VNX Vs Equallogic

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the delay in response. Many of us have been busy with final preparations for our release of the VNX/VNXe platforms.  But I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your questions and answer your first couple questions.

a.EQ snapshots (allocate on write) vs Copy on first write

Several snapshot architectures are available and common in the market.  Each vendor’s approach has pros and cons. Some allocate-on-write snap implementations impose significant read/write performance to the production data over time. EMC’s unified storage platform snapshots do not. EMC hasn’t tested EQ and therefore cannot comment.  VNX Block LUN snapshots are taken using SnapView which is based on copy-on-first-write (CoFW) technology that results in increased I/O against the source LUN for only the first write during a snap interval. Typically OLTP and read-heavy applications are least impacted by SnapView. In more write intensive application environments, some customers may limit Snap usage to off peak hours, or use Clones. VNX File system snapshots are taken using SnapSure, which also uses CoFW.

b.EQ implementation of data consistent replication vs VNX replication

I believe this question refers to “application” consistent data copies.  VNX replication, along with EMC Replication Manager software, also provides application consistent local and/or remote replicas.  Our customers can leverage VNX replication in all their major application environments to ensure business continuity, as well as, providing replicas for remote backup and data reuse.  

Regards,

Joe

VNX Product team

Hi Paul,

I too work in Product Team here in Unified Storage Division of EMC along with Joe.

We truly appreciate your interest in VNX storage and hope you give VNX too a try and see for yourself the benefits of this truly Unified Storage platform that offers you both file and block capabilities with one of the richest set of efficiency services (FAST, Compression and Dedupe), Performance applications such as FAST Cache...etc.

Let me add my response to some of your questions:

c.EQ performance over VNX's

>> EMC actively does not compare and contrast with comptt but selectively publish benchmark results e.g. SpecSFS. We recently published ~500K SpecSFS IOP for VNX Series, you can see results at:

http://www.spec.org/sfs2008/results/res2011q1/sfs2008-20110207-00177.html

d.EQ ip port redirection - is this possible in VNX

>> We do not currently offer this feature. Is there a specific use case you have in mind?

f.EQ vddu vmware tool to create vms using a template and thin clones

>> I am not familar with EQ tools but EMC offers free VMWare vCenter Plug-ins that have rich feature set you may like to review, you can find details on another ECN Community discussion thread at:

https://community.emc.com/thread/103899

g.Can VNX copy data from one part of array to another directly (ie not through host)

>> VNX Series offers two software features to allow data to be copied at a LUN level within the same storage system without any host involvement:

      First one is LUN Migration feature - this is transparent to host application. Use case would be to convert a traditional RAID Group LUN to a Storage Pool LUN or  

      to convert a RAID-5 LUN to RAID 1/0 LUN.

      Second is SAN Copy that can be used for both intra-array and inter-array data copy at a LUN Level.

I hope this helps.

Let us know if you have any other questions we can help answer.

Best,

Manpreet

Thanks for the replys guys they have been very helpful

While I'd certainly pick a VNX array over an Eql without question, I cannot give such vote of confidence for a VNXe over a Eql.

The VNXe is only branded a VNX, but under the hood its really a new form of a low-end Celerra. The code is from the ground up to a degree so there are so many missing components vs a mature code coming from Dell, like a performance monitor/analyzer or even VAAI vsphere capability. I've been waiting for a 2.5 inch drive option for the VNXe forever as well.

I think the VNXe will get better over time with code updates, but I currently would recommend a 6000 series Equallogic over a VNXe3300 which are of comparitive cost.

The SanHQ software that comes with Equallogic beats anything that I have ever seen, it is very easy use to troubleshoot performance issues. And the managment interface for the Equallogic is very user friendly. BUT hardware wise I think that the EMC VNX is much, much better. You have active-active Storage processor in VNX where as Equallogic has active-passive, which can make software upgrades of the controllers go terrible wrong(belive me, I have been there, 4 hours downtime). And on the support site EMC wins by far, the Dell Equallogic support is a joke.