End of Sale or End of Life…What Exactly Does That Mean…?
Every six to nine months or so, Dell EqualLogic will release a new EqualLogic product line. Heck, some of you might even still have an EqualLogic PS300E or PS5000E. Out with the old and in with the new…right?
Wrong!
That’s the beauty of an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN solution. You never tear out, rip-out-and-replace, or forklift upgrade your storage area network (SAN). Remember that old PS50E or PS100E? Keep it! The EqualLogic iSCSI SAN architecture is built to add and expand what you currently have to the newer models.
So, when EqualLogic announces an “End of Sale” on their current product line, it simply means that they’re phasing into the new product line and that the old product line (in this case, the EqualLogic S4000, PS6000, PS6010, PS6510, and PS6500 series) will no longer be actively sold or positioned.
In fact, Dell EqualLogic still has a good amount of inventory left on the PS4000, PS6000, PS6010, PS6510, and PS6500 units, all of which still maintain aggressive EqualLogic pricing models. Once Dell ceases manufacturing parts for a particular EqualLogic product line, then this product becomes “End of Life.”
But please note that support for these products will NEVER diminish. Ever. Best advice? Keep up with your ProSupport contracts through Dell EqualLogic. Get these renewed each and every year because if you ever get into a position where you have a very old EqualLogic iSCSI SAN array that needs a replacement part, Dell EqualLogic MUST send you the replacement part or upgrade your entire array at no charge. Not bad, eh?
So, keep that old EqualLogic array in your network…and buy that new one, virtually add it to your existing group or use the old one to replicate to…either way, it’s still good.
EqualLogic SANs – Do I subnet or buy a switch?
So. You’re about to buy that EqualLogic SAN you’ve been dreaming about…probably through us, so that makes it even better. Remember, the one you saw on our Self-Service EqualLogic Pricing…?
Now, you’re faced with a tough question: Do I put my new EqualLogic iSCSI SAN on a separate VLAN or subnet or do I put it on its own network…? Hmmm…good question, so let’s take a look at some conditions that might drive you decision.
First, let’s take a look at your applications. Are the applications going onto your new EqualLogic SAN considered mission-critical? Is there already enough traffic on the network where adding iSCSI traffic might pose an unneeded demand? Are the data network switches on your network pretty old or not wire speed?
This might be a good indication that you should probably buy a switch that will be dedicated to your new EqualLogic SAN. There’s a few things you need to make sure your new network switch has if you’re going to maximize your EqualLogic SAN investment:
- Must have Flow Control
- Must support Jumbo Frames
- Must be standards-based
- Should be “iSCSI optimized”
- Should have prioritization (802.1q/p) and / or as many priority queues as you need
If you’re looking for a good-quality switch, then I’d recommend the Dell PowerConnect…they come in different flavors – both Gigabit and 10GigE, and they normally start at about $1,000. You can find them through EqualLogic pricing in our Self-Service EqualLogic Pricing website…just go to EqualLogic Miscellaneous section and you’ll see a few options.
Or, if you don’t have the money, you can always try to use your own existing data network switches. Heck, as long as they have all of the above features you should be good to go. But, hey, why not just buy a Dell PowerConnect along with that EqualLogic SAN…? The main reason: The colors will match and your iSCSI SAN will both shine with that Dell logo. Heck, that in and of itself should be reason enough…plus you’ll look cool buying that pure Dell solution. You know you want to…
2011 EqualLogic Storage Forum and Conference
The cat is out of the bag! The dates for the next big EqualLogic Conference have been announced this evening via an email to previous attendees and others. I highly recommend that everyone marks their calendars and makes room in their budgets to attend this awesome and highly educational event. The conference will be held in Orlando, Florida at the Hilton Disney World resort and conference center on June 5th – 10th, 2011. I am very excited about about both the venue choice and the time frame chosen for the event. It will definitely be a great time of the year to visit Florida, especially for those of us who have had to suffer through a rough winter!
The last conference, which was held in San Diego, CA, was an excellent and highly educational event which included:
* A special presentation from Michael Dell
* An awesome exhibitor floor featuring Juniper, Veeam, Dell Servers, Kace, and others
* Hands on training classes with EqualLogic hardware
* Great presentations from some very intelligent EQL Engineers including: Will Urban, David Glynn, Said A Syed, Laz Vekiarides, Jerry Daugherty, Tony Ansley to name a few.
* Excellent Networking Environment amongst EQL customers
* Great food!!
If all of that isn’t enough to keep us happy, I have “heard” there will be a few new additions to this conference. I can’t mention any specifics, just keep an eye out for more information coming soon!
I hope everyone is able to attend the conference this time around, but if you cannot make it I look forward to providing great coverage from the event to showcase the great experience that Dell/EqualLogic presents. There will also be excellent coverage provided from the Dell TechCenter (@iSCSIKing @SanPenguin ,etc) and of course tons of coverage on Twitter under the #EQLConf hash tag. Also, I look forward to meeting many of my blog readers at the conference, I know many of you were unable to attend the previous conference due to budgets and time constraints, so now is the time to get your travel requests approved!
Do I really need ProSupport with my EqualLogic SAN…?
Well, you tell me. You and / or your company have just invested more money in an EqualLogic SAN than the cost of your own vehicle. Heck, probably several vehicles. In other words, you’ve invested – or are about to invest – a lot of money into a premium EqualLogic iSCSI SAN solution…a solution that actually does what it says it’s gonna do. So, yeah, you need ProSupport…but now a couple of questions arise:
What kind of ProSupport do I need…and how much does EqualLogic Support Cost?
Okay, let me break it down for you.
There are two major types of ProSupport – Mission-Critical (MC) and Next Business Day (NBD). From these two options, you have a choice between 1, 3, 4 or 5 years of ProSupport when you initially purchase your EqualLogic SAN in addition to different response times (2-hour, 4-hour, 6-hour).
So which do you choose…? Simple. Listen closely…actually, read closely…
Mission-Critical – select this option for one or multiple reasons:
- The EqualLogic SAN will be placed in a location where there will be no technical staff available to physically manage it
- Your organization has true mission-critical applications that rely heavily upon the EqualLogic SAN being up always…you know, the kinds of applications you’d get a pink slip for if they ever go down
- You simply need the peace of mind that someone will show up within two or four hours with spare EqualLogic parts and a red cape to come and save the day and fix it for you
- Your company can afford it, you have some free money (let’s talk…I can help you here…ha!) and / or your company simply has a business requirement that all applications be serviced with mission-critical support agreements
- Lack the technical confidence of changing out hot-swappable parts and would rather allocate just a bit more time on “other” projects
Next Business Day – select this option for one or multiple reasons:
- None of the above reasons under Mission-Critical really apply
- The location where the EqualLogic SAN is to be located is surrounded with technical gurus
- Your technical confidence and competence is through the roof
- You really don’t have the money for Mission-Critical…but, hey, don’t worry about it…most companies are in this spot as well…
- You like to get your hands dirty and exercise those technical skills once in a while…trust me, swapping out hot-swappable parts and configuring a SAN in under 20 minutes can be hard work…
That’s really just about it. But don’t forget…we have EqualLogic Pricing available through our self-service pricing model to give you the options. Honestly, Dell doesn’t do this…you know what they do…? They tuck the cost of ProSupport in with the cost of the array…we don’t do that, we give you ProSupport choices and break it out through our EqualLogic Pricing model. Give me a call or email…I’ll explain it all that ProSupport stuff to you from what’s in it, the differences, etc. All of it.
And, oh, there’s another reason why you need ProSupport. Dell requires it. Yup, that’s right…
EqualLogic Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
EqualLogic, with its all-inclusive enterprise-class iSCSI SANs virtualized storage arrays, enables IT administrators with the technology and tools to build out affordable and easily manageable business continuity and disaster recovery solutions. With built-in snapshot, replica, clone, and replication features, along with partnerships with industry leading technology partners, EqualLogic simplifies the planning, deployment, and maintenance of an IT infrastructure that ensures that your business is fully protected and always operational.
BC/DR has traditionally been necessary, but too complex and expensive
Disaster recovery beyond backup was not affordable for most organizations when Fibre Channel SANs were the only option. Complex configurations including communication network extension equipment, add-on software, and staff training has been prohibitively expensive. Recent compliance regulations (e.g., HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and SEC rules) have pressured organizations of all sizes to make more data quickly recoverable for longer periods of time; company files, databases, and e-mail must be restorable for years. And with the proliferation of 24X7 business operations, companies of all sizes are recognizing the requirement to have a complete business continuity and disaster recovery environment to ensure that their IT operations are completely protected against natural and unnatural disasters and outages.
With storage consolidated on EqualLogic PS Series arrays, business continuity and disaster recovery is now affordable, fast, and simple. EqualLogic iSCSI SANs leverage your existing IP based LAN and WAN networking assets and competencies without requiring any add-on software or costly staff training. The PS Series’ Auto-Replication capability, standard in each array, provides point-in-time periodic replication to multiple remote sites. This method, easy to set up and operate, delivers multiple restore points and application-consistent copies that can be restored in minutes.
Check out our Online Dell EqualLogic Pricing to see how EqualLogic brings enterprise class data management services to small and medium sized businesses.
New Dell EqualLogic PS5500E Specs and Pricing
New Dell/EqualLogic PS5500E . . . a “game changer”?
Yes, our Self-Service Pricing portal has the new PS5500E and support options loaded.
Well, the new Dell/EqualLogic PS5500E has now been released. Originally code-named the EqualLogic “Sumo”, the 48 drive unit was never released under the former EqualLogic label.
It comes in 2 configurations; 24TB and 48TB depending on whether you pick 500GB or 1TB drives respectively. Compared to the existing cost of 16-drive configurations, the new PS5500 will save you about 33%. In other words, the way the units are priced you get the capacity of three (3) 16-drive units for the price of 2. Of course the trade-off is the reduced controller/cache/network ratio per drive but given EqualLogic’s internal design there should still be plenty of performance.
How do they pack 48 drives in a 4u space?…Vertically.
If you haven’t already seen it check out the 3D animation on EqualLogic’s website .
Is this a game changer?…only time will tell.
One of the biggest complaints over the years about EqualLogic’s archictecture has also been its primary strength; forced scaling of controllers, cache and network connections per group of 16 drives. Most of Dell’s competitors highlighted that you were buying unneeded additional hardware for each bank of drives added. Equallogic always countered (correctly I might add) that forced scaling provided the only solution that actually increases in performance as the size of the group increases.
The PS5500E is a welcome addition to Dell’s storage line for customers that enjoy the ease of use of the PS Series but always wanted just a bit more capacity per box.
Here is the PS5500E Specification Sheet.
Dell EqualLogic Pricing
Dell has just announced a price reduction on all its EqualLogic Storage Arrays. Support costs have also been simplified and reduced.
You can get a current updated price quote on our EqualLogic Pricing page.
I heard EqualLogic was “FREE”
I was talking with a friend that works for one of the Luxury SAN vendors and we were discussing EqualLogic’s success since the Dell acquisition.
Since we have known each other for ten years and are friendly competitors, we sometimes share industry insights and he was telling me that he “heard Dell was going to give away EqualLogic boxes FREE”.
At first I was speechless, then I laughed and thought…he’s right, EqualLogic is “free”.
Let me explain.
Frame vs. Frame-LESS SAN Architectures
Have you heard of the Frame vs. Frame-less SAN debate? In the 10 years that I’ve been designing and implementing Storage Area Networks (SANs), I never considered an alternative to the traditional frame architecture, until I discovered EqualLogic – a frame-less SAN architecture. First, some legacy SAN background.
Frame based SANs
Most of us are familiar with frame based SANs that are assembled much like lego sets starting with an empty “frame” (the physical manifestation may be a rack). These are the well known products from companies like EMC, Hitachi (HDS), Network Appliance (NetApp) et al. To build out a “frame based” SAN we first need to assemble the components as follows:
- Head unit (1 or 2)
- 1 or 2 storage processors (SPs)
- Cache
- Network connections
- OS software
- Add-on software
- Disks – varying capacities and performance characteristics
Frame Issue 1 – Over Provisioning
Since Frame-based SANs contain individual components that scale independently (you can add more cache, Read more
There’s money in SAN complexity; and it’s yours
Have you ever tried to decipher a SAN pricing proposal from one of the “big” guys? There are more part numbers than I would expect when building the space shuttle. It is not enough to have the basic hardware broken down into dozens of pieces but then you have to select a dizzying array of software licensing options for both the array and any hosts using array features.
Here’s a sample SKU list from a major NAS/SAN vendor for a simple storage array:
FAS3050HA-IB-BASE-1 GF-RAS53050HA,IB,1B CF,OS,R5 2
X70015A-ESH2-R5-C DS14MK2 SHLF, ACPS,14x144GB,15K,HDD 5
X6524-R6-C CBL, 2M, Optical, Pair, LC/C,-C,R6 2
X6530-R6-C CBL,0.5M,PATCH,FC SFPTO SFP-C,R6 6
X1941A-R6-C CBL,5M,CLUSTER4X,CU-C,R6 2
X871A-R6-C 20A Storace Equipment Cabinet,-C,R6 1
X875A-R6-C 20A PWR CORD (4),CABINET, NEMA-S,R6 1
X800-42U-R6-C Cabinet Component Power Cable, R6 14
X5517-R6-C Storage cabinet, Rail Set,42U,-C,R6 1
X6529-R6-C SFP, Optical, Pair, LC/LC, -6, R6 4
X8773-R6-C Multiple Product Tie-Down Bracket,- 2
DOC-3XXX-C Documents, 3XXX,-C 1
Software (Base Unit)
SW-T4C-CIFS-C CIFS CIFS Software, T4C-C 2
SW-T4C-ISCSI-C iSCSI iSCSI Software, T4C-C 2
SW-T4C-NFS-C NFS NFS Software, T4C-C 2
SW-T4C-SRESTORE-C SnapRestore Software,T4C,-C 2
SW-T4C-SME-C SnapManager Software, Exchange, T4C 2
SW-T4C-SMSVS-C SnapMirro-SnapVault Software Bndl, 2
Software (Host Side)
SW-SDR-WIN SnapDrive, Windows 10
SW-SSP-SDR-WINDOW SW Subs SnapDrive for Windows 3.0 10
SW-SMBR-1000PK Single Mbox Recovery, 1000pk 1
SW-SSPVN-SMBR-1000PKendor SW Sub SMBR, 1000pk 1
SW-SDR-SOL-TIER1 SnapDrive, Solaris, Tier 1 10
1-2CPU
SW-SSP-SDR-SOL-TIER1SW Subs, SDR Solaris Support, Tier 10
SW-SDU-CPU SW, SnapDrive UNIX, CPU 5
SW-SMO-CPU SW, SnapManager Oracle, CPU 5
SW-SSP-SMO-CPU SW, SUB, SnapManager Oracle 5
Services and Support
CS-S-INST Initial Installation-DS14 1
CS-A SupportEdge Standard-FAS270 Mths: 3 2
Wow. All we wanted was a simple array to store some data. Instead, we got a dissertation on what the sales Read more
