From: Ayson, Alison (alison.ayson@roche.com)
Date: Fri Jul 15 2005 - 15:38:31 EDT
(Original Post at bottom).
Well, I've gotten quite a few answers back (thanks everyone), and the
concensus is that it's really not that important to have the same vendor
supporting the fabric as the vendor supporting the storage. I had quite
a few responses from admins who had HP supported switches and EMC
storage on the backend, or vice-versa (EMC supported switches with HP
storage on the backend), or a mixture of the two. Almost everyone who'd
had experience with both vendors related a much more positive
experience, support-wise, with HP vs. EMC.
There were a few people who felt that it was probably best to have the
same vendor support both the storage and the switches, but their
opinions weren't related to any real problems they'd experienced by
having different vendors supporting the fabric/storage, it was more of a
convenience perspective (i.e., it's much easier to have one vendor to
deal with than two, less finger-pointing that way).
I'm glad to hear that there weren't any horror stories related to having
different vendor support, especially as I'm seriously considering mixing
up the support. We are looking into a HP blade implementation with
brocade-imbedded switches, so I could make the argument that the blades
swing the support question in favor of HP.
Once again, thanks for everyone who took the time to respond. It was
very helpful.
Here's my original post:
------------------------
I apologize as this is not necessarily a specific HP question, but I
respect the experience of those on this list and I'd like to hear your
opinions.
I know that a lot of admins subscribed to this list support EMC storage.
I was wondering if it's considered a "best practice" to have your fabric
supported by the same vendor as your storage. For example, if I have
only EMC storage would it be considered foolish to purchase my Brocade
switches from HP and have HP support the switches?
I maintain an EMC SAN which consists of 1 Clariion CX700 and one EMC
8830 Symmetrix. The hosts attached to this SAN are largely HP Compaq DL
class servers running RedHat Linux. The switches in this SAN are 6
separate Brocade Silkwork 2 gb "edge" switches, none of which talk to
each other (which means I have to maintain 6 separate fabrics). I'm
hoping to migrate to two Brocade 24000B Director switches, thus reducing
6 fabrics down to two. I can buy the Brocade Director's from either HP
or EMC. If I buy from HP then I'll get support from HP. If I buy from
EMC I'll get support from EMC.
Does anyone out there have EMC storage that's connected to switches
(Brocade or whatever) that are maintained by a vendor than EMC? If so,
have you run into problems?
Is it, in general, considered a good idea to have your storage vendor
support your fabric?
I'm looking at HP for a couple of reasons: a) they are pricing their
switches more competitively and b) EMC support hasn't been that great
for us in the past.
I just took over the SAN this last 6 months, so I don't have a huge
amount of experience under my belt. Because of my inexperience, I'm not
sure if I'd be creating a difficult situation for myself (finger
pointing, whatever) if I chose to go with a vendor other than EMC for
fabric support.
All opinions, experiences, etc. are greatly appreciated.
Alison Ayson
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