Comments on: Dell MD3000 - Great DAS DB Storage http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/ Thought stream from SmugMug's CEO & Chief Geek Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:17:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6-bleeding2 By: Customers Being Heard – Dell OEM Customer Advisory Council | ScienceLogic http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103314 Customers Being Heard – Dell OEM Customer Advisory Council | ScienceLogic Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:57:25 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103314 [...] roadmap, including some of the exciting enhancements Dell is making to their storage products such as the MD3000 and the new EqualLogic PS5000 series iSCSI [...] [...] roadmap, including some of the exciting enhancements Dell is making to their storage products such as the MD3000 and the new EqualLogic PS5000 series iSCSI [...]

]]> By: Laurent http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103189 Laurent Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:13:59 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103189 Linux users, what kind of software setup do you have ? Are you using dell supported distributions ? Are you using 2.6.18 + dell drivers/tools or 2.6.24+dm_rdac+multipath ? What is the host type you've chosen on the MD3000 ? Linux users, what kind of software setup do you have ?

Are you using dell supported distributions ?
Are you using 2.6.18 + dell drivers/tools or 2.6.24+dm_rdac+multipath ?
What is the host type you’ve chosen on the MD3000 ?

]]> By: Marvin http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103188 Marvin Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:40:15 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103188 We just bought an MD3000 with a pair of Dell PowerEdge 1950 servers to run in a cluster based on Microsoft Cluster Services. We have some sort of a problem with the MD3000 it seems. Clustering works perfectly when using the software capabilities but when we pull out one of the plugs of one of the servers the MD3000 doesn't recognize the other server. Although the warning light stays blue. We double checked the cluster settings and had them checked by two external companies, software cluster setup seems ok. But I question the firmware of the MD3000. It does not seem willingly to switch over to the other node when pulling the main server plugs out. Have you got any idea if the firmware of the MD3000 has anything to do with it? Thanks in advance, Marvin Wigmore We just bought an MD3000 with a pair of Dell PowerEdge 1950 servers to run in a cluster based on Microsoft Cluster Services.

We have some sort of a problem with the MD3000 it seems. Clustering works perfectly when using the software capabilities but when we pull out one of the plugs of one of the servers the MD3000 doesn’t recognize the other server. Although the warning light stays blue. We double checked the cluster settings and had them checked by two external companies, software cluster setup seems ok. But I question the firmware of the MD3000. It does not seem willingly to switch over to the other node when pulling the main server plugs out.

Have you got any idea if the firmware of the MD3000 has anything to do with it?

Thanks in advance,

Marvin Wigmore

]]> By: BonZ http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103157 BonZ Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:13:32 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103157 Did Dell ever fix the firmware for the MD3000 to go to arrays larger than 2 Gigabytes? What do people think about the MD3000 now that it has been out for a while? Is it still considered to be a dog? Did Dell ever fix the firmware for the MD3000 to go to arrays larger than 2 Gigabytes?

What do people think about the MD3000 now that it has been out for a while?

Is it still considered to be a dog?

]]> By: Justin Huff http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103047 Justin Huff Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:54:24 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-103047 Don, Did you get around to the JBOD ZFS/SWRaid benchmarks? We're considering some changes in our DB arch, so this is of interest:) --Justin Don,

Did you get around to the JBOD ZFS/SWRaid benchmarks? We’re considering some changes in our DB arch, so this is of interest:)

–Justin

]]> By: Dave http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102745 Dave Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:44:08 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102745 The MD3000 can be expanded using MD1000's for a total of 45 disks in storage array. Dependent on the drive capacity this can provide up to 45TB (using SATA 1TB disks) of raw capacity. Dave The MD3000 can be expanded using MD1000’s for a total of 45 disks in storage array.

Dependent on the drive capacity this can provide up to 45TB (using SATA 1TB disks) of raw capacity.

Dave

]]> By: Jon Strabala http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102592 Jon Strabala Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:35:18 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102592 I read both this article and your other one about SunFire X2200 M2 servers. Do you use the DELL MD3000 with the SunFire X2200 M2 servers. If so what HBA card did you use and what is your impression of the combination ? Can anyone conclusively indicate that a MD3000 will work well with Solaris ? I read both this article and your other one about SunFire X2200 M2 servers. Do you use the DELL MD3000 with the SunFire X2200 M2 servers. If so what HBA card did you use and what is your impression of the combination ? Can anyone conclusively indicate that a MD3000 will work well with Solaris ?

]]> By: Joe Hartley http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102571 Joe Hartley Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:19:03 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102571 Hi folks. I'm currently working with a company that provides custom reporting on aggregated sales data that we store for a period of time, typically 2 years. We've been using EMC storage for years, but our new corporate owners have balked at the expense of expansion and maintenance of the DMX4 platform, not without some justification. We are being pushed very hard to consider an MD3000 based approach to replacing the DMX4, and in the course of research, I found this thread. Some of it is not necessarily relevant to us, as we're using Oracle and not MySQL, but some of the issues here seem to be database-independent. We are using RHEL4 on Sun V40z servers, and have roughly 7TB of data. I'm very concerned about Robert Towne's report that Dell support says you can only use one MD3000 per host. If this is true, then the maximum useable capacity of the MD3000 based solution would be ~11.5TB in a RAID5 configuration. If we use virtual disk snapshots and copies, then the usable space would seem to be in the neighborhood of 5TB, once space for the vdisk snapshot and copy were taken into consideration. Robert, I'd be very interested at hearing whether you resolved this issue, and any other experiences people may have had with the MD3000, especially in terms of redundancy and expandability under Linux. Joe Hartley jh at brainiac dot com Hi folks. I’m currently working with a company that provides custom reporting on aggregated sales data that we store for a period of time, typically 2 years. We’ve been using EMC storage for years, but our new corporate owners have balked at the expense of expansion and maintenance of the DMX4 platform, not without some justification.

We are being pushed very hard to consider an MD3000 based approach to replacing the DMX4, and in the course of research, I found this thread. Some of it is not necessarily relevant to us, as we’re using Oracle and not MySQL, but some of the issues here seem to be database-independent.

We are using RHEL4 on Sun V40z servers, and have roughly 7TB of data. I’m very concerned about Robert Towne’s report that Dell support says you can only use one MD3000 per host. If this is true, then the maximum useable capacity of the MD3000 based solution would be ~11.5TB in a RAID5 configuration. If we use virtual disk snapshots and copies, then the usable space would seem to be in the neighborhood of 5TB, once space for the vdisk snapshot and copy were taken into consideration.

Robert, I’d be very interested at hearing whether you resolved this issue, and any other experiences people may have had with the MD3000, especially in terms of redundancy and expandability under Linux.

Joe Hartley
jh at brainiac dot com

]]> By: Don MacAskill http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102185 Don MacAskill Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:20:29 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102185 Yeah, we've run MySQL using' google's malloc, but for us it was unstable. Much as I want performance, I don't want it at the risk of stability. :) Yeah, we’ve run MySQL using’ google’s malloc, but for us it was unstable. Much as I want performance, I don’t want it at the risk of stability. :)

]]> By: Toby http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102182 Toby Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:46:44 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/10/01/dell-md3000-great-das-db-storage/#comment-102182 Have a look at the google malloc code. I believe that someone did some benchmarking (wrt mysql) that showed things marketly improving on the scalability front by using google malloc. Have a look at the google malloc code. I believe that someone did some
benchmarking (wrt mysql) that showed things marketly improving on the
scalability front by using google malloc.

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