If you buy the AX, will be maxing out and limiting growth?
In general when looking at buying an array, I figure out what I need it for this year and two additional years and add 30% capacity (based on performance THEN capacity) and then go with an array that has an easy (online) upgrade path to the next best beast. Hope that helps.
If the IBM disk array is a DS4xxx, you can monitor the IOPS with the management utility. It's a little crude but it gets the job done. Knowing exactly what you are coming from might help determine an equivalent (or better) EMC solution.
I haven't done this in a while but a "tricked out" AX4 (dual controllers, full Navisphere, etc) was about the same cost as a CX3-10. You'll be looking at newer gear than that on the CX/VNX side. Easiest way to figure this out is to get with your EMC partner and have them run some quotes. A lot of it depends on the performance you expect, expandability, whether you want to be on the latest-and-greatest, etc. Regardless, you'll have to go to a partner to see where the price comes in.
Please remember to mark the question as Answered when you get the correct or best answer. Also, please award points to the person providing the best answer.
we have an ibm4800 and emc cx600, cx3/4s and ax4s.
Docs, available in the public domain, quote the DS4800 at a total IOPs of some 527,600. Those quoted for the AX4 are 32600, so you can see that there is no comparison, but then the DS is much, much more expensive then the other and also intended for different purposes.
When we were purchasing we benchmarked an IBM DS3400 vs and AX4 and from our results the AX4 won hands down; obviously this is may not be always the case but it was under our testing criteria which were set up to emulate our environment as much as possible.
What I can tell you for a fact (having used both) is that the EMC AX4 with a full Navisphere/Navisphere Analyzer is much more manageable than the comparable IBM DS3400 and you are able to extract much more data from the array to find out what is going on in the back-end.
What I like about the AX4s is that you can take a horizontal 'pay as you need' approach and if what you've got does not give you enough 'oomph' then simply buy another AX4 controller (really cheap these days) and divide the storage amongst two AX4s instead of the previous one. This approach has really worked well for us.
tkjoffs
159 Posts
0
February 20th, 2011 19:00
Just a few questions to get you started:
In general when looking at buying an array, I figure out what I need it for this year and two additional years and add 30% capacity (based on performance THEN capacity) and then go with an array that has an easy (online) upgrade path to the next best beast. Hope that helps.
TJ
DanJost
190 Posts
1
February 18th, 2011 06:00
If the IBM disk array is a DS4xxx, you can monitor the IOPS with the management utility. It's a little crude but it gets the job done. Knowing exactly what you are coming from might help determine an equivalent (or better) EMC solution.
I haven't done this in a while but a "tricked out" AX4 (dual controllers, full Navisphere, etc) was about the same cost as a CX3-10. You'll be looking at newer gear than that on the CX/VNX side. Easiest way to figure this out is to get with your EMC partner and have them run some quotes. A lot of it depends on the performance you expect, expandability, whether you want to be on the latest-and-greatest, etc. Regardless, you'll have to go to a partner to see where the price comes in.
Dan
kelleg
4 Operator
•
4.5K Posts
0
February 24th, 2011 09:00
Please remember to mark the question as Answered when you get the correct or best answer. Also, please award points to the person providing the best answer.
glen
nandamuri
28 Posts
0
February 24th, 2011 11:00
Thankyou for providing a complete checklist I can use with out making any modifications...
What we current have is that the app that is currently running on the IBM array is going away and we are bringing a new and better app.
So there is no performance base line we can go by.
Not sure what we can do in this scenario other than asking the vendor what the expected IOPS are going to be.
andyxzyk1
44 Posts
0
February 25th, 2011 06:00
we have an ibm4800 and emc cx600, cx3/4s and ax4s.
Docs, available in the public domain, quote the DS4800 at a total IOPs of some 527,600. Those quoted for the AX4 are 32600, so you can see that there is no comparison, but then the DS is much, much more expensive then the other and also intended for different purposes.
When we were purchasing we benchmarked an IBM DS3400 vs and AX4 and from our results the AX4 won hands down; obviously this is may not be always the case but it was under our testing criteria which were set up to emulate our environment as much as possible.
What I can tell you for a fact (having used both) is that the EMC AX4 with a full Navisphere/Navisphere Analyzer is much more manageable than the comparable IBM DS3400 and you are able to extract much more data from the array to find out what is going on in the back-end.
What I like about the AX4s is that you can take a horizontal 'pay as you need' approach and if what you've got does not give you enough 'oomph' then simply buy another AX4 controller (really cheap these days) and divide the storage amongst two AX4s instead of the previous one. This approach has really worked well for us.
Good luck with your storage architecture !