Summary: Sun Clusters with SAN

From: Marco Greene (mgreene@sympatico.ca)
Date: Fri Nov 19 1999 - 16:12:46 CST


Attached are all of the responses I got. Some say it will work but most
agree that it is not officially supported by Sun. I think going with the
VERITAS product that some of you have mentioned might be a safer option.

Any further thoughts on this are welcome.

Marco Greene
mgreene@sympatico.ca


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You might find more documentation on SAN on following websites:

www.veritas.com
www.stortek.com

...Manjeet


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At 09:51 AM 11/18/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello SM,
>I have a quick question. I have looked on the Sun's website and checked
>several other sources that I have available. Sun says they support a wide
>range of storage but only lists Sun storage. I have a customer who wants
to
>implement a SAN and use the SAN storage for their Sun Clusters. Will this
>work and if so where can I find more literature on it?
>
>Thanks and will summarize,
>Marco Greene
>mgreene@sympatico.ca
>
>
SunCluster 2.2 does not currently support SAN storage, only direct
attached. This may change with the release of the new storage (code-name
"purple") which will be fiber-channel based and may be SAN switched.

Mark Almeida
Project Engineer
Sun Professional Services


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On Thu, Nov 18, 1999 at 09:51:28AM -0500, Marco Greene didst scribe:
> Hello SM,
> I have a quick question. I have looked on the Sun's website and checked
> several other sources that I have available. Sun says they support a wide
> range of storage but only lists Sun storage. I have a customer who wants
to
> implement a SAN and use the SAN storage for their Sun Clusters. Will this
> work and if so where can I find more literature on it?
>
> Thanks and will summarize,
> Marco Greene
> mgreene@sympatico.ca
>

Having just been part of a failed SAN install - basically from
misunderstanding what a SAN can acheive, look very closely at NetApps
disk storage.

We went down the road of a SAN under the impression we could replace a
NFS box with a SAN. You can't. All a SAN is is a more complex scsi
loop. Only one box at a time can mount the disks.

Whereas, a NetApps box can do both NFS and CIFS, giving you an almost
bullet proof NFS replacement with NT interoperability for free.

brett

--
email: Brett.Morgan@uts.edu.au
phone: +61-2-9514-2091

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder. -- unknown -- James 3:19 (The Bible, New International Version)

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We built a system with Sun 6500/HA pair and emmulex ( sp) 7000E cards
and vixel 8100 switches and Clarion 500x dual fibre storage.
VERY FAST - Veritas top to bottom.

the integrator was Andataco ( Bill Eddings and Dave Percer did it )

We were very pleased all round.
 

-
Richard Bond (rbond@vidar.mbt.washinton.edu (206) 221-5277
System Administrator K-351, Health Sciences Center
Department of Molecular Biotechnology Box 357730
University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195


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[ Regarding "Sun Clusters with SAN", mgreene@sympatico.ca writes on Nov
18: ]

> I have a quick question. I have looked on the Sun's website and checked
> several other sources that I have available. Sun says they support a wide
> range of storage but only lists Sun storage. I have a customer who wants
to
> implement a SAN and use the SAN storage for their Sun Clusters. Will this
> work and if so where can I find more literature on it?

SAN Initiative is a good start. One thing to remember is that SAN (and
SAN front ends and switches and &c) are still evolving, so they're going
to be at the bleeding edge here.

                l & h,
                kev


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Marco,

It will work, only Sun will insist on using their own equipment; however,
since a Cluster is usually quite some money, Sun will do it; you can even
buy the software, cabling, etc yourself and assemble it if your confident
enough

Regards,
Andrea Zuccollo

> ----------
> From: Marco Greene[SMTP:mgreene@sympatico.ca]
> Sent: donderdag 18 november 1999 15:51
> To: Sun Managers
> Subject: Sun Clusters with SAN
>
> Hello SM,
> I have a quick question. I have looked on the Sun's website and checked
> several other sources that I have available. Sun says they support a wide
> range of storage but only lists Sun storage. I have a customer who wants
> to
> implement a SAN and use the SAN storage for their Sun Clusters. Will this
> work and if so where can I find more literature on it?
>
> Thanks and will summarize,
> Marco Greene
> mgreene@sympatico.ca
>
>


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Marco,

  We use Compaq StorageWorks for all our storage on Sun, SGI, Alpha Servers.

   One day, we were forced to setup a Sun cluster for the first time using
two Sun E3500s. We found out that Sun only supports Sun clustering with
their Storage. Otherwise, they would not even sell us the clustering
software.

  SO we bought a A3500 Sun StorEdge for this application.

  If you want to use another vendor's storage, then use Veritas FirstWatch
and Clustering software.

Max


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Sun loves to make customers believe it's storage solution is the only that
will
work in clusters, but that's marketing.

We use StorageTek (Clariion) fibre-channel drives, and raid controllers in a
large SAN, and have Veritas Cluster managing the applications.
Clariion's are FAR faster and robust then Sun RSM2000, or A5200's. I can't
comment on the A7000, but it's probably comparable to the STK 9145 raid
drawer.

We'e used Sun cluster with the SAN also, and it worked as far as
compatability
with the host, and cluster software. We just didnt like Sun Clusters 100+
limitations.
If it's a dual attached fibre-channel SAN -- your cluster will run fine.
Hope it helps.
Tim

"Marco Greene" <mgreene@sympatico.ca> on 11/18/1999 08:51:28 AM

  To: "Sun Managers"
               <sun-managers@sunmanagers.ececs.uc.edu>

  cc: (bcc: Timothy Lindgren/HOU/EES)

  Subject Sun Clusters with SAN
  :

Hello SM,
I have a quick question. I have looked on the Sun's website and checked
several other sources that I have available. Sun says they support a wide
range of storage but only lists Sun storage. I have a customer who wants to
implement a SAN and use the SAN storage for their Sun Clusters. Will this
work and if so where can I find more literature on it?

Thanks and will summarize,
Marco Greene
mgreene@sympatico.ca



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