Many customers thinking of a new storage array focus on the work required to set up a new server with storage. This is an important item to research. And some storage vendors can make it a bit simpler than others to connect the host HBA WWNs to the capacity in the array. However, I submit that that there is a much more common storage management challenge, and one that can be made a lot simpler.
The Problem
Customers are constantly adding more capacity to their systems. Application retain more data. New applications are added to servers. Upgrades need more space. It seems that every few months each server is getting some additional storage capacity. So how hard should it be? After all, the servers and storage are already connected.
So let's make this a little more complicated. Many customers are now rolling out VMware ESX clusters of 8 or more servers. Some of these servers have more than 2 HBA ports. So when adding a device to the cluster, there may be 30 or more HBAs that all need to get their access updated.
Recent Comments