Interesting Post

I liked this post, it refers to Equallogic and Lefthand as two rival players being drafted to two rival NFL teams. These two teams really seem to go neck and neck a lot!

http://thesantechnologist.com/?p=198

Recent LeftHand SAN post

I find it very interesting that both these posts mentioned the console crashing

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/HP-LeftHand-P4300-48TB-SAS-Starter-SAN-Solution-Builds-a-Strong-iSCSI-SAN-Foundation-804648/1/

The centralized management console announced that it was executing my tasks, the access lights started flashing on the drives, and then the console (and Java) crashed. After I rebooted the server, I was pleasantly surprised that there was no lasting damage from the crash. I launched the centralized management console and created a new iSCSI server. I was immediately able to access it from the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator on my Windows server.

(I can't believe he was happy with this!!!! )

This post had a similar expereince

http://windowsitpro.com/Windows/article/articleid/102478/hp-lefthand-p4300-48tb-sas-starter-san-solution.html

The only problem I ran into was that occasionally the console wouldn't start and I needed to terminate the javaw.exe process in Task Manager before restarting the console.

Anyways, in the Eweek article he liked the Idea of the architecture of the LeftHand SAN. He also received a dud of a unit, this is what he wrote.

The second server started, but failed to recognize the array controller and therefore didn’t boot completely.

Of course, the first thing I did then was take the server apart, at which point I noticed that the board containing the SAN/iQ software had fallen off of the P400 RAID controller—obviously a casualty of rough handling during shipping. Popping it back on did not solve the problem, but after an e-mail and a quick call, a new controller and a third server were on their way. After I installed the new controller, the server booted up smoothly.

Later on he ended up having a little bit of a support problem, he wrote

The only unpleasantness that I have to report is that it took tech support more than 48 hours to respond to an e-mail requesting access to the support Website. I think it is fair to say that any company that shells out $30K for storage will want access to the documentation within 48 minutes rather than 48 hours.

He was also unable to set up the SMTP for sending alerts to his email address.

He was impressed by the performance and by the management of the device.

Pro EqualLogic Blog posts

Maybe my favorite quote is this from the Blog

We are currently supporting a ton of users, a large campus, Windows servers, Mac OS, Web Development, VMware ESX, etc. The last thing I need to worry about is allocating hours of time to support our storage solution. That’s where EqualLogic has been a huge win for us.

From here http://watermarkgeeks.com/2009/08/12/why-i-love-our-equallogic-san/

This post at the bottom of this forum is also good

I have customers with Equallogic ps5000e using Dell R805 Servers and Xenserver 5.0. One customer is using ps for serving up progress db application for multiple locations using Windows 2008 TS. Another is serving up multiple locations using Web App and SQL 2005 db. Both the places have Raid 10 for equallogic array. Performance is great with no usr complaints about response times. Hosting approximately 10+ servers on a single xen host connected to shared equallogic SR. Host has dual quad core processors, 32 gb of ram and multiple gigabit nics. All the guests are on the equallogic array. Equallogic is a good choice. you will not regret it,

-Pavan

From here http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1398650&tstart=0

Once again I see the simplicity of EqualLogic shine through.

Equallogic growth looks good

According to this register article Equallogic growth looks pretty good!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/30/compellent_q209_results/

Equallogic UI Take 2

As mentioned in one of the comments below, you can see how to do most any task on an equallogic box here

http://psonlinehelp.equallogic.com/v4.0/groupmanager.htm

Really nice!

LeftHand UI, take 2

As featured on WindowsITPro

http://windowsitpro.com/Windows/article/articleid/102478/hp-lefthand-p4300-48tb-sas-starter-san-solution.html

His take on the UI

The SAN/iQ software really sets this product in a class by itself and is the easiest SAN management software I've ever used. You don't need to be a storage expert or have to look up confusing storage terms like LUN Masking to configure the SAN. Instead, you use a series of easy-to-use wizards to perform the initial setup and configuration. You can rerun the wizards at any time.

That is the sort of UI I am looking for! Someone should get him an EqualLogic box and see which he likes better :)

He actually attached a rare screen shot of the SAN/iQ software :)

His only complaint

The only problem I ran into was that occasionally the console wouldn't start and I needed to terminate the javaw.exe process in Task Manager before restarting the console.