May 2008 - Posts

• Hard work, success and channel news

  Fri. May. 30, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  It was nice to see this article today by Scott Campbell of ChannelWeb.  Skeptics like Xenochron find it difficult to believe that we are doing as much as we can to grow the channel, but we are.  FWIW, I've since connected with Xenochron on an email back channel and we had a good conversation.  His company decided not to buy from EqualLogic after the acquisition was announced last year, believing that Dell would wreck EqualLogic.  That hurt a little bit, but I understand - people haven't alway had good feelings about Dell.  He told me if the big company machine doesn't screw us up too much we will be in the running for the next purchase.  All I can say is we'll see you later, Xenochron.
  

  But Dell is changing and it is good to be a part of that change, both in the channel business as well as in the storage business. Dell's acquisition of EqualLogic was a strategic move and as the Dell EqualLogic storage business grows, people will see how important it was to Dell's new vision. It was great to see the early results yesterday  but there is still a long way to go.

  As an insider I'm very encouraged to see quotes like this from the ChannelWeb article:

  "It was more about them listening to us. They did a brief introduction, opened up with a presentation and then after the first slide, it turned into a discussion," said Tim Hebert, president and CEO of Atrion Networking, a Warwick, R.I.-based solution provider. "They let the whole thing play out to get the feedback they were looking for. You had three or four people running it, but another 20 people were writing notes, listening. After the break, they were coming up to get more clarity and detail. They came across like they don't have all the answers."
  
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• SCSI timeouts on Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN Arrays

  Thu. May. 29, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

   VM Squad posted today about a problem he perceives exists with Dell EqualLogic arrays. Its not a problem, but that's what one of competitors is telling people.  The issue is the time it takes to upgrade firmware in our systems, which is 15 seconds in the systems we are selling today. 

  What's interesting is that Derek Schwab posted about the exact same thing yesterday and how it worked so well. 

  So what's up with that?  

  Systems and storage solve intermittent communication problems through SCSI time outs. If the host system can't communicate, it keeps trying patiently for a long time before giving up. This is a lot longer than 15 seconds.  The amount of time depends on the host system implementation, but it is usually more than a minute and can take five or more minutes (or so I'm told). FWIW, this is the same mechanism that is used for multi-pathing.  After a SCSI timeout, the system tries to re-connect using an alternative path.   

  So a 15 second delay (not an outage) a few times a year is not a very big deal. If you have to, you can schedule it for non-peak hours. Everything will work, applications will stay up and end users will see a short temporary hang - if they see anything at all. 

   
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• StorageMojo dogpile

  Wed. May. 28, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  David Graves, my -co-worker here @ InsideIT noticed that Robin Harris of StorageMojo fame might have found the ultimate way to stir things up in the blogosphere:

  Suggesting that his readers contemplate a vacation @ Club Fed.

  Hmmm.... no wonder most of the comments were negatory.
  

   

  Format: flv Duration: 01:04

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• Steering wheel cam and DR best practices

  Wed. May. 28, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  Driving with a camera attached to your steering wheel is not exactly a driving best practice.  Not testing your DR plan, as Jon Toigo points, out is not an IT best practice.Failing to make suggestions for improving the situation is not a journalistic best practice.

  The future of DR preparation is going to be tightly coupled with virtual systems and storage.  It is possible to create simulations of many different recovery scenarios in virtual environments. This link takes you to a PDF presentation from the Belgium VMware Users Group that gives a tip of the iceberg view of the value of testing DR with VMware's new SRM product. 

  In time, I expect simulations of disasters will be part of Jon's and other consultants service offerings.   These types of tests will combine reduced exposure with increased learning and skills. That's a win-win, whereas testing DR the old fashioned way is a no-win deal for many IT professionals - who face unrealistic expectations form corporate management.
  

   

  Format: flv Duration: 02:12

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• Incompetent IT pros? Send ‘em to the slammer!

  Wed. May. 28, 2008
  by David Graves, Editor—Inside IT

  So says Robin Harris over on his ZDNN Storage Bits blog. His position is that grossly negligent IT people need to go to jail - "with professional stature comes professional responsibility."  Uncle Ben was on to something when he was talking to young Peter Parker.

  He discusses what it means to be designated a "professional" and that there are consequences that come with that designation. After all - bad doctors, lawyers and investment advisors go to jail. Johnny Cash went to Folsom, but I think that was for something else...

  His final question - and I leave it you - "do you still want to be a professional?"

   
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• Customer interview with PCL construction

  Tue. May. 27, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  PCL Construction in Edmonton is one of the largest construction companies in North America - and they are employee owned, which means employees there are always looking for ways to be more efficient. They became EqualLogic customers 3 years ago after having been a Fibre Channel shop prior to that. They can run everything they need to on Dell EqualLogic storage and like the ease of use and flexibility that our advanced virtualization architecture gives them. This previous video  has Derek Knox from PCL talking about doing live data migrations between storage systems during the middle of production operations.

  In this video, Derek and David Howse talk about the simplicity of using Dell EqualLogic storage and SRM. Derek talks about how they get performance equal to that of their Fibre Channel SANs. Some of that comes from having a smart SAN infrastructure, but a lot comes from the design of EqualLogic arrays. FWIW, most of the new systems they are buying today have SAS drives, to give them even more overhead for their high performance applications.

  Format: flv Duration: 04:25

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• 2 or 4 socket servers for virtualization

  Tue. May. 27, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

   

  The team at the Dell TechCenter are having an online chat about the servers to use for virtualization:

  Today's discussion is about 2 or 4 socket technology.

  3:00 Central time today, Tuesday May 27. 

  Format: flv Duration: 00:29

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• Lowe Down Exchange blogger tells his storage story

  Mon. May. 26, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  The Lowe Down blog has good information for Exchange administrators.  They also say some nice things about Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN storage and have included a couple nice screenshots too.

  They also write about our breakthrough business model of integrating all - and all future storage applications - with the cost of the hardware:

  "I’ve been using Equallogic Peer Storage Arrays for four years already, but they keep adding useful functionality — and at no additional charge!"
  

   
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• DR w/ ESX SRM and PS Storage demo - say what?? say when??

  Fri. May. 23, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  If you don't know, the acronyms in the title meandisaster recovery with VMware ESX Site Recovery Manager and Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage.

  My new homey, Andrew Gilman, is giving an online demo next Wednesday (May 28) that shows you how it all works.  Click here to register for it.
  

  Roll it, Andrew
   
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• No Retiring From Technology

  Fri. May. 23, 2008
  by David Graves, Editor—Inside IT

  Brett Ortega faced a challenge. He is the redevelopment and project manager, of American Baptist Homes of the West.

  ABHOW's mission is to enhance the independence, well-being and security of older people by providing housing, health care and supportive services.

  Brett discusses their increasing technology needs - all over wireless access, adding more servers without adding data center space are a few examples.  His team of 8 IT pros and 7 technicians did it. And saved a bunch of money and went green at the same time.

  Format: flv Duration: 4:12

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