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Re: [Xen-users] Network based storage - NBD/AoE/iSCSI other?

On Sun, 8 Oct 2006, Thomas Harold wrote:
My main point was that compared to a 1GB Ethernet 'dedicated to storage' network, a 1GB FC network is cheaper and faster; I believe this to be true even if your end disks are SATA. (but like I said, I might be wrong on that part; I'm not really familiar with pricing for network-attached IDE arrays; I can't afford gigabit Ethernet equipment of a quality I'd like to maintain, and I use 10 or 15K scsi/FC for everything that matters anyhow.)

For a small business, you can probably setup a small SAN for not that much. 16/24 port "smart" gigabit switches that support VLANs, trunking, jumbo frames can be had for under $500. Put two of those together and you have a fault-tolerant SAN fabric. Dual-port server gigabit NICs for $180 each to connect to the SAN switch fabric. Do some bonding of multiple dual/quad port NICs for bandwidth / fault-tolerance on the SAN unit.

16 port 1G fibre-channel brocades go for around $100. how much are the 16 port cisco gig switches?

That's probably the biggest argument for iSCSI/AoE vs FC. You can get started for under $10k, prove that it works, then decide where you want to spend more money on additional performance while reusing the old equipment to spruce up other sections of your network.

my point is that the iscsi/AoE solution is more expensive, for less performance when compared to a FC solution. you can recoup some of that by reusing the switches later, but it's still more expensive.

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