Re: [PLUG] SAN Questions

On 5/30/07, Dan Perez <dperez@sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:

I'm interested in this topic, so I'll contribute with what little I
have to say...

At our company, a relatively small but pretty major pharmaceutical
company, we primarily run aix.  For three years or so, we've been
running a number of important production databases on linux.  Our
environment is Oracle on Red Hat Linux AS or ES on HP DL 360s or 380s
nfs-mounting storage from NetApps.

The feeling among us technical folk is that linux is production ready.
There were a few standard problems, components dying and os bugs, but
that happens to our aix on pseries, too.  I would suggest Oracle RAC
as a way to get highly reliable cheap hardware for linux that compares
in reliability to the highly reliable expensive hardware we use for
aix.  And, the performance met our customers' expectations, which
means that no one complained loudly enough for us to hear.

With that said, we have a new cio who has had bad experiences with
linux in the past and is making us migrate anything important over to
aix.  Sigh...

magawake@gmail.com wrote [05/29/07]:
> Hi All,
>
>    Linux is an operating system that has evolved greatly in the academic,
> personal, and perhaps the most in the enterprise sector. My co-workers and I
> work on AIX on a daily basis, and we have been pondering some day-to-day
> tasks, and wondering how Linux handles them. These tasks include anywhere
> from HBA connectivity between host & switch, LUN/Physical volume management,
> and last the overall benefit of using Linux in the enterprise.
>  HBA connectivity between host & switch is critical to provide high
> performance storage to the application.  We were wondering, what type of
> HBAs are available? Are the HBA modules already part of the Linux core
> kernel? What other modules are required to have HBA+SCSI children devices?
> Are these modules supported by vendors (ie Redhat, SuSE)? How does
> multi-path software compare to other Unix flavors (EMC PowerPath)? Also, is
> there such a thing as a hot swappable HBA for Linux hardware?
> Second, couple of questions pertaining the LUN and physical volume
> configuration: once the HBA is logged into the fabric, how does one see its
> WWN?  How do you scan the I/O board for new LUNs (Physical Disks)? Is a
> reboot required to introduce new LUNs? Once a LUN is zoned to the HBA's WWN,
> what is the exact procedure to create a filesystem on it?
> Last perhaps the most important, what is the overall experience with Linux
> in the enterprise level? Being a  Linux group, I guess I should expect some
> biased answers. We are currently evaluating Linux , and wondering if its
> ready for some of our "Tier 3" applications, and wanted some feedback from
> people who work on it from a day-to-day basis, instead of a Vendor.
>
> Thanks in advance for your replies!

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