State of Storage in SMB and enterprise (discussion and giveaway) #HPStorage

Forums › IT Pro and developers › State of Storage in SMB and enterprise (discussion and giveaway) #HPStorage

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1 post

Wannabe Geek

#721557 22-Nov-2012 22:21

We are in the middle of a storage upgrade project. Upgrading from an EMC NS-480 to an EMC VNX 5500.
72TB usable space. A mix of SSD/EFD, SAS and NL-SAS. Using EMC's FAST Suite which comprises of FAST Cache and FAST VP (auto-tiering). Also bought additional EFD's for additional Cache.

Replicating right now to our DR site which has a VNX 5300 (42TB). Using VMWare SRM for DR.

rphenix

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Ultimate Geek

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#721606 22-Nov-2012 23:21

We replicate through rsync and a few scripts 500+ GB of stored data to webservers at different data centers as well as to our office for backup purposes.

Used to use unison but it had some issue I couldn't resolve. Distributed file system would be a better idea but as the servers are mostly geographically diverse locations it would need to cache well, be read/write on all nodes track file deletion requests (so it doesn't resend the same data etc) in the end while its a bit of a kludge in our scenario rsync works reliably :)

gjm

808 posts

Ultimate Geek

#721675 23-Nov-2012 09:00

I havent really looked into SAN level replication very much but on first thoughts I dont really like the idea of replicating any corruption to another SAN. My thoughts are that it would be better to do application level replication and let the application take care of any corruption. For example we run our Exchange servers in a DAG over 2 separate sites. I can create lagged copied of the database so that any corruption doesnt copy straight to inactive database and then can use that if necessary. Similar thing with SQL log shipping

Do those that use SAN level replication like it / dislike it or have any thoughts otherwise?

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HPStorageGuy

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Wannabe Geek

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HP Storage

#722232 24-Nov-2012 12:10

Hey Mauricio - thanks for the shoutout! Exciting times for us in HP Storage and we'll have tons of very interesting announcements at HP Discover. You can keep up with everything at HP Discover on this hp.com page (http://bit.ly/SzrCsv) or sign up to attend the announcement webcast (http://bit.ly/YaSxPg). Sorry - had to use bit.ly as I couldn't get the embed URL to work and these URL's are long and ugly.

Kyanar

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#722260 24-Nov-2012 12:44

freitasm: For you folks using tape... When you folks do backup, do you dump to disk first for speed, then to tape, or backup directly to tape?

This is in special for that case with BackupExec not ending a backup before the next one should kick in...

We actually use dedupe folders on the XIV SAN, but even with deduping the backup still doesn't always complete. When your backup includes large folders with literally millions of 200KB files, not much else can be done.

Our backup guy really wants us to just get a SAN unit (or just more LUNs) just for backuping up and do backups to disk with less frequent tape backups, but noone's willing to stump up the cash.

That, and BackupExec has some recurring problems with dedupe folders. We're also trying to pitch NetBackup as a possible solution.

Kyanar

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#722262 24-Nov-2012 12:47

freitasm: Anyone currently in a storage project with strange/huge/big data requirements?

I'm not directly involved but I do have some insight into what goes on in our organisation - you wouldn't believe the storage requirement for the combined records both business and medical of four district health boards.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#722285 24-Nov-2012 13:42

Hey folks... I will be soon sending some names to HP - everyone who posted until now will be in the draw.

Winners will be contacted by HP to confirm identity etc and I will post here later. Then another set of names will be select next week, so keep posting!

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SuperGeekyKiwi

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#722373 24-Nov-2012 19:01

I use sync toy to backup my media (photos, videos, music, documents) onto an external hard drive. But now that internet is getting cheaper I'm transitioning to skydrive for my backup.

lxsw20

3552 posts

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#722389 24-Nov-2012 19:35

What are your current storage problems in enterprise and SMB?

Fast, robust disk is not cheap or reliable

Do you use any specific technique to solve these problems?

Brought 2x Sans One for production one for DR at a rather large cost.

What kind of hardware/software platform are you using to manage storage?

Production: A small cluster of HP 3xDL380 G7 and 2xDL380 G8 using 8GB fiber to brocade fiber switching then on to an IBM V7000 SAN using a mix of NLSAS, SAS and SSD. (Dunedin)

DR: 2x DL380 G7s using 8gb fiber to brocade fiber switching then a V7000 using a mix of NLSAS and SAS (Queenstown)

Host run VMware ESXi 5.1 and we use Veeam to transfer data between Production and DR over a 20mbit WAN which is not fun...

How do you leverage HP products now?

Servers, Desktops, Laptops, UPS's

Are you attending HP Discover, or watching online?

Probably not to be honest.

Blazher

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#722814 26-Nov-2012 08:42

What are your current storage problems in enterprise and SMB?

Price, Performance, Reliably etc

Do you use any specific technique to solve these problems?

Combination of scripting and backing up to NAS units and offsite devices

What kind of hardware/software platform are you using to manage storage?

Same as above

How do you leverage HP products now?

Servers, Workstations, Switches

Are you attending HP Discover, or watching online?

Online

ovoskeuiks

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#723433 27-Nov-2012 09:33

We use a freenas box with iSCSI to our windows server and NFS to our linux servers
offsite backups are done using AMANDA to LTO3 tapes

Because of the mix of operating systems it appeared difficult to find a system from a vendor with the flexibility to do everything we needed at a reasonable price

jase81

20 posts

Geek

#723698 27-Nov-2012 15:35

In our consulting and development company we're all running on 64bit HP ProBook's (Win 7 or 8) except a couple of guys who have stuck to their old machines (Dell and Asus). We also run an HP Proliant server, running several large databases, code repositories and staff documents. The server is backed up daily to USB drives which are swapped out and taken offsite by staff for DR purposes.

We'd like to go to cloud but our main issue (the our clients main issue) is security. When I say security I don't mean from hackers, I mean from an ownership/IP protection point of view. Our large customers (the biggest companies in NZ) have no concerns about the security of their data in the cloud from hackers, or about cloud server up time. The issue is what country is the data sitting in and can that country's government force its right to take/view/delete said data? We have the same problem. Though we're a small company our IP is everything we are. If that data is on a cloud server and a foreign government or organisation could take it, overnight we'd become nothing. Therefore everything we do needs to stay in NZ.

The problem therefore is can we find a decent NZ cloud host, guaranteeing NZ storage for a price that benefits our business. Until then, we'll just keep our server backed up and wait.

As for the backup of our personal machines, it came up in our last staff meeting. I believe we're all going to be getting external drives and asked to do periodic backups to be able to do a full restore without losing days of business time.

webfish

35 posts

Geek

#723732 27-Nov-2012 16:45

The issue is what country is the data sitting in and can that country's government force its right to take/view/delete said data?ur personal machines, it came up in our last staff meeting. I believe we're all going to be getting external drives and asked to do periodic backups to be able to do a full restore without losing days of business time.

Very topical concern considering the mega-upload debacle where plenty of legitimate data has been confiscated!

Shindig

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#724023 28-Nov-2012 10:18

I was tempted to offload all my wifes photos to skydrive... rather than worry about a backup going to a different HD, then to a external one.

I still like the idea of all my data being "where I can see it", esp personal stuff like photos.

The little things make the biggest difference.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#724031 28-Nov-2012 10:34

We have a winner in the first week folks!

I've sent four names to HP to enter the draw with four names from each other site participating in this round and here are the winners, by site:

Craig Janzen (1Cloud Road), Wahl Network (Josh Testone), Juku.it (Pietro Piutti)... And there's a Geekzone user in the list: Shindig.

Congratulations to all winners, and keep giving your ideas and comments as I am sending another four names to HP by the end of this week for another round of prizes!

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