[cMack454]

OK -- I'm working with a client on migrating their old POWER4 boxes to POWER5+, with the option of moving toward POWER6 once available/necessary. I'm locked into a conundrum with which storage solution to utilize:

The N series, for open systems, seems to be the most logical solution for this client's Oracle setup, but the DS8xxx is the more common general solution to this need. Currently, they are using a DS6800 with no SVC and they are having performance issues (I know of the 6800 limitation, BTW). The current thought is to patch the 6800 issue by adding two SVCs. They've also got older tape backup systems, and FS20s.

With that in mind, they currently have a big-honkin' 690 box that we are looking to migrate to a 590 (with a pathway toward 595).

I'm new to storage solutions, and the N series seems to be the most robust available system (smokes the EMC), and is not an API-dependent system.

Thoughts?!?

CM

[FASherman]

Make sure you know how to properly size an nSeries device. There is a big different between the size of raw storage and available storage. Snapshots, WAFL and RAID-DP takes up a significant amount of storage.

Just to give you an example, a fully populated N3700 using 300GB 10K drives and 4 drawers has a raw capacity of 16.4 TB. But when you configure RAID-DP with a spare drive, and account for 10% for snapshots and WAFL, and onTap (the NetApps OS), you're left with (make sure you're sitting down) only 9.9 TB usable.