We are looking for a ~32T external storage solution for two 48-core AMD servers. These will be used for a small Linux OpenVZ cloud for CPU intensive web-servers and data warehousing. Dual path with automatic fail-over is pretty much a must. Hopefully the enclosure and the SAS controller would cost around $9k and 16 drives around $4k.
Promise and Infortrend
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We initially looked at Promise's VTrak E610sD:
http://www.promise.com/media_bank/Download%20Bank/Manual/VTrak_E-Class_PM_v3.2.pdf
(page 35 shows the topology that we would want) -
A college suggested Infortrend's EonStor DS S16S-R2240:
http://www.infortrend.com/products/models/ESDS%20S16S-R2240
Has anyone had experience with these systems?
What are some alternatives to the above Promise and Infortrend SAS product for a two server web+db cloud application?
RAID Inc.
This could be a good option: http://www.raidinc.com/xanadu_230.php
SuperMircro
Would something like this also work?
https://www.thinkmate.com/System/STX_JE16-0300/14991
Best Answer
We just did this here as a test (not my blog):
http://www.natecarlson.com/2010/05/07/review-supermicros-sc847a-4u-chassis-with-36-drive-bays/
It has worked out perfectly. Using off the shelf SuperMicro pieces, we were able to build a 72TB RAW array for about $8,000 total. In hindsight, we didn't need as many SATA controllers, and we never did buy extra disks for caches, as we aren't using the Sun stuff he was talking about.