Exposing Windows 2000 Direct Attach Storage Upstream as Fibre Channel

Does any vendor sell a software product that will expose logical volumes on
a Windows 2000 server as fibre channel targets? I'm looking for block
level sharing of the logical device with other fibre channel hosts.

The Windows 2000 host would act as a replacement for the head end of a fibre
channel storage system.

--
Will

"Will" wrote in message
...
Does any vendor sell a software product that will expose logical volumes
on
a Windows 2000 server as fibre channel targets? I'm looking for block
level sharing of the logical device with other fibre channel hosts.

The Windows 2000 host would act as a replacement for the head end of a
fibre
channel storage system.

--
Will

Datacore (www.datacore.com) SANsymphony. Not sure how well is works

Rob

That's $50K plus, ouch. I'm looking for something that is more
of a mass market tool.

--
Will
Internet: westes at earthbroadcast.com


"Rob Turk" wrote in message
l.nl...
Datacore (www.datacore.com) SANsymphony. Not sure how well is
works

Rob

SANmelody, with fibre channel option, is Datacore's lower tier product
which can be purchased for $2600. This would allow disk partitions to
be presented as fibre channel LUNs to other servers. Two points to
consider. One, the server running the Datacore software can't
effectively access the partition being served. Two, while multiple
servers could access the same LUN you still need to have some form of
sharing software before multiple servers can access the same LUN at the
same time.

There are a few other packages that allow the serving up of fibre
channel LUNs but I dont believe there are any others that run on a
windows platform.

I'm looking for a low-cost way to turn a Windows 2000 server into
a head end of a SATA RAID system. This "low-end" product costs
more for the software alone than some of the SATA head ends do.
My own sense is that $900 is about the sweet spot for a product
of this type.

What are the other packages? I assume that those are either
Linux based or run their own proprietary OS? Which of those
others has received the best reviews?

--
Will
Internet: westes at earthbroadcast.com


wrote in message
ups.com...
SANmelody, with fibre channel option, is Datacore's lower tier
product
which can be purchased for $2600. This would allow disk
partitions to
be presented as fibre channel LUNs to other servers. Two points
to
consider. One, the server running the Datacore software can't
effectively access the partition being served. Two, while
multiple
servers could access the same LUN you still need to have some
form of
sharing software before multiple servers can access the same
LUN at the
same time.

There are a few other packages that allow the serving up of
fibre
channel LUNs but I dont believe there are any others that run
on a
windows platform.

"Will" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for a low-cost way to turn a Windows 2000 server into
a head end of a SATA RAID system. This "low-end" product costs
more for the software alone than some of the SATA head ends do.
My own sense is that $900 is about the sweet spot for a product
of this type.

What are the other packages? I assume that those are either
Linux based or run their own proprietary OS? Which of those
others has received the best reviews?

--
Will
Internet: westes at earthbroadcast.com

The problem is that you're looking for a solution that isn't used in
commodity environments. Your $900 "sweet spot" doesn't make sense. The
clients that would invest in such a system need to invest in FC host
adapters that are around $900 each and a switch of $5000, just to get
connected.

If you're looking at creating a block-device SAN-like solution, try iSCSI
software clients and a SATA-based iSCSI target server. I believe there's a
Linux iSCSI target server that you can use, or you may even want to check
out Novell Netware 6.5 with it's iSCSI target implementation.

Rob

You specified a fibre channel target. You are not going to be able to
create a head unit providing this kind of connectivity at that price
range.

Falconstor's IPstor, which runs on a Linux platform, is the only other
standalone software product I am aware of that can provide fibre
channel connectivity. The last time I checked it was in a similar price
range.

An iSCSI head unit could be created at a lower cost. Without the fibre
channel connectivity a Datacore solution could be as low as $200 for
the software. There are quite a number of other iSCSI packages that
would provide this kind of target.

Will wrote:
That's $50K plus, ouch. I'm looking for something that is more
of a mass market tool.

In which case, the product you want is SAN Melody from DataCore which is
specifically designed to do what you are looking for, see:

http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelodyLite.asp (For the lite
$199 version)

or

http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelody.asp

For the all singing all dancing version.

--
Nik Simpson

$900 for the host adapter.
$2500 for the head end
Around $6000 for the drives
The host adapter can just direct connect to the head end or go
through a cheap fibre hub ($200)

To do this with an existing Windows 200x Server:

$900 for the host adapter
$1000 for the JBOD drive cabinet
$2000 for the server (storage server)
$1000 for Veritas Volume Manager
$6000 for the drives.

Now I have to pay $2600 more for software to expose the LUN?
I'm looking for something that should be a $300 option for
Veritas' software. Paying $2600 for it makes it more expensive
than buying external hardware that shrink wraps the whole
solution. I think $2600 is very greedy for something that is
not so complex and doesn't have a chance of surviving long term
as a product on its own. It's clear to me that Veritas will
eventually hear this customer requirement and subsume it into the
Storage Foundation.

--
Will
Internet: westes at earthbroadcast.com


"Rob Turk" wrote in message
.nl...
"Will" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for a low-cost way to turn a Windows 2000 server
into
a head end of a SATA RAID system. This "low-end" product
costs
more for the software alone than some of the SATA head ends
do.
My own sense is that $900 is about the sweet spot for a
product
of this type.

What are the other packages? I assume that those are either
Linux based or run their own proprietary OS? Which of
those
others has received the best reviews?

--
Will
Internet: westes at earthbroadcast.com

The problem is that you're looking for a solution that isn't
used in
commodity environments. Your $900 "sweet spot" doesn't make
sense. The
clients that would invest in such a system need to invest in FC
host
adapters that are around $900 each and a switch of $5000, just
to get
connected.

If you're looking at creating a block-device SAN-like solution,
try iSCSI
software clients and a SATA-based iSCSI target server. I
believe there's a
Linux iSCSI target server that you can use, or you may even
want to check
out Novell Netware 6.5 with it's iSCSI target implementation.

Rob

Contrary to your comments FC Target mode implementations are very
complex. They represent a significant part of the development cost of
the solutions that provide them.

Products that have them are just not available in the price range you
are talking about.


On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 13:54:59 -0800, "Will"
wrote:

$900 for the host adapter.
$2500 for the head end
Around $6000 for the drives
The host adapter can just direct connect to the head end or go
through a cheap fibre hub ($200)

To do this with an existing Windows 200x Server:

$900 for the host adapter
$1000 for the JBOD drive cabinet
$2000 for the server (storage server)
$1000 for Veritas Volume Manager
$6000 for the drives.

Now I have to pay $2600 more for software to expose the LUN?
I'm looking for something that should be a $300 option for
Veritas' software. Paying $2600 for it makes it more expensive
than buying external hardware that shrink wraps the whole
solution. I think $2600 is very greedy for something that is
not so complex and doesn't have a chance of surviving long term
as a product on its own. It's clear to me that Veritas will
eventually hear this customer requirement and subsume it into the
Storage Foundation.