Re: [SAGE] Another request for references -- Hitachi vendors Northeast

["John Stoffel" <stoffel@lucent.com>]

Adam> I just found out that we may actually get funding for *real*
Adam> disks.  I asked last week or so about NetApp with Oracle.  We
Adam> may be able to get a Hitachi 9500-series disk cabinet for SAN to
Adam> Oracle, plus expansion to store other stuff on it (about 6TB
Adam> total).

Adam> What I need to know is if anyone has experiences with any of the
Adam> vendors we've been given.  We spoke to Hitachi directly, and
Adam> they sell through one of these guys in my area (Northern NJ):

Adam> Continental Resources - MA based reseller, recently started
Adam> storage division

I've dealt with these people for years (well, not recently since we
haven't bought anything from them) and they did a nice job.  But in
terms of technical support and configuration help, they weren't
helpful.  

In this case, since you're looking to get a SAN, and if you don't have
any SAN experience at all, I'd make sure you get at least some
training before you start buying.  Also, make sure you talk with
people who have your same host hardware and find out what they
recommend, it's a life saver.

As for me, I think I'd probably still go with a NetApp, snapshots are
really nice.  I don't know enough about the Hitachi and whether or not
is supports BCVs (volume snapshots) or not.  In any case, I'd also
recommend you get VxFS/VxVM for all your clients so you can
grow/shrink volumes on there as needed.

John
   John Stoffel - Senior Unix Systems Administrator - Lucent Technologies
	 stoffel@lucent.com - http://www.lucent.com - 978-952-7548