ONTAP Hardware

Best Approach to introduce FAS into an existing HP SAN

Soldevelopment
5,354 Views

Hi All,

 

First thing first, i am newbie for NetApp solutions. I have read multiple whitepapers and sites about NetApp products and how flexibile, adaptive and manageable they are.

 

We have an existing HP Lefthand for the past 4 years, and it's time to upgrade to meet growing business demand and ensure continuity. I am looking what will be the best practical, cost efficient and nondisruptive approach to introduce NetApp storage system (I'm thinking of FAS2500 series) into the existing HP P4500 SAN solution. Key product selection, design/implmentation considerations are:

1. Almost all servers are virtualized using vmware

2. No major downtime (<2hrs weekend)

3. No forklift replacement approach

4. We should be able to use the lefthand as secondary or extension storage unit or preferably as standby/failover (have sparedisks)

5. The cost must be less than adding another HP node (controller)

6. The selected solution must be scalable, flexible, well performing and easy to manage - we want to start small and grows as demands increases.

7. Should seemlessly work with NAS or/and D2D backup solutions, and preferably ready for offsite DR replication(not in place yet)

8. Must support at least SAS and SATA disks

9. The storage network should preferably support either iSCSI over Fibre - primarly due to cost limitation and not really much demand for it.

10. Short span design and implementation period (I'm planning to have the right solution implemented at least by end of March - currently researching on available solutions)

 

Any comments and suggestion on the approach, product selection, design architecture is highly appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

paulstringfellow
5,278 Views

on a NetApp forum you'd expect us to say go NetApp...and by way of declaration i'm not a fan of left hand, don't really like what it does... but as for whether commercially it can be cheaper than another left hadn node, no idea, as i'm not quoting...and would suggest that's not maybe the place to start, it's more what NetApp can bring to the party i'd think... would imagine it would be more than a new left hand node, just because of the platform switch..so more work etc...

 

Anyway...in an attempt to answer all your questions!!

 

1. Almost all servers are virtualized using vmware - helpful - if you have Vstorage motion licences then that could help in migration

2. No major downtime (<2hrs weekend) - as mentioned when i've done this before, moving a virtual infrastructure from one storage solution to another vstorage motion is your friend, on the fly movement of machines between data stores - so move from existing to new datastore

3. No forklift replacement approach - using above allows a staged migration

4. We should be able to use the lefthand as secondary or extension storage unit or preferably as standby/failover (have sparedisks) - this would be down to how you deploy your infrastrcutre, no integartion between the NetApp and Lefthand solutions out of the box, the FlexArray suggestion made, could potentially work, although not sure left hand is supported behind FlexArray, it is also only available on NetApp 8000 series, so maybe commercially not an option.

5. The cost must be less than adding another HP node (controller) - no real comment on this

6. The selected solution must be scalable, flexible, well performing and easy to manage - we want to start small and grows as demands increases. - so on a NetApp forum you'd expert nothing other than ringing endorsement, however if you deploy clustered ontap (rather than 7mode) then really it's going to tick all those boxes and more, designed to scale and flex completely non disruptively, allowing new demans to be simply integarted into the solution.

7. Should seemlessly work with NAS or/and D2D backup solutions, and preferably ready for offsite DR replication(not in place yet) - so Mirrored replication included as a software licence (make sure you get appropraite licencing for you needs) the NetApp software stack can replace your current backup solutions potentially and should be explored.

8. Must support at least SAS and SATA disks - yes and with support for SSD as well...

9. The storage network should preferably support either iSCSI over Fibre - primarly due to cost limitation and not really much demand for it. - ISCSI, Fibre, NFS, SMB3, 10Gbe all supported on the 2500 series all at the same time, true unified protocol solution, not limited to ISCSI

10. Short span design and implementation period (I'm planning to have the right solution implemented at least by end of March - currently researching on available solutions) - 2500 implementations relatively easy - integration into vmware environment a doddle... then about planning the move... but should be running pretty quick end of March not unrealistic, assuming the infrastrcute is not massive and complex.

 

hope some of that helps...

 

 

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5 REPLIES 5

MikeMcNamara
5,337 Views

Hi,

 

If you want to migrate data from the older HP (LeftHand) SAN system to NetApp, we have a tool called the DTA2800. Details are here:http://mysupport.netapp.com/documentation/productlibrary/index.html?productID=61316

 

Another option to migrate your LUNs is a feature called Foreign LUN Import. Details are here:http://community.netapp.com/t5/Technology/Clustered-Data-ONTAP-8-3-Migration-Tools/ba-p/100074

 

The NetApp FAS2500 or FAS8020 are good systems to consider.  Details are here:http://www.netapp.com/us/products/storage-systems/index.aspx

 

If you want to reuse your HP system, you should consider a FAS8020 with our FlexArray virtualization software. Details on FlexArray are here:http://www.netapp.com/us/products/storage-systems/flexarray/index.aspx.

 

Hope this helps.

Soldevelopment
5,315 Views

Thanks for the reply. However, both options appears to be a forklift approach. I will be more interested on design recommendations or solution architecture options (or case studies) in adopting NetApp as primary storage into an existing SAN setup without disrupting service to storage consumers.

 

Regards

 

MikeMcNamara
5,300 Views

Hi,

 

The FlexArray option would not be disruptive. Details are here:http://www.netapp.com/us/products/storage-systems/flexarray/index.aspx.

paulstringfellow
5,279 Views

on a NetApp forum you'd expect us to say go NetApp...and by way of declaration i'm not a fan of left hand, don't really like what it does... but as for whether commercially it can be cheaper than another left hadn node, no idea, as i'm not quoting...and would suggest that's not maybe the place to start, it's more what NetApp can bring to the party i'd think... would imagine it would be more than a new left hand node, just because of the platform switch..so more work etc...

 

Anyway...in an attempt to answer all your questions!!

 

1. Almost all servers are virtualized using vmware - helpful - if you have Vstorage motion licences then that could help in migration

2. No major downtime (<2hrs weekend) - as mentioned when i've done this before, moving a virtual infrastructure from one storage solution to another vstorage motion is your friend, on the fly movement of machines between data stores - so move from existing to new datastore

3. No forklift replacement approach - using above allows a staged migration

4. We should be able to use the lefthand as secondary or extension storage unit or preferably as standby/failover (have sparedisks) - this would be down to how you deploy your infrastrcutre, no integartion between the NetApp and Lefthand solutions out of the box, the FlexArray suggestion made, could potentially work, although not sure left hand is supported behind FlexArray, it is also only available on NetApp 8000 series, so maybe commercially not an option.

5. The cost must be less than adding another HP node (controller) - no real comment on this

6. The selected solution must be scalable, flexible, well performing and easy to manage - we want to start small and grows as demands increases. - so on a NetApp forum you'd expert nothing other than ringing endorsement, however if you deploy clustered ontap (rather than 7mode) then really it's going to tick all those boxes and more, designed to scale and flex completely non disruptively, allowing new demans to be simply integarted into the solution.

7. Should seemlessly work with NAS or/and D2D backup solutions, and preferably ready for offsite DR replication(not in place yet) - so Mirrored replication included as a software licence (make sure you get appropraite licencing for you needs) the NetApp software stack can replace your current backup solutions potentially and should be explored.

8. Must support at least SAS and SATA disks - yes and with support for SSD as well...

9. The storage network should preferably support either iSCSI over Fibre - primarly due to cost limitation and not really much demand for it. - ISCSI, Fibre, NFS, SMB3, 10Gbe all supported on the 2500 series all at the same time, true unified protocol solution, not limited to ISCSI

10. Short span design and implementation period (I'm planning to have the right solution implemented at least by end of March - currently researching on available solutions) - 2500 implementations relatively easy - integration into vmware environment a doddle... then about planning the move... but should be running pretty quick end of March not unrealistic, assuming the infrastrcute is not massive and complex.

 

hope some of that helps...

 

 

Soldevelopment
5,270 Views

Thank you very much, paulstringfellow. This was my expectation from the forum, honesty and professional direction. Thanks.

 

Regards,

 

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