I had to re-write this one, I didn’t like my first run at it. As one part of my duties, I manage the companies one and only fileserver. We run on a fairly simple rule, if it’s a file share it goes on the Celerra. There are *NO* windows fileservers in our environment. Setting this …
September 2006 archive
Sep 26
The Different Flavors of EMC TimeFinder
I don’t know what most people know about TimeFinder, so I’ll start with a short introduction. EMC Timefinder was developed to provide customers with a dynamic mirror they could use to try and cut some of the tediousness out of copying data, whether from one host to another or within the same host. When I …
Sep 23
Brocade + McData = McBroken? (Or BrokeData?)
http://www.mcdata.com/about/news/releases/2006/0808c.html Given the choice between brocade and McData I’ll usually choose McData. Now that I don’t have a choice, I think I’ll stick with Cisco. Truthfully Brocade needed McData. McData has a solid director class switch, one that will withstand the tests of time and the rigors of a large-scale production datacenter. Brocade never really …
Sep 22
For the last time – Raid-S does not mean “STRIPED”
RAID-S isn’t striped. If it were it would be Raid-5. EMC utilized Raid-S as a stop-gap to the fact that they didn’t offer Raid5. (the constant XOR computations slowed down performance – until the faster DMX line came up which now allows for both 3+1 and 7+1 raid5. Raid-S takes three volumesand computes a parity …
Sep 14
Are backup tapes headed for the graveyard?
I read an article today in Byte&Switch ( Link ) called “Can’t quite kick the tape habit” ( Read-it-here ). This article seems to imply that actual tape backups may be going by the wayside in favor of Disk storage unites and VTL (Virtual-Tape-Library) systems. I think the author is on crack, and that while the disk …
Sep 14
Windows Vista
Update – (9/18/06) I decided that I’ve been a bit unfair, and have been running this on my Dell Latitude D610 laptop. It’s not bad, if I close my eyes and let my mind wander it’s almost mac-like, which is a plus. So I’m getting more and more comfortable with it. Then I install Antivirus …
Sep 12
Encryption? Hardware or Software?
I’m investigating Encryption options and have come to the conclusion that there are simply too many options to be had and that I should just go to sleep and try and pick it up tomorrow. Seriously. Right now we’re using the Veritas Encryption licence, which of course runs as a part of the NetBackup client …
Sep 11
SAN vs iSCSI. Any opinions?
I very often get email questions about SAN vs. iSCSI. It’s funny that earlier, within minutes of completing a post on another site on the subject, I got queried in email about it. I don’t see iSCSI making great inroads because it’s limited by the limitations of IP, that being that IP is a connectionless …
Sep 11
TimeFinder / SRDF – Where does the Symm store the parings?
I replied to this on the Yahoo storage board, and wanted to share it.  Excepting in the case of Dynamic SRDF, the pairings are fixed, having been set by EMC when the CE installs the binfile. These relationships are more or less hard-coded into the Symmetrix and can’t be changed without breaking the pairs and …
Sep 11
Troubleshooting? Try actually figuring out the problem instead of guessing.
I’ve seen this time and time again both with people I work with and support personel. Figure out the damned problem, don’t throw rocks at it hoping you’ll get a hit. When I was in tech-school my instructor called this “shotgun troubleshooting” and siad it’s a sure sign of an inept technical support person. When …
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