Review: HP's Newest Midmarket SAN

Solution providers like simple management tools and installation because it makes the SAN less scary or complicated to customers. If the customer is not scared, it's easier to sell. Despite the fact that everyone is claiming to have simplified SANs so even the non-storage guys can work with it, Hewlett-Packard has out-delivered on that promise.

The StorageWorks 8Gb Simple SAN Connection is born from the HP/QLogic partnership. Featuring a new 8 Gb Fibre Channel switch, QLogic 8 Gb HBAs, and a fantastically organized software to handle installation and setup, this solution is something a non-SAN person can work with, and actually understand what is being done. The fact that the switch, HBA, and SAN are all configured using one pane speeds up installation, minimizes user error during configuration, and just makes sense intuitively.

HP invited the Test Center to set up and test the HP StorageWorks 8Gb Simple SAN Connection during a visit to the Hewlett-Packard testing facility in Marlborough, Mass.

The twenty port switch is the newest Fibre Channel switch aimed squarely at the mid-market. The switch comes with only 16 ports activated -- solution providers can have the remaining four activated separately. Currently, for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 and SP2 R2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, (Windows Server 2008 support coming this summer) the switch supports 8Gb SFP+ optics and adaptive trunking. All the ports auto-discover, auto-negotiate, and self-configure to 8/4/2 Gbytes.

If the switch is the main component, the Simple SAN Connection Manager software is the heart. The installation and management tool simplifies the entire process of managing up the entire SAN environment. The switch, HBA, and storage are all managed using the SSCM console. SSCM also handles the often fiddly process of configuring, zoning, and provisioning storage in one single step in the wizard. The software also takes care of checking the switch's firmware version and downloading updates. The drivers manage the firmware, so there is no risk of having the firmware and drivers ever going out of sync. All this means solution providers don't have to worry about keeping track of what software is available.

The switch also supports CHAP, RADIUS authentication, SSL/SSH, and port binding. Up to 3 hops is supported in a multi-switch environment.

Solution providers can sell the solution as a bundled kit, which comes with the HP StorageWorks 8/20q Fibre Channel Switch, the Simple SAN Connection manager software, four HP StorageWorks 81Q PCI-e FC HBAs, ten small form factor pluggable 8 Gb SFP+ optical transceivers, six optical cables and a rackmount kit for the switch. The kit is priced at $8,199, but the switch is available separately for $5,499 and the HBAs for $1,300.

Price is a key differentiator for the Simple SAN Connection. For customers thinking about their data needs now and five years down the road, 8 Gb Fibre Channel is an attractive investment for long-term storage strategy. The way HP has priced this solution, customers have access to a product that will be viable for years down the road with a price point that is on par with current 4 Gb systems on the market. Why pay for what will slowly become "old" when the new technology is available for the same pricetag?

The 8 Gb Fibre Channel switch was connected to a DL ProLiant DL360 G5 E5335 server. Four 8 Gb HBAs were installed into the server. Storage consisted of six HP disk shelves in a JBOD setup and a solid-state disk appliance SANblaze. The SANblaze had LUNs on four ports based on ten disks. The JBOD consisted of LUNs on 38 disks. The Iometer performance tool was used to setup two managers to measure full-duplex I/O streams with 64 kbytes read and writes. The SANblaze had about 200 Mbytes read and writes on all four ports, the JBOD reported 832 Mbytes, and the HBA topped out at 1.5 Gbytes. Each subsystem is only capable of 2 Gb performance alone, this configuration showed that in aggregate, the performance far outpaced the single 2 Gb results.

HP designed the 8 Gb Fibre Channel switch with power efficiency in mind. The switch draws 70W when running a full 8 Gb load at all ports. Considering that the switch will not always be at full 8 Gb load, average consumption will be less than a standard 60W lightbulb. That's welcome news for green-conscious data centers. The HBAs do not require a heatsink or additional airflow to operate, and draw low amounts of power.

The Simple SAN Connection Kit and individual components are available through HP. Solution providers interested in selling this 8 Gb Fibre Channel solution need to be certified to sell StorageWorks products. It's not necessary to be trained on the specific product immediately, although the company is currently rolling out training courses, as long as the partner has experience with other HP storage products.