From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 15 12:44:06 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B2DCE16A4BF for ; Mon, 15 Sep 2003 12:44:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: from malasada.lava.net (malasada.lava.net [64.65.64.17]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0548543FF2 for ; Mon, 15 Sep 2003 12:44:05 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cliftonr@lava.net) Received: by malasada.lava.net (Postfix, from userid 102) id 7539D1539B4; Mon, 15 Sep 2003 09:43:59 -1000 (HST) Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 09:43:57 -1000 From: Clifton Royston To: Danny Braniss Message-ID: <20030915094357.A21525@tikitechnologies.com> Mail-Followup-To: Danny Braniss , freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org References: <20030915190040.04F1B16A4D6@hub.freebsd.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i In-Reply-To: <20030915190040.04F1B16A4D6@hub.freebsd.org>; 12:00:40PM -0700 cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: EMCsq/SAN X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 19:44:06 -0000 > From: Danny Braniss > Subject: Re: EMCsq/SAN > To: Dan Nelson > Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org > > > In the last episode (Sep 14), Danny Braniss said: > > > hi all, > > > Any experiance with EMCsq./SAN? I know FreeBSD is not on their > > > list, but was wondering if it works even without the 'qualified' > > > stamp. > > > > I'd be surprised if there were any problems, but if you already have an > > EMC unit, let them know you'd like to attach a FreeBSD box (give them > > exact hardware specs) and they'll certify it. It's in their best > > interest to support their customers' systems :) > > > that is not what im hearing from them :-( > we are just begining negotiations to - maybe - get an EMC, do you have any > FiberChannel experiance? > danny I don't know if they have any FreeBSD users of the SAN product, but they definitely had some major FreeBSD users of their Symmetra NFS server when we were eval'ing it a few years ago. They wouldn't give names, but they gave the impression it might have been Yahoo and eBay. Even in that case, they wouldn't say it was certified with FreeBSD though. Their product was extremely expensive, BTW, even with them offering us huge discounts. Given the amount you'll be spending, if they don't say it's certified to work with FreeBSD, you should be able to get them to accept a conditional purchase with an addendum to the purchase contract which allows you to void the sale and return it at their expense, if you find any incompatibilities to your specifications within a set period of time. In the end our testing did turn up some major NFS performance problems and incompatibilities with the OS of the client machines we were trying to run on it - not FreeBSD. These were not at all EMC's fault, but we were forced to use the escape clause we wrote into the purchase contract. We were very glad we had crafted that carefully. This is tangentially relevant to your question, but it does point up that 1) you want to be careful with non-certified clients, and 2) price/performance was not EMC's strong point at least then. If you have money to burn that's another story. (In which case, you wanna hire a testing consultant? ) -- Clifton -- Clifton Royston -- cliftonr@tikitechnologies.com Tiki Technologies Lead Programmer/Software Architect Did you ever fly a kite in bed? Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head? Did you ever milk this kind of cow? Well we can do it. We know how. If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good. -- Dr. Seuss