From: Dylan Penhale <dylan@(email surpressed)>
Subject: NAS: EMC vs NetApp
   Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 21:19:01 -0700

Hi guys

We looking for post production houses that use EMC NAS based storage
systems, for both 3D and 2D as we are interested to hear how they
match up against Netapp NAS systems. We realise that EMC has a strong
foot hold in SAN markets, but we like the NAS simplicity and rem
aware of GFS based technologys (such as Netapp purchase of Spinniker)
that will enable NAS systems to inherit many SAN type capabilities.

Could anyone suggest any post houses that use EMC?

Thanks very much in advance

-----
Dylan Penhale
Systems Administrator
Fuel

Dylan Penhale wrote:

Hi guys

We looking for post production houses that use EMC NAS based storage
systems, for both 3D and 2D as we are interested to hear how they
match up against Netapp NAS systems. We realise that EMC has a strong
foot hold in SAN markets, but we like the NAS simplicity and rem
aware of GFS based technologys (such as Netapp purchase of Spinniker)
that will enable NAS systems to inherit many SAN type capabilities.

Could anyone suggest any post houses that use EMC?

	I know a few folks in town testing out EMC's Sledgehammer..
	I'll take one of them out for a beer, and try to get the skinny for you.

	The big question is, how well does it handle when >40 machines are beating on it.
	~30 to ~40 machines all rendering dual proc on a gigabit net is usually enough
	to make most PC based file servers go 'paws up'..

	If EMC's box can handle the load of that and more (eg. >100 machines),
	then they might really have a good alternative to the 'spensive NetApp's and BlueArcs..
	which are probably worth every penny though.. cause we know they work well
	in production at large shops under heavy load.

	I definitely can't say that for the current state of any of the
	"PC based" file servers; linux, windows and osx.

	I believe EMC's product is Linux based, but if they've highly tuned the
	kernel and file systems, it may well be the case it can handle the load..
	I'll see if anyone's gone through a large production with it.

	So far, I think I've only heard of people evaling it.. might be
	a year before people have actually dragged it through a few productions
	to get any real solid data. But I'll ask around..

Greg Ercolano wrote:

Dylan Penhale wrote:

Hi guys

We looking for post production houses that use EMC NAS based storage
systems, for both 3D and 2D as we are interested to hear how they
match up against Netapp NAS systems. We realise that EMC has a strong
foot hold in SAN markets, but we like the NAS simplicity and rem
aware of GFS based technologys (such as Netapp purchase of Spinniker)
that will enable NAS systems to inherit many SAN type capabilities.

Could anyone suggest any post houses that use EMC?

    I know a few folks in town testing out EMC's Sledgehammer..

	OK, I was wrong, the eval I was thinking of was a
	MAX-T product (MAX-T.COM) called "Sledgehammer".

	The company /doing the eval/ had "EMC" in its name,
	so that crossed my wires.

	So I have no input to offer about EMC's NAS product (EMC.COM).

	I can tell you that the folks eval'ing the MAX-T/Sledgehammer
	product did the 'dd' test I normally recommend, ie:

		dd if=/dev/null of=/path/to/server/foo-`hostname`.jnk

	and I'm told it actually tested well.
	I didn't oversee the test myself, but there's some second hand info.

I believe EMC's product is Linux based,

	Strike that -- I have no idea of what EMC's core technology involves.

Thanks Greg

We did look into Sledgehammer but where put off by the lack of support 
over here in Australia, same goes for Bluearc as well. In fact BA did 
offer to ship a second head unit to Australia but I then preferred it 
if we bought the second head unit ourselves.

NetApp have a good support infrastructure here in Australia so that 
made a big difference to our final decision.

I think the order has gone in now, we are going for the new(ish) 
FAS3050 gateway (active/active heads). Looking forward to chucking 
the test at it ;)

Dylan

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 08:23 am, Greg Ercolano wrote:
> [posted to rush.general]
>
> Greg Ercolano wrote:
> > Dylan Penhale wrote:
> >> Hi guys
> >>
> >> We looking for post production houses that use EMC NAS based
> >> storage systems, for both 3D and 2D as we are interested to hear
> >> how they match up against Netapp NAS systems. We realise that
> >> EMC has a strong foot hold in SAN markets, but we like the NAS
> >> simplicity and rem aware of GFS based technologys (such as
> >> Netapp purchase of Spinniker) that will enable NAS systems to
> >> inherit many SAN type capabilities.
> >>
> >> Could anyone suggest any post houses that use EMC?
> >
> >     I know a few folks in town testing out EMC's Sledgehammer..
>
> 	OK, I was wrong, the eval I was thinking of was a
> 	MAX-T product (MAX-T.COM) called "Sledgehammer".
>
> 	The company /doing the eval/ had "EMC" in its name,
> 	so that crossed my wires.
>
> 	So I have no input to offer about EMC's NAS product (EMC.COM).
>
> 	I can tell you that the folks eval'ing the MAX-T/Sledgehammer
> 	product did the 'dd' test I normally recommend, ie:
>
> 		dd if=/dev/null of=/path/to/server/foo-`hostname`.jnk
>
> 	and I'm told it actually tested well.
> 	I didn't oversee the test myself, but there's some second hand
> info.
>
> > I believe EMC's product is Linux based,
>
> 	Strike that -- I have no idea of what EMC's core technology
> involves.

-- 
Dylan Penhale
Systems Administrator
Fuel International
65 King Street
Newtown
Sydney
NSW 2042

Phone:  xxxxxxxxxx
Mobile: xxxxxxxxxx
Web:    www.fuel-depot.com

Rob


Dylan Penhale wrote:

[posted to rush.general]

Thanks Greg

We did look into Sledgehammer but where put off by the lack of support over here in Australia, same goes for Bluearc as well. In fact BA did offer to ship a second head unit to Australia but I then preferred it if we bought the second head unit ourselves.

NetApp have a good support infrastructure here in Australia so that made a big difference to our final decision.

I think the order has gone in now, we are going for the new(ish) FAS3050 gateway (active/active heads). Looking forward to chucking the test at it ;)

Dylan

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 08:23 am, Greg Ercolano wrote:

[posted to rush.general]

Greg Ercolano wrote:

Dylan Penhale wrote:

Hi guys

We looking for post production houses that use EMC NAS based
storage systems, for both 3D and 2D as we are interested to hear
how they match up against Netapp NAS systems. We realise that
EMC has a strong foot hold in SAN markets, but we like the NAS
simplicity and rem aware of GFS based technologys (such as
Netapp purchase of Spinniker) that will enable NAS systems to
inherit many SAN type capabilities.

Could anyone suggest any post houses that use EMC?

   I know a few folks in town testing out EMC's Sledgehammer..

	OK, I was wrong, the eval I was thinking of was a
	MAX-T product (MAX-T.COM) called "Sledgehammer".

	The company /doing the eval/ had "EMC" in its name,
	so that crossed my wires.

	So I have no input to offer about EMC's NAS product (EMC.COM).

	I can tell you that the folks eval'ing the MAX-T/Sledgehammer
	product did the 'dd' test I normally recommend, ie:

		dd if=/dev/null of=/path/to/server/foo-`hostname`.jnk

	and I'm told it actually tested well.
	I didn't oversee the test myself, but there's some second hand
info.

I believe EMC's product is Linux based,

	Strike that -- I have no idea of what EMC's core technology
involves.

-- John

Rob Groome wrote:

[posted to rush.general]

I would tend to agree with what Dylan said here. I looked at the EMC product and was not impressed with the support that I got pre-sale - so I was not really that interested to find out what their post-sale support would be.

I did much legwork to get as much information about both NetApp and EMC, and in everything I found, the NetApp stuff just kicked ass over the EMC, especially in support.

We purchased a clustered 3020 that is currently sitting in my office waiting to be setup this week. :)

Rob

--
John Pierson            503-595-4070
R&D Lead Enginerd       503-464-9555 FAX
Laika Entertainment     jpierson@(email surpressed)