Sun StorEdge A5000 for home lab

ChooseLife

Hi guys,

I've come across a package on sale: Sun StorEdge A5000 + FC switch + FC card + cables, the whole package for $100.
Now thinking whether to buy it to get some hands-on experience with FC SAN, and welcoming your opinions.

I have zero experience with FC SAN beyond theoretical knowledge (got some experience with iSCSI). And while I have little interest in storage and don't see myself becoming a storage admin, it seems that as I'm advancing into more senior sys admin/engineer positions, at least some kind of exposure would be helpful down the road - when asked "what SAN experience do you have?", "I read about it" is not the most impressive answer and therefore I would like to change that part.

With that being said, do you think this lab set up would be helpful? Will it give any hands-on experience that is applicable in real world? Is this ~10 year-old hardware obsolete by now, or this kind of technology is still actively used in production out there?

As always, TIA for your time.

UnixGuy

ChooseLife wrote: »

this kind of technology is still actively used in production out there?

...

Surprisingly yes I see it, but it's very rare now. Hmm, 100$ is nothing, so I think you should go ahead and buy it. However, I don't think it will give you relevant experience in today's SANs. I would use this storage to learn more about volume managers in a certain OS for example, rather than learning anything about FC/SAN.

you will need to download the relevant documentation of this storage to set it up and it's little bit different than today's SAN. But for 100$, why not ? set it up, figure it out, and keep it in your lab. But make sure the server(s) you have are compatible with the FC connectors that come with this storage (better see a picture of the connectors before you buyt it).

ChooseLife

UnixGuy wrote: »

Surprisingly yes I see it, but it's very rare now. Hmm, 100$ is nothing, so I think you should go ahead and buy it. However, I don't think it will give you relevant experience in today's SANs. I would use this storage to learn more about volume managers in a certain OS for example, rather than learning anything about FC/SAN.

you will need to download the relevant documentation of this storage to set it up and it's little bit different than today's SAN. But for 100$, why not ? set it up, figure it out, and keep it in your lab. But make sure the server(s) you have are compatible with the FC connectors that come with this storage (better see a picture of the connectors before you buyt it).

Sorry for disappearing, it's been a crazy week for me... Appreciate your comments. If this system does not help with learning FC SAN, I won't bother with it. I don't see much value in it for the actual storage - my lab already has a variety of stuff from DAS RAID's to iSCSI networks, running LVM, VMFS, ZFS among other things...

Fugazi1000

If the FC switch is a re-badged Brocade there might be some merit it and playing with zoning/WWIDs and the like. Brocade switches are everywhere (HP, IBM OEM) and learnings here will still help you if come across Director class switches. You probably would want at least 2 or 3 HBAs though.


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UnixGuy

I doubt that they're brocade switches, I think they're those old SUN switches. Earlier, SUN manufactured those old disk arrays with an old SUN switch, I'm not quite sure that this is what OP is trying to buy. I don't think it will be relevant or useful for today's technology.

Fugazi1000 wrote: »

If the FC switch is a re-badged Brocade there might be some merit it and playing with zoning/WWIDs and the like. Brocade switches are everywhere (HP, IBM OEM) and learnings here will still help you if come across Director class switches. You probably would want at least 2 or 3 HBAs though.


I

rohitsun

I Work For HSBC as UNIX System administrator platform Solaris,Linux & AIX (Hyderabad INDIA)

I am planning to set up a home lab to create
1.) Veritas volume manager
2.) Veritas Cluster
In SAN environment

So recently i have visited one of the vendor who sells used sun hardware He suggested me to go with

Sun fire v210
Brocade SAN 24 port switch
Sun Storage A5000

My question is will A5000 supports Cluster environment in with SAN.

UnixGuy

rohitsun wrote: »

...
So recently i have visited one of the vendor who sells used sun hardware He suggested me to go with

Sun fire v210
Brocade SAN 24 port switch
Sun Storage A5000

My question is will A5000 supports Cluster environment in with SAN.

Ok I'm not sure about your budget, but creating a home Lab to test VCS in a SAN environment is expensive.

you will face problems with A5000, but I think it's (or was it D1000 ?!) that doesn't need license to run Veritas, I think that's why your vendor suggested that.

check the version of the Cluster software you have in hand, and check supportability. Ask your vendor since they suggested. I think 90% it does support, specially older versions of Veritas Cluster.

But since you are in India, there are so many training centers that have very affordable training classes for Veritas, that would be a good option too...