Hi,
We are designing a new storage network and we are faced with a dilemna: choosing between a single FAS3240 or multiple FAS2240.
We already decided to use aggregates of 120 disks (5 DS2246 with 600GB SAS drives), and initial setup will include 2 of those (10 diskshelves).
Now we have to decide if we go for a FAS3240 (that on paper could old 5 of these aggregates), or go for multiple FAS2240 (1 FAS2240 per aggregate)
The only drawback of the FAS2240 we have identified is that's it's either FC or Ethernet, meaning we won't be able to mix our virtual environment (vmware/NFS) & SQL (physical servers/FC)
From a cost perspective, surprisingly, both solutions are equivalent (we have a pretty good deal with NetApp).
From a performance & risk perspective, I'd prefer the horizontal scalability of multiple FAS2240.
From a management/flexibility perspective, the team currently operating our FAS3210 and our FAS3240 MetroCluster says they'd prefer to go for a single FAS3240.
Before flipping a coin, has anyone some real-life experience of managing multiple "small" SAN again a bigger one ? Or additional good arguments for one solution or the other ?
Thanks !
Stéphane
