Re: SAN vs i5 disk was: Any thoughts on the PowerVM and lx86 announcement?

On Jan 30, 2008 2:23 PM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Are SAN's really any cheaper? I thought that as soon as you mentioned SAN

Well, there ARE cheap low ends SANs for small and medium businesses
available. They usually use iSCSI with Software Initiators, so there's
no extra hardware required on the server side. They are a good
alternative to DAS in low-performance environments. It's better to use
seperate ethernet switches for the SAN traffic, but that is not
required. You can bring your own cabling, and you won't have to worry
much.

Don't expect wonders from iSCSI though. It's very good for running
nearline storage, backups, media archives etc. But a database over
iSCSI will make your face freeze off.

What does a SAN cost - ready to run?

An iSCSI SAN with a few disk drives can be had be starting at 5-10k US$.

But of course the JS22 Blade with i5/OS on it is very, very picky.

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/i/os/i5os/v6r1/blades/pdf/supported_environments.pdf

It does not run in the BladeCenter S (the Small Business version of
the BladeCenter H).

It only supports assorted SAN attachments, and only to a few IBM choosen SANs.

Namely: DS4700, DS4800, DS8100, DS8300.

As it is right now, i don't see much purpose for this device.