This is the latest recommendation from Dell Equallogic, found in Firmware 6.0 Release Note:
Beginning with this release, the Group Manager GUI no longer includes the option for configuring a group member to use RAID 5 for its RAID policy. RAID 5 carries higher risks of encountering an uncorrectable drive error during a rebuild, and therefore does not offer optimal data protection. Consequently, Dell recommends against using RAID 5 for any business-critical data.
RAID 5 may still be required for certain applications, depending on performance and data availability require-ments. To allow for these scenarios, you may still use the CLI to configure a group member to use RAID 5.
For a complete discussion of RAID policies on PS Series systems, review the Dell Technical Report titled PS Series Storage Arrays: Choosing a Member RAID Policy, which can be downloaded from either of the following locations:
In addition, Dell recommends against using RAID configurations that do not use spare drives. You should convert all group member that are using a no-spares RAID policy to a policy that uses spare drives.
Known Issues and Limitations
The following restrictions and known issues apply to this version of the PS Series Firmware. For information about known issues and restrictions from other releases, see the Release Notes for those versions. For issues about Dell EqualLogic FS Series Appliances, refer to the Dell EqualLogic FS Series Appliances Release Notes. For issues and limitations pertaining to host operating systems and iSCSI initiators, refer to the iSCSI Initiator and Operating System Considerations document.
RAID Conversion From No-Spares To Spares Does Not Work
RAID conversion from a no-spares policy to a spares policy appears to work, but it actually converts to no-spares, resulting in no change. (Funny )
I am pretty happy with SANHQ 2.2, HIT MS 4 and HIT VMware 3.1, and there aren’t much new features I need, so I choose to delay the upgrade for the time being.
Furthermore, there are two interesting videos presented by Dell EQL User Group in Taiwan (in Chinese), the following new features were intensively mentioned as well. (Part 1 and Part 2)
SAN HQ 2.5 Announcement
Dell announces Host Integration Tools for Microsoft 4.5
Dell Announces Host Integration Tools for VMware 3.5
Note: HIT for VMware v3.1.1, and earlier, is not compatible with Equallogic Firmware Version, 6.0, of the PS Series Firmware. A later version must be installed prior to upgrading to Version 6.0, for compatibility.
78131 PORSCHE 993 CARRERA (SILVER METALLIC)
78132 PORSCHE 993 CARRERA (RED)
78133 PORSCHE 993 CARRERA (RIVIERA BLUE METALLIC)
78134 PORSCHE 993 CARRERA (GREEN METALLIC)
This huge PDF poster shows some of the advanced features that VMware doesn’t have, even I am not a Microsoft visualization guy, but it’s good to know what competitor is up to.
I was once told by a data center veteran about 10 years ago.
This has been deeply embedded in my network/storage/security design methodology ever since and it is still holding the truth even today. It saved me from many pitfalls and allowed me to quickly track down where exactly the problems were.
It is especially true when your equipments (server/switch/storage) are growing at a fast pace and “Keep It SIMPLE!” is the only tool to save your life after all.
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