening to too many manager-tools.com pod-casts of > late?) > > - WJR > On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 14:46, John Aldrich <jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com> > wrote: > Good point. As I said, I just want something to “play” with to see what I > *absolutely* need…. I have my own dual-CPU (P3/Celeron) motherboard. I > should just need to add a RAID card and some drives and have something to > play with. As for user-count and IOPS, etc. well… my user count is probably > about the 75 user mark, and I don’t have anything particularly > disk-intensive. Mainly just file/print/DC/Antivirus/etc. That’s what makes > me think I could probably do what is suggested here and play around with the > esxi and the freeware LeftHand software. > > > > From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk] > Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 3:02 PM > > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: SAN vendors > > Doesn’t sound pretty tbh, main thing is check the ESX HCL. For testing you > may be able to use vmware server or workstation, you’d need to check – OK > the performance will suck but you’ll be able to play with the concepts of > the VSA. > > Are you thinking of replacing your existing server hardware? > > I ask the question as, for example, a pair of Dell R710’s run around $6k > each, stick a VSA on each and your production machines and you’ve got a > pretty cheap cluster. > > I’m saying all this without knowing your user count, IOPS, but from how I’m > interpreting your posts I’m reading it as, if I was in your shoes, if I had > $30k I wouldn’t be putting it all into a SAN. > > From: John Aldrich [mailto:jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com] > Sent: 13 September 2010 19:00 > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: SAN vendors > > Ok…so I have an old dual-CPU machine I can build up as a “test bed.” It’s > old and slow and currently only does PATA. If I got a PCI SATA RAID card, > and 3 or 4 SATA 500 GB drives, do you think that would make a decent test > machine to play with? > > > > From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk] > Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 1:25 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: SAN vendors > > There aren’t many vendors that will do block de-dupe (as a standard > feature) other than Netapp. > > Lefthand is nice kit, my biggest reservation (and of course this is not > aimed solely to Lefthand) is that all it does is iSCSI. > > The good things are it’s modular, you can tier (SATA and SAS) and as you > add nodes you add redundancy and performance, and of course you get all the > licenses included. > > Personally I’d go grab a spare box, slap ESXi on it, download the Lefthand > VSA and give it a try – it’s no different from the hardware SAN and you > might find that it’s an ideal fit for your environment as you can use one or > both of your existing servers rather than having to buy a hardware SAN that > you may not get close to utilizing. > > I agree with Jonathan in that it’s very easy to get bogged down when you > don’t have a nailed on set of requirements, you just want to get the best > bang for your buck and you have to spend wisely (I know as I’m in the SAN > market right now). > > From: John Aldrich [mailto:jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com] > Sent: 13 September 2010 18:18 > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: SAN vendors > > Ok… good questions. I’m looking for about 5 terabytes useable to start. I > probably won’t use half of that immediately, but I can use some of that for > snapshots and growth. As for features, I’m not sure what features are > available, but some I know are available and are interesting to me are > dedupe, ISCSI, snapshots, thin provisioning. Dedupe is in the “nice to have, > but not necessary” category. Performance, well, to start with, this will be > mainly an overgrown file server, but I plan on bringing email in-house, and > the IBM rep suggested I might want to virtualize my two servers and put > VMWare on them, as they are seriously under-utilized right now (our most > used server is at like 15% CPU utilization, and that’s running > file/print/DC/DHCP/DNS/antivirus on the one box.) The IBM rep’s suggestions > sound good, as far as virtualizing the servers, but not until I have a SAN > in place. ☺ Anyway, WRT the SAN, it will likely be the place where the > virtualized DCs are stored, but they will be running off the existing > hardware. The email will likely be Kerio Connect (pretty much guaranteed, if > I have anything to say about it) and I don’t think it uses a database. I > talked to a Kerio rep last week and he assured me that having the mail store > on a SAN is very well supported, so I have no qualms about that. Between > redirecting people’s “My Documents” folders to the network (and by that, I > mean a SAN) and email, I expect to use up ½ to 2/3 of the proposed 5 Tb. > > > > From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk] > Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 12:55 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: SAN vendors > > John, what do you need? Capacity? Expansion? Features (now and > potentially future)? Performance? > > From: John Aldrich [mailto:jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com] > Sent: 13 September 2010 17:49 > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: SAN vendors > > Ok, I’m still in the market for a SAN. I got an IBM rep trying to sell me > one of their SANs (rebranded LSI Logic) and I have an HP vendor trying to > sell me a LeftHand. On the one hand (no pun intended,) the LeftHand comes > with pretty much everything I would ever want built-into the price. On the > other hand, the IBM is a dual-controller unit and I can just add drives as I > need them where with the LeftHand I’d be adding intelligence each time I > upgraded. There are pros and cons to each. I think both are similarly > priced (although the LeftHand solution may be a bit more expensive > up-front.) > Not trying to start a flame war here, but I’m getting overwhelmed here… If > both had similar capabilities, what would you recommend here? Anyone else I > should be looking at in the “Budget SAN” range (<$30K for one SAN, including > setup, maintenance, etc.) > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin >________________________________________ > MIRA Ltd > > Watling Street, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 0TU, England > Registered in England and Wales No. 402570 > VAT Registration GB 114 5409 96 > > The contents of this e-mail are confidential and are solely for the use of > the intended recipient. If you receive this e-mail in error, please delete > it and notify us either by e-mail, telephone or fax. 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