Comments on: iSCSI vs FC SAN

By: biggot

biggot — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 02:19:32 +0000

I’d go for iSCSI, its heaps cheaper, easier to configure and troubleshoot and there really isn’t any CPU overhead for most Windows applications. After all, what else are you going to use the CPU of Windows box for? The MS software initiator is pretty good and most of the big guys take all the hassle out of iSCSI deployment these days. You might want to look at NetApp as well if iSCSI ends up being your thing. I also agree that spindle count will be the biggest perfromance bottleneck, which is another thing I like about iSCSI. You can spend the cost savings on more spindles and get more performance or snapshots etc. Good luck.

By: mschoenb2005

mschoenb2005 — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 10:17:04 +0000

Whether you use iSCSI or FC you will be communicating at GB speed to the SAN on the Backend. What you need to be looking at is the COST difference between the two technologies. The whole idea of using iSCSI is that you get the same transmit speeds as FC but the cost is significantly less.

By: paul144hart

paul144hart — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 09:13:42 +0000

You may want to look through test lab reports like http://www.tolly.com.
-Paul