Comparison

Product
Specification

NetApp FAS

HP EVA

2050 / 3140

4400 / 6400 / 8400

Redundant HA

Controllers

Yes

Yes

Snapshots

Yes

low impact

Yes

licensed, high CoFW impact

Replication

Yes, any FAS to FAS

No, EVA to EVA only

Deduplication

Yes

No

Thin Provisioning

Yes

No (DCM; has 2TB limit)

SnapManager Functionality

Yes

Exchange, SQL Server, Oracle, SAP, SharePoint, VMware

Yes

Exchange, Oracle, SAP, SQL Server (requires DataProtector)

Upgradeable Across Product Families

Yes

No

Management

Console

FilerView, DFM

CommandView EVA

Max Raw Capacity

104 / 420

96 / 216 / 324

Supported Protocols

FC, iSCSI, CIFS, NFS

FC only

iSCSI with extra cost bridge

Industry Benchmarks

Yes

SAN; SPC, NAS; SpecSFS

No

HP Competitive Analysis

Overview

· HP is one of the world's largest IT companies

· Products range from printing, personal computing, servers, software and services to IT infrastructure.

· Storage plays a relatively small part of HP's revenues (less than 1%)

· EVA one of six incompatible storage families (AiO, MSA, LHN, EVA, XP, PolyServe)

Strengths

· Many channel partners and broad range of offerings

· Can provide a one-stop-shop for the small to mid-sized IT organization with blades, servers, networking infrastructure

· HP’s offerings now include consulting & outsourcing with the purchase of EDS

· Innovative RAID virtualization technology

· Vraid technology allows for LUNs to be virtualized over pooled disks

· Demand-allocated virtual capacity free snapshots

· Ability to mix FC and “FATA” disks in the same enclosure, now with SSD

· Integrated management and configuration tools

Weaknesses

• Workmanlike but uninspiring storage
• Low and mid range arrays all suffer from a lack of application integration
• Limited connectivity and upgradeability, poor software offerings, and lack-luster performance; SSD limited to max of 8 72GB drives
• High maintenance and service charges
• No upgrade path from previous EVAx100 range or to or from any other HP array family
• Requires double the spare disk space using “distributed sparing” technique
• No QoS workload prioritization (such as FlexShare)
• Vraid best-practices defeat built-in disk load-balancing abilities
• Inefficient, complex and inflexible remote replication (CAVA)
• Disruptive write-cache disablement required for consistent snapshots
• Ffast restore capability for snapshots requires MirrorClone
• Demand-allocated snapshots silently dropped when out of space
• No native multi-protocol support.
• Command View EVA cannot manage any other HP storage array
• Distributed sparing requires 2 – 4 times the space of a physical disk

Positioning

• Simplicity: Starter Kits are a robust, highly available small to medium SAN solutions that are easy to install, use and scale at an affordable price.
• Agility: Virtualization ensures all the disks in the array are used more efficiently, with no stranded capacity, keeping them all busier and eliminating bottlenecks that lower performance.
• Virtually instantaneous: Snapclone and capacity-free Snapshot (Vsnap) and Delta Resync (Mirrorclone) – Allows immediate use of the clone copy. Saves disk space and improves disk efficiency and utilization.
• Improved performance over previous range; claims of up to 20%

   

   

Why NetApp vs. HP EVA

• Greater data integrity without performance impact via RAID-DP & Maintenance Center
• Lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)
• o NetApp easier to install, configure, and deploy
• o Flex and Snap-suite dramatically simplify administration and allocation of storage
• o Staff only needs trained in one technology
• Greater versatility
• o Integrated multi-protocol SAN/NAS in one box
• o Simultaneous FCP & iSCSI in one box
• Common compatible architecture across the entire product range
• Full interoperability and upgradeability across entire range product range
• Staff only needs to be trained in one technology
• Superior host and application SW support
• Greater NetApp scalability; top of range EVA8400 to XP is a large gap
• Superior solution completeness; includes NAS out of the box

Questions To Ask

Reliability

· How much disk overhead does distributed sparing require and what level of protection do I get for it?

· Availability

· What RTO and RPO do my EVA snapshots provide?

· How long does it take me to fully restore from a snapshot?

· How many snapshots can I keep online?

· What happens if I run out of physical capacity for my demand-allocated snapshots?

· Can I replicate my snapshots?

· Is one-to-many replication possible? Over which protocols?

Performance

· What impact do snapshots have on performance?

· What impact does adding storage have on performance?

· What impact does mixing Vraid1 with Vraid5 have on performance?

· What impact does asynchronous replication have on performance when the write buffer fills up?

· Is the effective I/O cache really 4GB? Please break down how that is actually used.

· Why no industry benchmarks, like SPC?

Upgradeability and Manageability

· How can I upgrade to or from other HP storage arrays?

· How many native protocols does an EVA support?

· Can I manage the EVA series with the same management framework as my other HP arrays?

· Can I upgrade from the EVAx100 range to the EVAx400 range?

Spec Comparison

Specifications

NetApp FAS/V-Series

EMC Celerra NS Series

Operating System

Data ONTAP

DART

(Data Access in Real Time)

File System

WAFL

UxFS

Simple Management & Installation

Yes

Yes[1]

High Performance RAID 6

Yes

No[2]

Snapshots in base system

Yes

Yes

Rapid recovery from Snapshots

SnapRestore

SnapSure

Flexible Volumes

FlexVol

Celerra AVM[3]

Integrated Cloning

FlexClone

No

Workload Prioritization

FlexShare

No

Virtualized Partitions

MultiStore

Virtual Data Movers

Mirroring

SnapMirror

Celerra Replicator / MirrorView[4]

Max. systems in a cluster

2

2-8[5]

Competitive Alignment

NetApp

EMC

FAS2040

FAS2050

NS-120

FAS3140

FAS3160

NS-480

FAS3170

FAS60×0

NS-960

Feature Comparison

Feature

Notes

Efficiency

NetApp:  High-performance RAID DP with industry leading space efficiency.

EMC:  Use of standard RAID 10 or 5 with performance and capacity limits.

EMC Competitive Analysis

Overview

• Recognized brand, large installed base
• >50% of sales are through channel and OEMs, including Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens
• 40% revenue increase YoY

Strengths

• N+1 clustering for high availability
• “All-in-one” NAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel connectivity
• File-level deduplication
• File-level retention (FLR), similar to SnapLock Enterprise
• Thin Provisioning with Automated Volume Manager
• Fully Automatic Storage Tiering (FAST) with FileMover Appliance for files
• Unified Management GUI with Celerra Unisphere
• Disk spin down

Weaknesses

• At least two operating systems to manage
• DART on Celerra
• FLARE on CLARiiON
• RedHat Linux on Celerra Control Station
• No true Unified Storage
• Weak performance with Out-of-the-box install
• 20% less performance with RAID-6 compared to RAID-5
• Highest Availability (5×9s) only for CLARiiON
• Async replication process for NAS with non-transparent failover
• Deduplication not supported on iSCSI and with VMware
• CLARiiON virtually provisioned LUNs are not supported and cannot be provisioned to Celerra
• Limited SSD drive capability (15 per NS-120/NS-480, 30 per NS-960)
• With FLR-C (Compliance) a CLARiiON admin can still delete the underlying LUN

Why NetApp vs. EMC

• Highest performance in per-node throughput and overall response time
• Highly efficient snapshots
• FAS/V-Series exceeds NS performance as reported via third-party specSFS benchmark results
• Lower total cost of ownership
• IDC Storage Tracker reports NetApp NAS cost less than EMC NAS quarterly and YoY
• FlexVol and RAID-DP greatly increases utilization
• Simple upgrade path
• More cost-effective mirroring and disaster recovery               
• Simplest to manage  
• One management interface
• Less equipment to manage
• Less software to configure
• Highly reliable and available   
• FAS/V-Series meets and exceeds Five 9’s availability validated by IDC report
• RAID-DP provides tolerance to multiple simultaneous disk failures without performance penalities commonly found in competitor RAID 6 deployments
• Choice of FAS/V-Series asynchorous, synchronous or semi-synchronous mirroring versus NS asynchronous approach for file replication
• Easily, quickly recover from errors and disasters
• No single point of failure vs EMC NS Control Station or active/active controller configurations
• NetApp Cloud, NDDC and ITaaS provides non-disruptive availability of business data and repeatable processes
• Muitlstore provides secure and transparent pools of storage, with Lifetime Key management with Decru
• Operations, Protection and Provisioing Managers provide seamless cloud-enabled automated provisioining and management
• SANScreen provides superior capacity management and chargeback
• Data Motion enables movement of storage pools non-disruptively

Questions To Ask

Storage Utilization

·         What level of thin provisioning does EMC NS provide?

·         How does EMC’s double parity RAID 6 perform?

·         How much capacity does EMC need for SnapClone?

Disaster Recovery

·         Should I use SnapSure or SnapView?

·         How do you do backup and recovery from snapshots?

Performance

·         Does Celerra do workload prioritization like FlexShare?

·         How many Snapshots can I take without any performance loss?

Reliability & Availability

·         What level of availability can I expect from EMC NS and what third-party has validated this? Four 9’s? Five 9’s? Six 9’s?

·         How do you protect against a double disk failure while ensuring performance? Can you do it without mirroring the RAID groups?

Archival and Compliance (if EMC proposes Celerra plus Centera)

·         Wouldn’t it make sense to include a CAS/compliance option on existing storage platforms (like NetApp does with SnapLock)?

·         How many dissimilar management interfaces and software are required?

Enterprise-ready requirements

·         What is your strategy to support automatic disaster recovery?

Support

·         How will you support my 24×7 production environment – go through partners that support other vendors?

Storage Magazine March 2010

Click on the link above and then scroll to page 31 to read the article.

Reports To: VP of Technology

 

The following document outlines the job description and duties for the position above.

The Systems Administrator will primarily be responsible for the day to day operation and maintenance of the our Clients Desktop support and open systems.  The position will report into the VP of Technology.  The goal of the position is to maintain a high level of availability and end-user satisfaction that meets or exceeds the performance requirements.  Much of this work is currently spread across external vendors and internal staff.  This position also needs to be focused on making the most efficient use of time and the environment.  This should include all of the day to day hands on activities for desktop support, basic server administration and management and escalation of issues with vendors involved in the managed services.  As a part of the managed services offering Penn Treaty will leverage the call desk services provided by Contour.  Those services will augment and provide ready access and tracking for support issues.  This includes extended coverage and backfill for the onsite resource when that resource is not available due to illness or other absence.  This position will also function as an escalation tier for network operations issues.  This will help network operations fulfill their responsibilities in addition to the dedicated desktop support.

He/She will be responsible for the following on a day-to-day basis:

Manage current desktop environment

o   Resolve any hardware related issues

o   Alert and resolve any performance issues and notify end-users

o   Function as an escalation point and remote hands for the call center

o   Manage issues with the vendors

o   Work with the IT staff to respond to and resolve alerts related to systems and/or  integration with the managed services offering.

o   Monitor current environment usage, performance, and availability  

o   Install, configure, test, and implement software and components as necessary on a day to day basis.  Larger projects such as organization wide upgrades amy be identified as out of scope and defined as a separate project.

o   Applicable patch releases and maintenance are included in the day to day responsibilities of the resource.

o   Responsible for planning and coordination of any new systems installation as it relates to the overall offering from Contour

o   Perform any host-level tasks needed to access the systems

Application support

o   Work with application developers and Contour to assist in troubleshooting infrastructure related issues

Backup

o   Maintain proper backup schedule

o   Restore and recover data as requested including the management of snaps and replication

o   Coordinate with off-site storage as necessary

Strategic Planning

o   Capacity planning and forecast growth

o   Identify processes and policies that will improve the overall performance of the project.   Work with management to implement these initiatives

o   Work with IT staff to identify upcoming needs and report back to management

o   Review tools regularly to identify abnormal growth

o   Provide input on vendor proposals

Network Operations

o   Escalation point for server and system related issues.

o   Second Tier advisory role to desktop support call center

o   Validation of tasks completed by the administrators as needed

o   Lead and/or participate in the creation and maintenance of system related policies

Qualified Candidates must have

o    At least 5 years experience in Windows desktop support and customer service

o    At least 1-2 years experience with basic Mac desktop functionality

o    At least 3 years windows server administration

o   Familiarity with basic concepts around Back-up maintenance and Disaster Recovery Procedures.

o   Experience with Help Desk software and ticket management procedures

o   Experience with Trouble ticket escalation and vendor management

o   Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

o   The ability to work independently and provide documentation in compliance with Contour and Customer needs.

Interested Candidates should provide their resume and cover letter to:

Att: Recruiting

640 Freedom Drive

King of Prussia, PA 19406

Or email to:           careers@contourds.com

1) EMC – Clariion, Celerra, Avamar, and ideally knows SYM

2) VMware – ESX, View and SRM

If you know of anyone that has at least 5 years of experience and willing to join a growing company please have them send a cover letter and resume to careers@contourds.com

Thanks

Rocco

Spec Comparison

Specifications

NetApp FAS/V-Series

EMC Celerra NS Series

Operating System

Data ONTAP

DART

(Data Access in Real Time)

File System

WAFL

UxFS

Simple Management & Installation

Yes

(NO) Celerra Startup Assistant Provisioning Wizard[1]

High Performance RAID 6

Yes

No[2]

Snapshots in base system

Yes

Yes

Rapid recovery from Snapshots

SnapRestore

SnapSure

Flexible Volumes

FlexVol

Celerra AVM[3]

Integrated Cloning

FlexClone

No

Workload Prioritization

FlexShare

No

Virtualized Partitions

MultiStore

Virtual Data Movers

Mirroring

SnapMirror

Celerra Replicator / MirrorView[4]

RecoverPoint*

Max. systems in a cluster

2

2-8[5]

Competitive Alignment

NetApp

EMC

FAS2050

NS-120

FAS3140

FAS3160

NS-480

FAS3170

FAS60×0

NS-960

Comparison

Technology Highlights

NetApp FAS2020

EMC CLARiiON AX4-5

SAN Protocol Support

Integrated dual function FCP and iSCSI

Separate FCP model (AX4-5)
or iSCSI model(AX4-5I)

Network Protocol Support

NFS V2/V3/V4 over UDP or TCP, Microsoft® CIFS

None; SAN block only

Max. Raw Capacity

65TB

60TB

Dual Parity RAID

Yes; RAID-DP

No, RAID 0/1, 3 and 5 only

Max. Number of Total Disk Drives

68

60

Drive Types Supported

SAS: 144GB, 300GB
FC: 144GB, 300GB
SATA: 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, 1TB

SAS: 144GB, 300GB
SATA: 400GB, 750GB, 1TB

LUNs

Up to 1,024

Up to 512

Snapshot Copies

Up to 256 per LUN, and up to 51,000 per controller

Only 1 per LUN and 16 per array

EMC CLARiiON AX4-5 Competitive Analysis

Strengths

•  Strong FC SAN vendor partnerships
• Resells through Dell as a channel (30% of revenues)
• Virtual LUN capability; ability to non-disruptively migrate LUNs internally (Virtual LUN) and externally (SANcopy)
• Cache de-staging
• Support for consistency groups with remote mirroring function
• PowerPath host multipath software for path and workload management

Positioning

• Aimed at small to medium businesses (SMBs)

• AX4-5 key claims:

• Performance, scalabilty, ease of use

• 4Gb/s end-to-end architecture
• Connectivity with iSCSI or FC

Simplify the IT environment and support VMware infrastructure

• High Scalability
• EMC claims high raw capacity utilization
• I/O optimization via PowerPath MPIO host application
• Virtual LUN Technology
• Data movement between FC & SATA
• Resiliency & Availability
• fully redundant with cache des-stage to disk
• Dual controller option to provide HA
• Snap & Mirror Consistency
• Supports both sync and async replication, as well as consistency groups

Weaknesses

• legacy design, requires disruption to scale up (CLARiiON CX range)
• SAN only; FC (Fiber Channel) or iSCSI, not both
• Management gaps; limited integration of management software
• No single operational workflow for managing both the system and its data.
• Limited product breadth and scalability
• Double-parity RAID-6 protection not available
• No multi-protocol support in a single array; NAS support for file data requires expensive, add-on gateway controllers  requiring  other mgmt
• No thin-provisioning, no data deduplication
• Snapshots copies – copy-on-write / performance penalties (see SPC-1)
• No support for SnapView clones
• Limited number of Snapshots (1 per LUN); limited number of Snap Sessions per LUN (1) and per system (16)
• No SnapSuite-like benefits; EMC Replication Manager provides an integrated environment for managing point-in-time copies, remote mirroring, and data migration services; but no Operations Manager.
• No Oracle HARD support (vs. NetApp SnapValidator)
• No integrated compliance solution (SnapVault, SnapLock, LockVault)
• Requires 4 pre-allocated drives for OS; using for data impacts performance
• External battery backup to destage cache is weak link

Why NetApp FAS2020 vs. EMC CLARiiON AX4-5

• Higher performance under snapshot (SPC-1), capacity utilization (RAID-DP, Thin Provisioning & Deduplication) & data protection (SnapSuite)
• lower total cost of ownership

• NetApp easier to install, configure, deploy, and manage

• Flex and Snap-suite dramatically simplify administration and allocation of storage

• Staff only needs to be trained in one technology for the complete storage infrastructure, reducing training costs and skill levels required

• NetApp enables Business Agility with:

• Greater versatility with multiprotocol support and upgrade paths in a single storage system
• Cascade original investment into new technologies as released by NetApp; for example, deduplication
• Common compatible architecture across the entire product range

• Gaps in functionality require customers to use disparate pieces of non-integrated software to address key areas of management, including…
• Files, Archives, Disk backup (D2D), Security, SRM
• Challenges in provisioning and re-provisioning capacity
• AX offers poor volume mgmt and limited disk pooling
• MetaLUNs must be configured based on strict guidelines — a labor-intensive and inflexible process.
• Performance impact can be negative as LUN count increases and existing LUNs are re-provisioned.