HPE MSA (modular smart array), formerly HP StorageWorks MSA, is a series of storage appliances, from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, a product line built for a modest budget, available as the HPE MSA 2052 hybrid flash array, the HPE MSA 2500 SAN storage appliance, and the MSA 1050 SAN storage.
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Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers
Score 10.0 out of 10
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Lenovo now offers and supports the former BladeCenter blade servers and products, since acquiring the product line from IBM. The product line is now offered as the Lenovo Flex System series of blade servers.
The HPE MSA is best suited for basic SAN requirements. Having dual controllers provides redundancy and allows for firmware upgrades without incurring downtime to the environment. It provides enough IOPS for most workloads be it VMWare or servers requiring storage. For applications such as MS SQL or Exchange, other SAN solutions would be better. Plus the lack of storage snapshot capabilities is also a detriment to the product line. Lack of any reporting capability is also an issue especially when determining workload capabilities.
It's possible that a Lenovo Flex System Blade Servers won't be useful in a less substantial setting. It is more cost-effective to buy separate servers if you need only a few. A BladeCenter would be useful if you have a requirement for several servers, require high levels of uptime and redundancy, or must share a SANS. I've dealt with other businesses where I was first instructed on how to use a mouse. Doing so is pointless given that you have been called to report a malfunctioning system. They are quick to respond, and if you require replacement hardware, they will even drive to your location to get and deliver the necessary components.
The Lenovo BladeCenter has a management feature that notifies the IT staff when there are any hardware problems. It is extremely convenient to receive notifications for potential problems that we can address before they become problems. It also allows us to log into one place and see the status of all BladeCenter servers. That is very helpful.
It is very easy to configure servers for purchase. You only need to choose the processor and memory, and maybe an additional card if you have special requirements. If you want the server to boot using it's own hard drives, then you would need to add that. If it will boot from a SANS, then that is not even needed. The rest is handled by the BladeCenter.
The physical BladeCenter is designed to see if there are any issues at a glance. There are a led's on the front of the unit that allow you to see the status of much of the hardware.
There is a remote management feature that allows you to see the servers from one application without having to open several remote sessions from Windows of some other VNC service. You can just open a web browser and easily click a drop down to switch back and forth to see your server screens. This is very convenient if you are doing mass server maintenance and restarting several servers at once.
Hardware maintenance is very easy. Instead of dismounting a heavy server from a rack, or lifting a large server tower, these are light-weight blades that slide out of the BladeCenter. They are very easy to take out, add memory or change processors, or do whatever maintenance is needed, and then just slide back into the BladeCenter.
Firmware upgrades. We have had major issues on two occasions, causing extended downtime. HP was quick to help and resolve, but I am not sure why our simple implementation caused an issue that should have been picked up by testing prior to release. Once was bad, twice painful. The end result is that we purchased a unit solely to test firmware upgrades on, not really great for us!
Support life span. Units go end of life support after around 4 years, a little too short for us.
It is a functioning Replication system for us and checks all the boxes that the auditors are looking for. Further, it is inexpensive and the storage we purchased was cheap. HP has a good reputation in the industry that plays into the decision also.
They are reliable, safe and very profitable equipment, their operation is easy, they provide high availability as all their components are redundant and thus the continuity of the operation can be guaranteed wherever they are installed, in addition to having the option of gradual growth, you can start with a single node and grow until the chassis is full.
The dual controller configuration of the HPE MSA trumps the Synology DiskStation's single controller configuration. For that alone, I would select the HPE MSA. Without that setup, any controller issue or firmware upgrade is disruptive to the systems the SAN is providing storage to. Furthermore, HPE's support is better than what Synology currently provides. The lack of phone support on Synology's part slows down the troubleshooting of issues compared to HPE. Furthermore, HPE's engineers are able to do a remote session and can work on the problems directly compared to Synology's support.
Data Domain is one of the most impressive things in the world. The possibility to reduce our backup size, and deliver without any losses back it's just impressive. I understand and it's easy for everyone to understand how it works, but looking in front of you, following the process, and seeing an entire VM return after a disaster recovery in 10 minutes is a dream come true.
Rather than launching multiple Windows or VNC sessions to monitor multiple servers, you can use the application's remote management capability instead.
Our IT department was able to more quickly and easily acquire buy-in for necessary expenditures and accomplish other goals.
True cost savings require figuring in the price of the BladeCenter itself, which may seem exorbitant at first glance.
