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#1
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Looking for SCSI-to-SATA RAID w/active-active controllers
Subject says it all! Probably need no more than 16 drive bays. Host is
an HP 9000 A500 server. All the SATA controllers with redundancy I've seen have been FC controllers, and I need SCSI. |
#2
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Mark Landin wrote in message . ..
Subject says it all! Probably need no more than 16 drive bays. Host is an HP 9000 A500 server. All the SATA controllers with redundancy I've seen have been FC controllers, and I need SCSI. That's going to be a hard combination to find. Most manufacturers are focusing on FC now. Since SATA is new, support for it is only appearing in newer units which tend to have FC host connectors. Similarly, active-active is a somewhat more advanced design/configuration (especially a working one...) and support for that feature tends to be only found in higher-end designs -- like those that serve the market that demands FC host connectors. I'm not saying such a combination isn't possible -- just that the market for such a device is probably too small to justify the engineering effort. Infortrend and StorCase do have single-controller units that meet your needs: A16U-G1A3 and S10H100 respectively. My experience with Infortrend hasn't been too positive and I have no experience with StorCase since they were Kingston. Unless someone comes up with a better idea, I think your best bet is either settle on a single-controller SCSI/SATA model or find a dual-controller SCSI/ATA model and use PATA/SATA adapters (you'll have to find a chassis design that accomidates). I've heard these adapters work pretty well. By the way, I'm assuming that you want SATA drives because you want good reliability (better than traditional ATA) and low drive price (less than SCSI). If so, you probably want the Western Digital Raptor drives. Personally, I would stick with SCSI/SCSI units until I could replace the HP 9000 with something that could support FC controllers. P.S.This e-mail address is not accepting messages. Please post as followup or send to my Yahoo account. My name there is bzgnyc. |
#3
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#4
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Mark Landin wrote in message
If so, you probably want the Western Digital Raptor drives. Personally, I would stick with SCSI/SCSI units until I could replace the HP 9000 with something that could support FC controllers. Well I could get FC controllers for my HP if need be. I was hoping to avoid the need (and expense) however. My experience (the kind you get when you don't get what you want) is that there is only so far you can cut corners. By going for SATA drives (instead of e.g. Seagate SCSI), I think you've cut as much as you want to cut. You should look for someone with a high-quality chassis and electronics and who will give you the support that you need. In order to be compatible with the vendors/manufacturers that you want, I think that means you are going to have to bite the bullet and get FC controllers. If the motivation is a technology refresh, I would bite the bullet on FC host adapters now rather than later. The drives are somewhat disposable but the controllers represent more of an investment, and SCSI host connections do not appear to be the future. I've worked with Alex @ Impediment , http://www.impediment.com) for Xyratex stuff (http://www.xyratex.com). Impediment is a small company but Alex stands behind his sales. The other manufacturer that I would be interested in is LSI Storage Logic (http://www.lsilogicstorage.com). I've only bought it through Silicon Graphics (e.g. SGI TP9400 is an LSI 4884). I also thought their stuff was very well made. Whatever you get, I would demo it thoroughly. In particular, failover and failback, bad block handling, drive failure, and bad block handilng simultanious during a failed drive mode or rebuild. Error and failure handling was something that Infortrend controllers had particular trouble with in early revisions of their firmware on early SCSI/IDE RAID units (I have not thoroughly tested their more recent FC/SATA controllers). |
#5
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http://www.maxtronic.com/products/sa8600.html
Cheers, Bill "Mark Landin" wrote in message ... Subject says it all! Probably need no more than 16 drive bays. Host is an HP 9000 A500 server. All the SATA controllers with redundancy I've seen have been FC controllers, and I need SCSI. |
#6
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Hi Bill,
The unit you mentioned appears to be a single controller unit. The difficult combination of options the original poster was looking for was SCSI, SATA, and dual/active-active controllers. It seemed like only two out of three was possible. Can you confirm that the unit you mentioned features dual/active-active controllers? "Bill" wrote in message ... http://www.maxtronic.com/products/sa8600.html Cheers, Bill "Mark Landin" wrote in message ... Subject says it all! Probably need no more than 16 drive bays. Host is an HP 9000 A500 server. All the SATA controllers with redundancy I've seen have been FC controllers, and I need SCSI. |
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