SME storage arrays like the AberSAN Z-Series pack solid enterprise-class features

It’s never been a better time to be in the market for enterprise storage products, with many excellent options available at affordable prices. But the market can be confusing for the uninitiated, with a variety of network options and capabilities. Even those of us “in the know” about enterprise storage are sometimes surprised by the offerings and companies in this space! So when Jerome Wendt from DCIG approached me to collect data for a market overview and buyer’s guide, I was excited. It was my big chance to really get to know these products!

Dividing the Storage Market

An enterprise storage array is a strategic investment, with prices often reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But there are smaller arrays as well, and these aren’t just stripped-down cheapies: Midrange storage arrays are emerging as serious challengers for the high-end enterprise arrays, and even the small array segment is improving. Long the home of simple RAID systems, small enterprise storage arrays are now full-featured systems with advanced integration and features.

This is the segment of the storage market I was eager to take a look at: The small-enterprise arrays, ranging in price from $5,000 to $30,000 and capacity from a few terabytes to over one hundred (with expansion shelves). To keep it sensible, I eliminated systems with less than 8 hard disk drives (since they really couldn’t deliver the IOPS needed for a production application) and those that can’t be shared using storage networking protocols like iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or NAS. This left a great cross-section, including small systems from big players like EMC, NetApp, Dell, and HP as well as smaller companies like Drobo, Aberdeen, StoneFly, and Promise.

Little Systems With Big Capabilities

Gathering data for this buyer’s guide entailed creating a master list of all the features any of the systems might have and then filling in the blanks with vendor input and public information. Although I felt that my list of questions was comprehensive, I was amazed to find that the available systems exceeded even my expectations. For example, I was surprised to see 10 GbE support in more than 1/3 of the arrays I looked at, yet only 1/4 of them included NAS protocols. Amazingly, every NAS system also supported iSCSI, meaning unified storage dominates the SME array market!

DCIG likes to rank the systems listed in their buyer’s guides, so it was left to me to come up with weights and scores. I decided to score each feature on a 1 to 5 scale based on my own expectations: A feature I was surprised by (more than 4 GB of cache, for example) got a 5 while one that was conspicuously absent (scalability beyond internal drives) got a 1. An average system would get all 3′s, but there really were no average systems!

I then weighted the features based on how relevant they are to small enterprise IT. Features like scalability (drives), data protection (RAID 6), and reliability (redundant power supplies and dual controllers) received more weight than less-critical things like ROHS compliance and even multi-pathing.

After all this work, we boiled down the scores to categories (controller, capacity, support, etc) and finally a single overall score. I was surprised at the results, really. I hadn’t spent much time with Aberdeen or StoneFly prior to this experience, but came away impressed by their products. The strong showing of EMC’s new VNXe and NetApp’s FAS2020 was as I had expected, but the D-Link DSN-5110, Dell’s PowerVault MD3200i, HP’s P2000, and the Promise and Winchester arrays caught me off-guard. These really-capable systems at low prices and should be on buyers’ short-lists!

Stephen’s Stance

I tried to put myself in the place of the buyer evaluating these systems, but of course every buyer will have his own priorities. Perhaps in the future we will make the raw data available so they can make their own ranking and determine which array works best for them. I will work with DCIG to make this happen, since the feature-focused rankings used this time aren’t right for everyone.

I have been working on this guide for almost a year now, and think the finished product really shines. I hope it will help buyers come up with a list of products to consider, and also that it helps the smaller vendors get some attention in this crowded space. Due to their strong showing, Aberdeen has licensed the guide and made it available for free (after registration) on their web site.

Download the guide and see for yourself!

Note that Aberdeen did not “sponsor” the creation of the guide: DCIG paid Foskett Services to create it with no sponsor in mind, I alone gathered the data, and our ranking and editing was finished before Aberdeen or any other vendor got involved financially. No one was more surprised than me by the strong showing of their AberSAN storage system, though the fact that it features Nexenta’s excellent software piqued my interest. Some have criticized DCIG’s guides and methodology in the past, but I personally stand behind this effort. I will happily answer any questions – just leave a comment here!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Which Small Enterprise Storage Arrays Are Worth Considering?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

After a very, very long wait, Apple has finally updated the Mac Mini, their entry-level “bridge” Mac. It’s amazing that, after 19 months without an update, Apple’s new Mini looks exactly the same as the old Mini. But what’s under the hood matters, and Apple delivered a mixed bag there. The new Mini is an excellent home server, which is how mine will be used, but some poor choices limit its abilities out of the box.

You might also be interested in my initial Mac Mini review, or my post on upgrading the RAM and hard disk drive in my Mac Mini!

Out With the Old

Apple completely redesigned the innards of the Mini for 2009. It has always been a laptop in a box, so we were not surprised to see the updated MacBook’s specs duplicated here. The Mini includes that machine’s efficient and current Intel Core 2 Duo mobile CPUs, Nvidia chipset and graphics, 1066 MHz RAM, 802.11n and gigabit Ethernet networking, DVD SuperDrive, and 2.5″ hard drive.

A few welcome additions were made relative to the MacBook’s specs. The new Mini features five USB ports. It also brings joy to the hearts of the Apple faithful in the form of a FireWire port, albeit sporting the square 9-pin S800 socket rather than the old familiar 6-pin 400 spec. But the most interesting addition on the little Apple desktop is its two independent video ports: A Mini-DVI and a Mini DisplayPort. Each of these additions squarely focuses the Mac Mini at the desktop market, and each is welcome.

USB Madness

When the array of five USB ports was spotted in pre-release spy photos, Mac fans went nuts. Why would the new Mini add yet another port? And who needs five USB ports anyway? I, for one, was very glad to see this change. I’ve lamented the reduction in the number of USB ports found in laptops lately, and I think most end users would agree that more USB ports are needed. Witness two consumer phenomena to support this proliferation of USB ports:

1. One of the hottest-selling peripherals for the old Mac Mini was the Mini-shaped USB hub, and many of the other accessories targeted at the Mini included built-in hubs
2. Despite Seagate’s sagging numbers, USB hard drives continue selling like hotcakes, with an insider recently telling me that they’ve reached a 2:1 attach rate (meaning most computers have two of them!)

A disturbing trend in parallel with the disappearance of USB ports is the hobbling of those that remain. My MacBook Pro has just two ports and both are limited: One is low on electrical power and the other is shared with internal peripherals.

I assumed that the Mini merely included an internal hub, limiting the value of those five ports. I am pleased to report that this is not the case! The Mini actually has four separate internal USB busses and the five ports are spread among three of these:

So if you’re adding high(er)-performance devices to your New Mini, let me suggest this strategy:

1. Connect your most-important device to port 2 and it will have a bus all to itself (except when you use an IR remote, which isn’t often)
2. If you have only one other high-performance USB device, connect it to port 1 or 5 and connect your keyboard and mouse to ports 3 and 4, or vice-versa
3. If you have two more high-performance USB devices, don’t connect them to ports 1 and 5 or ports 3 and 4 – spread them out on 1 and 3 or 4 and 5!

The new Mac Mini's five USB ports share three USB busses

Or just use the handy FireWire port and grin smugly as only a Mac user can!

Square Pegs

We’ve heard a hundred times that the Mac Mini was designed to a philosophy of “bring your own keyboard, mouse, and display”. In other words, it’s optimized for what people already have rather than being bundled with a keyboard, mouse, and display like the iMac or forcing people to buy all new peripherals. But Apple’s relentless push to move their hardware platform forward has gotten in the way of this goal when it comes to the new Mini.

Although the inclusion of a FireWire port alongside the multitude of standard USB ports is welcome, Apple chose to use the 9-pin S800 port style rather than the more-familiar 6-pin port. FireWire peripherals aren’t common as it is, and S800 devices and cables are far less familiar. Although it is backward-compatible, thus the “bilingual” name often used by Apple, the much-faster S800 port requires the purchase of adapter cables to use older 400 Mb FireWire devices. Although I’m a storage geek and do own a few FireWire peripherals, none are compatible with the port on my new Mini. I have a “bilingual cable” in the mail to me as we speak, and there is a port adapter dongle, but this port stands in the way of the “bring your own” ethos.

The same can be said of Apple’s choice of video ports. It’s nice that Apple’s Mini DisplayPort is offered royalty-free, but this hasn’t made adapters any more common. Their VGA and DVI adapters are priced at $29 each, and third-party cables haven’t appeared yet, though Monoprice promises them this month. So one of the two video ports is of limited use, unless you dropped over $800 on the gorgeous Apple 24-inch LED Cinema Display. Let’s not even mention the troublesome $99 dual DVI adapter!

Then there’s the Mini-DVI port. Apple bundles a Mini-DVI to DVI-I adapter with the Mac Mini, so those of you who own a DVI monitor (and cable!) are all set. But this adapter lacks the VGA pins, so you can’t use a DVI to VGA adapter to hook up to your older VGA monitor or KVM. For that, you need to order a special Mini-DVI to VGA adapter (also in the mail).

So let’s get this straight: If you want to actually hook your pre-existing peripherals to the new Mac Mini, you had better hope they’re USB or DVI-I. Otherwise, you’re looking at spending $20 to $30 each for FireWire, Mini-DVI, and Mini DisplayPort adapters. The lack of a VGA solution is especially annoying, since it would have been simple for Apple just to include the VGA pins in their Mini-DVI adapter, allowing folks to use the DVI-to-VGA adapter they probably already own.

Inner Weakness

Although the new Mini is solidly engineered and built, Apple made two major sacrifices in internal specs in the interests of profit margins: The base Mini ships with too little RAM and a too-slow and too-small internal hard drive. I knew this going in, and was happy to buy the base model anyway, since I intended to upgrade it rather than spend $200 extra for a little more RAM and drive space or wait for a build-to-order custom Mini.

There is simply no excuse for Apple to ship the base mini with 1 GB of RAM. OS X Leopard is a full-featured 64-bit operating system, and 1 GB is too little to do much of anything with these days. RAM prices keep falling fast, so even the fancy DDR3-8500 SO-DIMMs used by the Mini cost just a few dollars. At least the company used a single 1 GB stick instead of two useless 512 MB units like the old Mini! I was lucky enough to find a fellow buyer who upgraded his RAM and is sending me his leftovers, but I may spend $50 in the next few months for a matched pair of 2 GB sticks.

Then there is the hard drive. The Mac Mini uses Hitachi’s base-model TravelStar 5K320 (HTS543212L9SA02) drive unit, easily the slowest hard drive I’ve used recently. It’s limited to 1.5 Gb SATA, and its single platter may help in the power and heat department but it gives a poor performance show. Xbench (not the best measure to be sure) shows this little drive  trailing the 120 GB Fujitsu MH2120BH drive that came in my (late 2007) MacBook Pro by about 30%, and almost 50% slower than the 320 GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD3200BEVT that I now use! Note that Apple apparently uses larger-capacity versions of this same drive in the bigger Minis and MacBooks. I wonder if the performance is any better?

The Mac Mini's internal 120 GB Hitachi hard disk drive lags its contemporaries and drags overall system performance way down, especially with just 1 GB of RAM

Although I was surprised by just how slow the hard drive was, especially when the limited RAM leads to swapping, I always planned to upgrade both. As I mentioned, there’s a second 1 GB stick on the way, and I ordered a blazing 320 GB 7200 rpm Hitachi TravelStar 7K320 at ZipZoomFly for $59 (after rebate). These should turn the Mini’s performance around!

Despite the shortcomings of the base Mac Mini, I would not recommend buying the upscale or build-to-order models if you’re open to upgrading it on your own. You can upgrade a Mini to 2 GB and 320 GB/7200 rpm for under $100 instead of spending $200 from Apple for the same RAM and a slower drive. However, if you’re hesitant to open the case, do not buy the base Mac Mini! Get at least the 2 GB model from Apple – 1 GB just isn’t enough!

I’ll be documenting my evolving home server environment, based around this little Mac, here on the site. Subscribe to my Apple feed (or stick with Everything) to keep up to date!

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | New Mac Mini Is A Diamond In The Rough
This post was categorized as Apple, Everything, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Although some shortcomings have appeared, I’m pleased with the Mac overall. It definitely met my expectations and continues to meet my needs, mixing portability and performance in an excellent package.  I am impressed by Apple’s hardware design and component choices, especially when compared to other computers with similar specifications that I have used.  And, as noted by Tom’s Hardware, the specification of the machine was reasonably priced, especially since I purchased it at a substantial discount and upgraded it myself.

This post is part of my series focused on switching from PC to Mac.

• How To Buy Discount Apple Computers
• Got Some AppleCare For Cheap
• Switch! or How the Mac (Finally) Won Me Over
• Switch Day 1: This Mac is Hot!
• Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro

1. The Value Quotient is High

The value of a computer system is determined by two elements: Its specification, in terms of the components used, and the net price.  Macs are known to be pricey but often include high-end components and materials in their construction.  Focusing solely on the core interchangeable components of my Mac, evaluating it as a generic PC, the overall value for the money is very high.

My MacBook Pro contains a high-spec NVIDIA 8600M GT graphics card with 128 MB of dedicated GDDR3 video memory, an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 “Merom” CPU, Intel’s “Santa Rosa” PM965 chipset, built-in FireWire S800 and USB, a slot-loading 8x DVD-RW drive, gigabit Ethernet, Wireless-N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, webcam, and slick features like an LED-backlit display and keyboard and infrared remote control.  My system’s MSRP was $2000, but I purchased it for $1524 (after receiving the rebate check).

Although PCs are available for less (I bought a family knockabout laptop for $435 recently!), a similar spec laptop from any major manufacturer would cost at least this much, even a year after this model MacBook Pro came out.  In my case, I am comparing the Mac to the Dell XPS M1330 laptop I use for work, which arrived the day before the Mac.  The Dell is a “thin and light” model with a 13″ screen, but feels almost the same weight as the Mac and is actually somewhat fatter with its 9-cell battery. The Dell retailed for $1700, including the inferior 8400M GS graphics and no gigabit ethernet.

Judging by these objective observations, the Mac was clearly a good value and features a strong set of components.  Note that both machines feature the flawed NVIDIA graphics chips, as do nearly all high-end notebooks, so I can’t fault anyone for that particular component choice.

2. Performance rocks

Even though my MacBook features the Merom CPU clocked at a modest (by 2008 standards) 2.2 GHz rather than the latest 2.4 GHz or more Penryn, the system as a whole just flies.  Mine is packed with 4 GB or RAM instead of the stock 2 GB, and my upgraded 320 GB hard drive is slightly quicker than the stock, both of which improve overall performance somewhat.  But even tasks that aren’t memory-intensive are super-quick, thanks to the 800 MHz front-side bus and solid system design.  The system is snappy in OS X, encodes video with ease, and is subjectively faster than my similar Dell when using Windows Vista Ultimate in Boot Camp.  The Dell has the same chipset and CPU, but is clocked at 2.0 rather than 2.2 GHz and has only 2 GB of RAM, so comparisons are not exactly apples-to-apples, but the Dell is noticeably slower.  

3. The Display is Gorgeous

The wide, LED-backlit 15″ screen is just gorgeous.  The off-angle performance is so good, even with the backlight turned all the way down, that the Mac suffers from serious over-the-shoulder “eavesviewing” issues.  My Dell is pretty much invisible off-angle, even without the privacy screen supplied by my company, but the Mac shows your photos and documents even at extreme angles. Not that I’m complaining, though – this performance just makes it that much more beautiful when I’m alone. There’s no need to constantly adjust the screen angle for optimal viewing.

4. The Chassis is Sturdy

The Mac really shines when one compares its sturdiness to the competition.  The Dell is flexy and plasticky, as is just about every non-ThinkPad PC notebook I’ve used recently.  But the Mac raises the bar even compared to my favorite laptop of all time, the brick-strong HP OmniBook 800.

The only poor spot is the nifty magnetic latch.  Although it works well most of the time (and exists – the Dell has no latch at all), it doesn’t lock closed as cleanly as I would like.  There is a gap around the edges, and lifting the closed Mac from one side tends to make the latch disengage.

5. Input is Solid

I’m a stickler for a good keyboard and can’t fault the Mac here.  It’s not exactly a Model M, but the keys feel good and are arranged and sized reasonably.  Even adjusting to the Mac keyboard layout hasn’t been much of an issue, since most functions remain in similar positions between Mac and Windows.

The trackpad is especially strong. PC notebooks normally have perplexingly tiny trackpads, so I’m always running out of space, but the Mac’s is generously sized and highly usable. It’s easily four times larger than the Dell’s!  I do wish there were two ”mouse” buttons, though.  Although OS X and Windows in Fusion supports two-finger-tap as a right-click, Boot Camp frustratingly does not!

6. The Apple Remote Could Be Improved

Let’s start by stating that I have never owned a PC that came with a remote control, so the Mac deserves kudos for even including one, though the 2008 models don’t. But the remote is just odd. Although it’s usable enough, it’s not integrated, hardware-wise, with the system. It’s clearly a throwback to the glossy white plastic Apple look of a half-decade ago, so like the power brick and DVI adapter it seems totally out of place next to the brushed aluminum MacBook Pro. And, judging from its size and shape, I expected it to dock in the ExpressCard slot of the Mac like a MoGo mouse, but it’s slightly too fat for that. Also, an IR remote seems out of date in these Bluetooth days. So, Apple, how about a dockable, Bluetooth, matching remote next time?

7. Battery Life Isn’t Great

Battery life has been about three hours in my hands, which isn’t terrible, but isn’t as good as I hoped. I ended up buying a second battery for the Mac for transcontinental flights. I did the same for my last Dell, of course, so this isn’t news. On the bright side, the Mac battery was cheaper and far more readily available than the Dell – I just dropped by the bright, cheery Apple store in Palo Alto during my last trip and picked one up instead of waiting for Dell to deliver one to my home. I still can’t get hot-swap to work, though, since my Mac refuses to suspend to disk.

8. Upgradability is Mixed

Upgrading the RAM on a MacBook Pro is just right, but swapping out the hard drive was much more difficult than it should have been. Disks should be user-replaceable, even in laptops, and the regular MacBook gets this right. The Mac also has poorer expandability than most PC laptops, since its Wi-Fi (sorry, “AirPort Extreme”) card is buried inside and it lacks a slot and antenna wiring for a 3G cell card. The fact that the Pro only has an ExpressCard slot isn’t that novel in today’s world, however, but the regular MacBook’s lack of one was a major factor in my choosing the Pro.

9. It’s Hot and Loud

My first impression was that the fan was deafening and the bottom was toasty. After using it for a few months, I have either gotten used to both or they aren’t as bad anymore. The machine still gets pretty hot on the bottom under heavy use, and the fan still makes a loud “whoosh”, but neither is unbearable or unusual when compared to other PCs, like my previous Dell XPS M1210.

10. Light Sensors are Confounding

I was intrigued by the idea of the MacBook Pro’s ambient light sensor, which would dim the display backlight and unique keyboard backlight under changing light conditions. But this was the first feature I disabled after actually using it. The sensor is located under your left pinky when typing, so the display suddenly dims and brightens as your hand passes over it. So I just adjust the backlight manually.

Then there is the keyboard backlight. The key cap markings are dark enough to be difficult to see in bright light, but the sensor won’t let the light come on, even when you press the hotkey to turn it on manually! I ended up installing Lab Tick to turn it on manually within OS X, but I expected more from Apple engineering. The light sensor is worse than useless.

11. USB is a Disappointment

As I noted in another post, the lack of a full-power dedicated USB port is a special disappointment. The 15″ MacBook Pro has just two ports, like most modern PC notebooks, but both are compromised. The one on the left lacks the power to spin up an external hard drive, and the one on the right is shared with the internal iSight camera. At least the FireWire is blazing fast and fully-powered! But I expected a better design from Apple.

12. The AC Adapter Is Obnoxious
    My biggest complaint is the “elegant” MagSafe AC adapter. Count the flaws:
    • The poor strain relief on the thin cable is known to fray and burn
    • Third-party replacements and alternatives are not available thanks to Apple patents
    • The cord-wrap “ears” aren’t large enough to actually hold the entire wrapped cord
    • The fact that there are three different identical-looking adapters with different wattage outputs is a nightmare waiting to strike the unwary
    • The iPod-like on-brick plug just barely hangs on when the weight of the brick is hung from a vertical wall outlet
    • Glossy white?!?

The AC adapter is a perfect example of the form-over-function flaws always cited by Apple critics. I expected better, and Apple refuses to admit the defects even as these things spark and burn.

Again, I’m happy overall with the Mac and would definitely buy one again. In fact, I think it’s about the best computer purchase I’ve ever made, even including the iPhone and my beloved OmniBook 800 and Portege 3010 subnotebooks. The flaws are minor compared to the overall strengths!

(Ok, there are twelve pros and cons, but ten rolls off the tongue better!)

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.