[Beowulf] Looking for external RAID vendors

[cousins at razzo.umeoce.maine.edu]

> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:04:34 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Joshua Baker-LePain <jlb17 at duke.edu>
> Subject: [Beowulf] Looking for external RAID vendors
> To: beowulf at beowulf.org
> Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.62.0609261501330.29261 at chaos.egr.duke.edu>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
> 
> I'm looking to get a few TB of SATA-SCSI storage, and I'm wondering what
> vendors folks like for this sort of thing.  I know all about the tradeoffs 
> of external RAID vs. internal arrays -- this is something that needs to be 
> as plug-and-play as possible.
> 
> Some groups here like Excel Meridian's products (which do look rather 
> nice).  Any other vendors with good products and support?

We looked at Apple, Excel Meridian, Nexsan and Partners Data SurfRAID.  
We ended up with the Partners Data SurfRAID and have been very happy with
them.  RAID6, true Web management interface (as opposed to having to go
through an attached machine) and you can treat it as one array as opposed
to the Apple which is (or was) segmented into two arrays. They have been
simple to use and we've had no unexpected down time with any of them.  We
have two with 400GB Hitachi drives and one with 750GB Seagate drives.  
Partners Data is very easy to work with and they have very good prices.

Steve 
-- 
______________________________________________________________________
 Steve Cousins, Ocean Modeling Group    Email: cousins at umit.maine.edu
 Marine Sciences, 452 Aubert Hall       http://rocky.umeoce.maine.edu
 Univ. of Maine, Orono, ME 04469        Phone: (207) 581-4302