Of course, we’re talking about Dell EquaLogic virtual ISCSI storage here. Let’s face it, storage is the foundation of our datacenters. Servers and equipment only exist in order to give us access to our data, and for many administrators storage is an after thought rather than a foundation.

“How much storage does this server need?” is the common question and understandably so, since SAN solutions have historically been relatively expensive and complex… until EqualLogic, that is..

1. Centralized storage is an enabler

Whether your primary goal is to simplify your network, get virtualized, add storage capacity, shorten your backup and recovery windows, or improve your business continuity / disaster recovery plan, you’ll get ALL of this with your first EqualLogic array.

2. EqualLogic’s virtual storage is FAST and EASY

You don’t need a PHD in storage to manage provision or manage EqualLogic storage.  In fact, if you can manage a Windows server you can master Dell EqualLogic in an afternoon. There’s no need to understand LUNs, RAID Groups, IOPs, or fiber channel.

3. Don’t waste a penny on unused storage

We all have that admin that says his new server needs 2TB of storage, even though we know there’s no chance he’s going to need all of that.

• The old way: order a new server and a DAS just for him, and when he only uses 200GB, the rest goes to waste and sucks up power and cooling.

• The EqualLogic way: Thin provision him 2TB of storage, assign it to his server, and you’ll only see the 200GB he’s using. Once his project is done, delete the volume and it goes right back into the pool for use elsewhere.

4. Everything is faster on a SAN

It’s no secret that the longest standing bottleneck for servers (and workstations, for that matter) is the disk sub-system. Processors and memory have received ground-breaking performance increases, yet hard drive speeds have improved modestly. A disk array is pretty much mandatory if you want to even come close to full utilization of your new servers.

5. Buy fewer servers

How many times have you bought a new server because you needed more storage or faster disks? We’re all guilty of that at one time or another. There’s no wasting server resources when you purchase and manage your storage independently.

6. Get the most out of server virtualization

Fast, reliable, flexible storage is a critical component to virtualization. In the past, the vast majority of my design discussions revolved around how many hard drives should go in each virtual host.

Of course this meant we had to plan ahead of time which VM would go to on which host because the Exchange VM definitely needs more disk throughput than the Active Directory VM. With centralized virtual storage you are truly virtual- just type in the size you need and the EqualLogic does the rest!

7. Shorten your back up and recovery windows

No more backups at night!  With the click of a mouse or a simple schedule, your production volume is snapshoted, and your backup server can backup the snapshot in the middle of the day having ZERO affect on your production network.

8. Do you have a viable DR plan?

I’ve reviewed a lot of DR plans in my day and it’s staggering how many of them include a drive to Iron Mountain to pickup tapes. This reminds me of the old Windows days when I manually loaded 30+ floppy disks to install the OS.

Site-to-site replication with EqualLogic couldn’t be easier. With a few clicks, the array will take a snapshot of your volume and start a bit-level replication to it’s partner.

When you need to recover the offsite data, you can either choose to replicate it back to site A or physically transport the replication target array back to the primary data center and you’re back in business!

Read more EqualLogic articles

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Effective May 2010, VMware will remove all but the most recent versions of our Virtual Infrastructure product binaries from our download web site. As of this date, these Virtual Infrastructure products will have reached end of general support according to the published support policy. The downloadable products removed will include both ESX and Virtual Center releases. For reference, the VMware VI3 support policy can be viewed at this location: www.vmware.com/support/policies/lifecycle/vi.

By removing older releases, VMware is establishing a long-term sustainable product maintenance line for older ESX product releases which have transitioned into the Extended Support life cycle phase. This enables us to baseline all patches and critical fixes against these baselines. This translates to faster customer turn-around and greater product stability during the extended support phase.

Virtual Infrastructure products being removed by May 2010:
•    ESX 3.5 versions 3.5 GA, Update 1, Update 2, Update 3 and Update 4
•    ESX 3.0 versions 3.0 GA, 3.0.1, 3.0.2 and 3.0.3
•    ESX 2.x versions 2.5.0 GA, 2.5.1, 2.5.2, 2.1.3, 2.5.3, 2.0.2, 2.1.2 and 2.5.4
•    Virtual Center 2.5 GA, 2.5 Update 1, 2.5 Update 2, 2.5 Update 3, 2.5 Update 4 and 2.5 Update 5
•    Virtual Center 2.0

Virtual Infrastructure products remaining for Extended Support:
These versions will be the baseline for ongoing support during the Extended Support phase. All subsequent patches issued will be based solely upon the releases below.
•    ESX 3.5 Update 5 will remain throughout the duration of Extended Support
•    ESX 3.0.3 Update 1 will remain throughout the duration of Extended Support
•    Virtual Center 2.5 Update 6 expected in early 2010

Customers may stay at a prior version, however VMware’s patch release program during Extended Support will be continued with the condition that all subsequent patches will be based on the latest baseline. In some cases where there are release dependencies, prior update content may be included with patches.

For additional FAQs, please refer to the VMware Infrastructure Lifecycle FAQs web site: http://www.vmware.com/support/policies/lifecycle/vi/faq.html.