iSCSI to FC

[rcoote5902_2]

My office is considering migrating our current storage and VMWare infrastructure from iSCSI to FC.  I'm not well versed in the storage side of things, and I'm wondering what kind of hardware we need to accomplish this.  We aren't a large operation and would only require something fairly entry-level.  At present we have 3 SANs, so 6 ports with some room to grow would likely suffice.

I realize we'd replace NICs with HBAs - but otherwise would it be as simple as getting a FC switch to connect the storage to the host servers?

I've looked at the MDS 9124 and the 9222i - are these standalone units that would do the job or are there other components needed?

If we're still connecting the servers to our production LAN with gigabit NIC's, does this kind of upgrade even make sense to do?

Thanks,

Rob

[dynamoxxx]

is there a business / performance reason to go to FC.  It's obviously more expensive to buy HBAs, fibre channel switches (you want two to create redundant fabrics). Also does your storage array have FC ports ?

[rcoote5902_2]

We have noticed some performance issues although that may be a configuration problem.  That being said we also were planning an upgrade of our Unity system and would prefer to virtualize it.  Cisco will only support Unity in a VM config that uses FC or FCoE storage.  The expense for FC switches and HBA's would be partially offset by the savings on virtualizing.

[dynamoxxx]

ok, so you can buy some small Cisco switches, like 9124 ..base install comes with 8 ports active and you can buy more license as your fabric grows. You can also look at some small Brocade switches, they are very competitive to Cisco's.  You will need two switches to setup redundant fabrics, you will also need two HBAs per host ..and some fibre cables.

[lamav · Accepted solution]

Hi, I know you gave some reasons for wanting to migrate to FC, but I think you are going backwards in the evolution of data center storage technology. iSCSI is cheaper, easier to configure and manage (no special skills needed - it runs on Ethernet), and with the advent of 10G, there should really be no issues with performance. There are also switches that provide iSCSI optimization - a sort of QoS for iSCSI. The Dell 8024 10G switch is one of them.

If you think you have a configurations issue, you should really addreess that and not throw away a perfectly good storage solution to go with a technology that is going to cost you more money.

HTH

Victor