BigAdmin XPerts

1. What are the key features of the Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS?
2. What is the protocol support for Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS?
3. What is the client support for Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS?
4. Can you explain, in a few words, what should be configured in the NAS to get it working?
5. Why would I consider buying a NAS from Sun when I can get one from NetApp?
6. Does the Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS product support all NFS V3 clients such as HP-UX and most Linux variants?
7. What type of performance can I see compared to the NetApp Filer?
8. Are there any future plans to support ISCSI?
9. Is 5210 NAS NDMP supported for VERITAS NetBackup 5.1?
10. Does the StorEdge 5210 NAS support LDAP, WORM, WEBDAV, iSCSI, etc. ?

A: The following are the key features of the Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS:

Appliance simplicity

• Intuitive and integrated management
• Setup time should be less than 15 minutes
• UNIX and Microsoft client support
• Simple, easy configuration and management
• Flexible, policy-based data services

• Acquisition cost
• Performance
• Investment protection

• One-stop-shop
• Solutions
• Deployment
• Service

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A: CIFS, FTP server, and NFS v3 and v2 are supported (and there are plans for NFS v4 in the near future).

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A: It includes UNIX and Microsoft client support.

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A: The GUI of the StorEdge 5210 NAS appliance is intuitive and aids in the quick installation and setup time. This includes initial network configuration and file system setup.

NAS systems are typically deployed in environments that require "teaming" or sharing of files. Development (engineering CAD or programming) was one of the first users of NAS. Remote offices also have successfully implemented NAS devices.

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A: Great question! I would ask you which Network Appliance filer you are thinking about and which features are most attractive to you. Feedback I've received from customers is that they're quite impressed with our user interface (and included functionality), especially when compared to the NetApp interface they are presently using. So yes, the user experience is perceived as rich, or richer, than that provided by other NAS filers.

Granted, Network Appliance has been in the NAS space for some time now. I think that Sun Microsystems also has a long successful track record with NFS, having invented it and fostered its development. I believe that I can safely say that Sun put the concept of network-attached storage on that map, and it intends to continue to innovate and lead in this space.

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A: Support for the Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS Appliance is continually enhanced. The product documentation is also presently being revised to reflect this greater level of support.

At present the Sun StorEdge 52310 NAS Appliance is supported with:

* Solaris 2.6, 7, 8, 9, and 9 x86
* Microsoft Windows XP/2000/2003/NT 4.0
* HP-UX 11i
* AIX 5.1 (ML-06)
* Red Hat EE 2.1 32-bit and 64-bit
* SUSE ES 9 32-bit and 64-bit

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A: That would depend on which NetApp system you are comparing to the Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS Appliance. In my opinion, the NetApp FAS270 would make a good comparison.

While there aren't performance numbers for the FAS270 (unclustered) available, one could extrapolate an estimate for a single-head FAS270 from the FAS270C results posted at: http://www.spec.org/sfs97r1/results/res2004q2/sfs97r1-20040525-00187.html.

From the 13,620 ops/sec result for a clustered FAS270C with 42 disks, one might estimate the performance of a single head as approximately 7,600 ops/sec.

We can compare to the results for the StorEdge 5210 NAS: http://www.spec.org/sfs97r1/results/res2004q4/sfs97r1-20040928-00206.html

(In short, with 42 drives and a single NAS head, the StorEdge 5210 NAS Appliance yields 11,721 ops/sec.)

Based on this estimate, the StorEdge 5210 NAS Appliance could show a potentially significant increase of 54 percent in performance.

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A: Support for iSCSI is one of many items on our road map for Sun StorEdge NAS. I can't get any more specific at this time.

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A: Yes. Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS is supported on VERITAS NetBackup 5.1 in a "remote backup" configuration with NDMP. Details may be viewed at: http://support.veritas.com/. Thanks for your interest in Sun StorEdge 5210 NAS.

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A: As stated in an earlier response, feature support for the StorEdge 5210 NAS Appliance is continually evaluated and addressed.

1. LDAP: Yes. CIFS naming is currently supported, and NFS naming is scheduled to be supported later in calendar year 2004 (CY04).
2. Internal volume mirrors: Not quite. A point-in-time "snapshot", or copy-on-write, facility is standard -- "Checkpoints" -- that helps maintain older file versions.
3. Remote replication between StorEdge 5210 NAS Appliances: This capability is expected to become available in Q1CY05.
4. Clustered configurations: This capability is also expected to become available in Q1CY05.
5. Double parity RAID: Implementation of RAID 6 is currently being investigated.
6. WORM volumes: Support for WORM volumes is expected in Q1CY05.
7. HTTP file access: While not supported at this time, it is on our road map for StorEdge NAS Appliances.
8. WEBDAV: Not supported at this time.
9. iSCSI: Support for iSCSI is a high priority and on our road map for StorEdge NAS Appliances.

Please note: Schedules given above are subject to change.

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