10-21-2013 09:26 AM
Looking for some real world opinions on the 3600 appliance.
Thinking of using them at several branch offices throughout the country.
work well?
ease of setup?
what would you do different?
all that stuff!
I am familiar with using BE software.
Thanks,
matt
11-22-2013 08:14 AM
pros:
1. 3600 is shipped with OS installed on 80 gb SSD drives (RAID 1), which makes it much faster.
2. Licensing Hassle is minimized as it is everything is bundled in one.
4. It comes with inbuilt security.
5. Auto call feature, which creates a ticket proactively for the hardware failure.
Cons:
1. Limited storage, 5.5 TB (RAID 5), if RAID is broken, then extends to 20 TB.
2. Only one SAS interface is present, as a provision for a tape drive.
3. It is Windows based and not Linux based.
4. Only 4 hard drive Bays, which are pre-occupied.
You may find more details in 3600 Admin guide,
11-29-2013 04:21 AM
"Limited storage, 5.5TB (RAID 5), if RAID is broken, then extends to 20 TB".
How so? If RAID is broken, you end up with 4 drives (possibly) and how would you get 20TB out of those? You have no redundancy whatsoever either...
Thanks!
12-25-2013 11:40 AM
Hello CraigV,
thank you for pointing the typo error in the previous comment.
If the RAID is broken it will be (2 TB x 4) i.e 8 TB non-deduped space.
Kind regards,
S
12-25-2013 04:55 PM
12-27-2013 02:05 AM
12-27-2013 08:59 AM
Hold on Craig,,..I never said that 8 TB is a useable space, I just pointed out the total storage shipped with the appliance.
Regards,
S
12-27-2013 09:51 AM
12-27-2013 10:00 AM
Hi Craig,
Please read the comment carefully, before you comment:
If the RAID is broken it will be (2 TB x 4) i.e 8 TB non-deduped space.
Regards,
Vishal Shinde
12-27-2013 10:34 AM
I do agree that raid-5 is what is shipped with the Appliance and we (Symantec) will not support any changes in the configurations, like RAID, adding any software or teaming the NICs etc.
As the hardware provided is tested and tuned to give the optimized performance and ensuring the reliability at maximum.
Having said that, we cannot stop a user(need not be a RAID guru) to think of using Remote management Module to access the Appliance, by making the required changes in the BIOS for the baseboard LAN.
Use the RAID web Console 2 utility to re-configure the 4 drives with RAID 0. And use the complete 8 TB of RAW space, but this will be without the parity.
Though not supported , but possible.:)
12-27-2013 06:08 PM
Use the RAID web Console 2 utility to re-configure the 4 drives with RAID 0. And use the complete 8 TB of RAW space, but this will be without the parity.
Why are you recommending an unsupported configuration? Furthermore, isn't this recommendation going against the purpose of having an appliance in the first place? That is, not having to do any configuration.
12-27-2013 10:10 PM
PKH.
this is NOT a recommendation, it is a possibility which can be thought of..please read through the lines....
As i see its getting complicated,
Please PM me for any further points/issues/concerns, this ensures that the Ambiguity in understanding is eliminated and we may be able to help the primary concerns raised by the poster.
Rather making this a platform of mutual influences and moving away from the purpose of original post.
Regards,
Vishal Shinde
12-28-2013 02:28 AM
12-28-2013 03:02 AM
Just an FYI, changing the configuration is NOT supported, but the steps mentioned are from the Admin guide for 3600.
This expresses any users thought, knowing the Appliance, as evident from the used cases we have.
Please do not hastily read the contents in bits and parts and get too anxious to post, please take your time..go through the entire content of what it is all about and them come up with technically relevant content, helpful to reader.
Again I reiterate do not make this a ground for arguments. It is not really doing any good for the Symantec Brand.
Regards,
Vishal Shinde
12-28-2013 03:20 AM
An excerpt from my previous comment, for clarity:
===============================================================================
Having said that, we cannot stop a user (need not be a RAID guru) to think
of using Remote management Module to access the Appliance, by making the required changes in the BIOS for the baseboard LAN,Use the RAID web Console 2 utility to re-configure the 4 drives with RAID 0. And use the complete 8 TB of RAW space, but this will be without the parity.
Though not supported , but possible.:)
=============================================================================
I am sure, now that you have read it, you will find that it is neither a recommendation nor a suggestion too.
Just a possibility ..(which is not supported..)
12-28-2013 06:32 PM
the steps mentioned are from the Admin guide for 3600.
What steps are you referring to? Reconfiguring the RAID to RAID 0?
12-29-2013 04:32 AM
what did you find in Admin guide,in the above context?
12-29-2013 08:04 AM
02-13-2014 07:56 AM
We have two 3600 R2 appliances. One acting as a CASO, the other as an MMS. We are using them to backup our servers in one site then replicate to DR before writing to tape. Unfortunately we've been troubleshooting some niggles that have prevented us from going live, but are working on them. For example:
We have just updated to SP3 so are keen to see if it helps with the issues above.
I think it's a good system, it just needs time and effort to get it fully going. I don't disagree that you can unbox it and be backing up within an hour but we've found that we're still not at the stage where we can confidently guarantee that it will perform our backups.