Can a Starwind Server “front-end” FC Storage?

[pignatel]

I have preexisting Fiber Channel Storage Units (Sun 2540 Units) and Switches from my Falconstor installation. If using “StarWind Enterprise HA Unlimited” - Can a Starwind Server “front-end” FC Storage Units? Can a Starwind Server “Front-end FC Storage through FC Switches? Assuming there are FC-Adapters in the Starwind Server, will the Starwind Software be able to provide “Other Host Servers” access to the FC Storage through the FC-Switch or Directly Attached to the Starwind Server? Thank you for your time in advance.

[anton (staff)]

Absolutely! You can hand-craft such a solution now and also we'll be releasing StarWind Network Storage Gateway product soon. It's going to do exactly what you want: grab FC storage and export as iSCSI target.

Connection method is entirely up to you. You can save on pretty expensive FC switches or just re-use them if you've managed to have them purchased already )

I have preexisting Fiber Channel Storage Units (Sun 2540 Units) and Switches from my Falconstor installation. If using “StarWind Enterprise HA Unlimited” - Can a Starwind Server “front-end” FC Storage Units? Can a Starwind Server “Front-end FC Storage through FC Switches? Assuming there are FC-Adapters in the Starwind Server, will the Starwind Software be able to provide “Other Host Servers” access to the FC Storage through the FC-Switch or Directly Attached to the Starwind Server? Thank you for your time in advance.

[Aitor_Ibarra]

This is similar to a question I had about front ending iSCSI boxes... would be a way to bring HA to non-HA capable targets.

Basically, if you can write a file to it and windows sees it as a local disk (as opposed to a network share say), then Starwind can put an .img on it and present it as an iSCSI target. It may also be able to do passthrough (as WIndows sees FC disks as SCSI, IIRC).

Starwind now requires windows 2008 as a minimum, so check that you can get drivers for your FC HBAs if they are old!

cheers,

Aitor

[anton (staff)]

It's not a very good idea to use pass-thru as performance is going to be less then great. Putting cached image file is the best way to go here.

This is similar to a question I had about front ending iSCSI boxes... would be a way to bring HA to non-HA capable targets.

Basically, if you can write a file to it and windows sees it as a local disk (as opposed to a network share say), then Starwind can put an .img on it and present it as an iSCSI target. It may also be able to do passthrough (as WIndows sees FC disks as SCSI, IIRC).

Starwind now requires windows 2008 as a minimum, so check that you can get drivers for your FC HBAs if they are old!

cheers,

Aitor

[Aitor_Ibarra]

I've never actually used pass-through for production data!I've always preferred IMG. Still, point is that you can use Starwind to present other SANs as iSCSI targets. Which is great!

[pignatel]

Thank you all for your responses - the tip on performance and looking forward to checking out the "Storage Gateway Product" - Is there a listserv to recive product updates?

[anton (staff)]

You can joing beta team to receive early versions of both StarWind Storage Converter (SAN Gateway) and StarWind Storage Accelerator (multi-gigabyte write-back cache).

[pignatel]

Can Hosts (WMware Servers, Microsoft Servers) also connect to Starwind through Fiber Channel and Fiber Channel Switches? Meaning the Host has Fiber Channel Cards connected to a FC Switch which the Starwind Servers are “Front-ending” / Managing the FC Storage through FC Switches also?

[anton (staff)]

No and we don't have any plans to support FC directly ever. There's no perfomance penalty for 10 GbE iSCSI shop compared to 8 Gbps FC. For only fraction of FC costs. ROI is much better. "Video killed radio star" (c) ...

Can Hosts (WMware Servers, Microsoft Servers) also connect to Starwind through Fiber Channel and Fiber Channel Switches? Meaning the Host has Fiber Channel Cards connected to a FC Switch which the Starwind Servers are “Front-ending” / Managing the FC Storage through FC Switches also?