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New to enterprise storage, what powervault DAS solution do I need?
Hi, sorry for being ignorant, but bare with me. Previously in small business I have seen/used tapes and usb drives as daily backups for one and two week rotation. Works, but it is messy and slow. I was thinking of using say a powervault md3000 with 15 1tb sata drives, each drive being avail as a drive letter, and have backup program do a backup to a different drive letter each day for two weeks. Am I way off here? I have a r710 with a perc 6 doing raid 1+0. Running windows 2008r2 core hosting about 6 odd VM's. All critical data resides within a single VHD. I like suggestions of older equipment I can purchase from online auctions sites, as that is how I built the r710. My understanding is that using a HBA card on the r710 to a das will be a faster backup than over a network or usb interface, thus my interest.
Thanks for your time.
Dev Mgr
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August 14th, 2012 11:00
He original poster was looking at Ebay for a source for this equipment to save (a lot of) money probably.
The drives in the server are connected to a PERC6i. You'll have to buy a PERC6E (i = internal (drives), E = external (drives)).
A PERC6E plus an MD1000 shouldn't run very much, and this raid controller supports non-Dell drives just fine (which could save money). I would still recommend to go with enterprise class drives, but you can pick those up 'retail' for a lot less than Dell branded enterprise drives.
DELL-Kenny K
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August 14th, 2012 12:00
If you look at the link below it will discuss the different ways to cable the array and to daisy chain the multiple arrays together. It will also explain the difference between the unified mode and the split bus mode. It will break down the different scenerios of a single controller and dual controller configurations.
support.dell.com/.../om_en.pdf
That all starts on the bottom of page 19. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
DELL-Kenny K
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August 13th, 2012 17:00
You are correct in that the MD3000 would work just fine. You would then get some backup software and you would configure the software to backup to a virtual disk you create on the MD3000. As far as the HBA goes you would go from there and you would connect it directly to the storage devices. Below is the user guide as it may answer some further questions.
en.community.dell.com/.../19461581.aspx
Let me know if you have any other questions and I would be happy to assist.
Dev Mgr
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August 14th, 2012 07:00
An MD3000 is by no means a 'bad' or 'slow' system, but you may be able to find an MD1000 for a lot less and connect it to a PERC6E.
I'd suggest to still do backups to tape, but back up the MD1000 data (e.g. once a week) and store it offsite (other office for the company or if it's a small business maybe the owner's home). This way if you have a disaster (e.g. fire or natural disaster) you didn't lose both your production data as well as your backups. With tapes you'd want at least 3 batches of tapes so that at any given time you also have one in a place other than where the production data is located (one set would typically be onsite, one set may be in transport or at either site, and the third is always offsite).
Unseenthings
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August 14th, 2012 08:00
Thanks everyone. I agree a MD1000 would be much cheaper. How would I connect it to my 6E? AKAIK it only has 2 ports, and both of them are going to the 6 drives in the front of the r710. Is there a way to daisy chain? I never want to see tapes again. I do have data being sync to an offsite location for disaster recovery plan. However, in this situation, there is a history of data being corrupted and not detected for several days, so having the ability of going back in time to full back-ups is very appealing.
DELL-Kenny K
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August 14th, 2012 09:00
I did some further research and I wanted to let you know that the MD3000 and MD1000 are both no longer being sold. If you are leaning towards the 1000 area then you will want the MD 1200. Below is a link on that system and the MD1220. Yes you can daisy chain the MD units so that will not be a problem.
www.dell.com/.../disk-expansion-enclosures
Please let me know if you have any further questions
Unseenthings
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August 14th, 2012 11:00
Ok, next, up, if I end up cobbling together my own setup, do I need 2 sas controllers and dual(4) power supplies to use all 15 drives, on the 1000 or is the second controller for daisy chaining?? I see the 6e has two ports also, do I run a cable from each to each SAS controller on the 1000, or just one? If I am using sata drives, do I need trays with interposer cards?
Unseenthings
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August 14th, 2012 13:00
Ok, from reading that, it looks like I can have one emm and do unified mode, or split mode with 2 emm. Since I will be reading and writing one drive at a time, I don't suppose their will be any benifit to doing split mode. And if i plan on using sata drives, i will need interposer cards.
Unseenthings
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August 14th, 2012 15:00
Thanks everyone, grabbed a 1000 w/ 15tb of storage and the 6e and cable for $2400. Will this be hard to setup in server core?
DELL-Kenny K
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August 14th, 2012 17:00
It is an easy system to configure. One way would be to boot into the controller bios and create the VD on the MD1000. The other way would be to remotely use a MMC Snap-in.
Remotely using an MMC snap-in. By using an MMC snap-in from a computer running Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2, you can connect to a server running Server Core installation in the same way that you would connect to any computer running Windows.
You can see the full article at the link below.
technet.microsoft.com/.../ee441255%28v=ws.10%29.aspx
I hope this helps.
Unseenthings
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August 15th, 2012 09:00
I currently use the remote disk managment via the snap in, I though there was some dell software that had to be installed.
I'll figure it out. Thanks