Name: HPE MSA
Rating: 9.3 (4 reviews)
Author: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Help Desk

Web and Video Conferencing

Customer Support

Bug  Tracking

Help Authoring

Mind Mapping

Development

Business Intelligence (BI)

Collaboration

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Environmental Health and Safety (EHS)

IP PBX

Manufacturing Execution

Enterprise

Accounting

Expense Management

Trust Management

Finance and Accounting

Applicant Tracking

Corporate Learning Management

Employee Referral

HR Management

Payroll

Succession Planning

Talent Intelligence

Talent Management

Workforce Analytics

Workforce Management

Human Resources

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Cloud Storage

Code Review

Data Catalog

Data Fabric

Data Recovery Service

Data Virtualization

Fraud Detection

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

Interoperability

Network Performance Monitoring

Observability

Relational Databases

Server Management

Software-Defined WAN

Storage Area Network

Information Technology

A/B Testing

Ad Serving & Retargeting

Advertising Agency

All-in-One Marketing

Click Fraud

Contact Management

Content Management

Customer Experience Management

Digital Asset Management

Direct Mail Automation

Email Marketing

Local Marketing

Marketing Automation

Social Media Management

Survey & Forms Building

Virtual Event

Web Analytics

Website Builder

Marketing

Project Management

Wireframing

Professional Services

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Sales Coaching

Sales Intelligence

Sales

GDPR Compliance

Security

ID Card

Insurance Policy Administration Systems

Insurance Underwriting and Rating

Last Mile Delivery

Library Management

Pharmacy

Plagiarism Checker

Smart Cities

Telemedicine

Vertical-Specific

medium

Nimble Storage was acquired by HPE in 2017. The enterprise flash array product line now goes by the name HPE Nimble Storage.

HPE Nimble Storage

Enterprise Flash Array Storage

Flash Array Performance

Flash Array Integration

Data Compression

Non-Intrusive Upgrades

Simplicity

Power Savings

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

large

Dell Unity XT hybrid flash arrays are storage systems for running general purpose workloads that do not require the low latencies and speed of all flash/NVMe architectures. Unity XT hybrid flash arrays balance performance, efficiency, features or outcomes.

Dell Unity XT Unified Storage

Dell Technologies

small

IBM's FlashSystem is a flash array storage option.

IBM Storage FlashSystem

HPE StoreOnce is a backup and recovery hardware solution from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, providing disk-based backup, deduplication, and long-term storage. StoreOnce offerings can support virtual and cloud environments for small business, mid-size organizations, and enterprises.

Gen10 Server

HPE StoreOnce

Data Center Backup

Universal recovery

Instant recovery

Recovery verification

Business application protection

Multiple backup destinations

Incremental backup identification

Backup to the cloud

Deduplication and file compression

Snapshots

Flexible deployment

Management dashboard

Platform support

Retention options

Encryption

HPE 3PAR StoreServ is a flash storage option, from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ

HP 3PAR StoreServ Flash Storage HPE 3PAR StoreServ SGI Infinitestorage

NetApp's FAS series systems offers a storage array system for enterprises.

NetApp FAS Storage Arrays

NetApp

The Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series Storage Arrays are storage-area network (SAN) available via hybrid and all flash storage. Presently the product line includes the hybrid storage arrays models ThinkSystem DE2000H, ThinkSystem DE4000H, ThinkSystem DE6000H, and the all-flash storage array models ThinkSystem DE4000F, and ThinkSystem DE6000F.

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Lenovo

QNAP offers a wide array of network-attached storage units for SMBs, home, and enterprise.

QNAP NAS

Network Attached Storage

QNAP Systems

Dell's PowerVault series presents both disk based and tape backup solution. The PowerVault TL and Powervault LTO are tape drives, while the PowerVault DR, RD, and DL series are disk based.

Dell PowerVault Disk Backup and Discovery (DL, TL & ML Series)

Disk Based Backup

Huawei offers OceanStor Dorado, an all-flash storage system boasting a wide range of applications and versatility to meet the needs SMBs, larger enterprises, or vertical industry applications.

Huawei OceanStor

Huawei Technologies

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.

HPE MSA

A Modular Storage Area Network (or Modular SAN) infrastructure emphasizes a scalable, flexible architecture that can be set up with relative ease and simplicity, and at affordable pricing, without making overly great sacrifices in performance.

Modular Storage Area Network (SAN)

HPE MSA Best Practice for Controller Firmware Update

Updating HPE MSA Storage drive firmware demo

Likelihood to Recommend

Likelihood to Renew

At HP, we don't just believe in the power of technology, we believe in the power of people when technology works for you.  We believe in applying new thinking and ideas to improve the way our customers live and work. 
 If you are going to do something, Make it Matter.

Reviews

TrustRadius is a technology and business research firm based in Austin, Texas. The company is known as a review platform for verified B2B technology and software reviews through a proprietary algorithm and human verification.

TrustRadius

End result

Flash storage

Options available

Firmware upgrades

Form factor

Major issues

Better options

Quick to help

Simple implementation

Vmware esxi

Support is excellent

Troubleshooting issues

Quick and effective

Functions well

Disaster recovery

Storage capacity

Home

Modular Storage Area Network (SAN) Solutions

SnapServer NAS

Synology DiskStation

HPE Primera

We utilize the HPE MSA as the SAN of our VMWare ESXI infrastructure in both our main office in NY and our disaster recovery site in New Jersey. We utilize the fiber channel configuration of the MSA, both connected thru a fiber channel switch and also directly connect to the MSA. The business problem it addresses is a full redundant SAN solution for our infrastructure. Ensuring business-critical applications remain operational if there are any hardware issues with the MSA. This is achieved with the dual controller configuration as well as having multiple host bus adapters. Giving us redundancy for controller failures and HBA failures.

Product Usage

Pros and Cons

The HPE MSA gives us the flexibility to determine the RAID configuration of the array so we can maximize its storage capacity.
The HPE MSA's dual controller configuration allows us to upgrade the system's firmware without incurring downtime in our infrastructure. We can upgrade each controller on the array without affecting the LUNS provisioned to our VMWare ESXi environment.
With the flexibility of the configuration, we can utilize either a direct connect setup, utilizing a fabric switch, iSCSI, or a direct SAS connection.
HPE's support is excellent. Troubleshooting issues and part replacements are easy and engineers are readily available to work on issues.

Things done well

Collecting support logs from the HPE MSA could be better. It takes a long time to collect logs, sometimes so long your login times out.
The HPE MSA could have a better management GUI. The layout of the menu, having the navigation buttons all around the edges is odd. It would have been better if it was in just one location.
The drive type and capacity options available can be better between the small form factor and the large form factor. We would have liked better options in the future.

Things done poorly

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.

A positive ROI of the HPE MSA is the ability to configure the RAID set of the array to our requirements. We can maximize the storage capacity of the array improving our ROI.
The flexibility of configuring the HPE MSA is another positive ROI. In our production environment, we can use a fiber channel switch while in our DR office none of that redundancy is required so we directly connected that MSA to our VMWare servers.
HPE's support is another positive ROI. We have been able to connect with support right away to troubleshoot an issue. Part replacement is also excellent, ensuring our HPE MSA is not in a degraded state for long.
The HPE MSA's architecture is rock solid, there have been minimal issues with the hardware, besides the rare time that an SFP has gone bad and needed to be replaced. We've had no issues that brought down the MSA.

Return on Investment

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.

Alternatives

SnapServer NAS, Synology DiskStation, HPE Primera, HPE Nimble Storage

Other Software Used

Director, Network Engineer

HPE MSA 2022-02-24 18:39:28

Plixer Scrutinizer

Microsoft Exchange

Adobe Acrobat

We are using the MSA for disaster recovery. It holds all of our replication VMs and gives us the ability, with the help of VM software, to roll over to the replication cluster in order to bring our systems back up in the event of a disaster at our primary data center.

Functions well as a disaster recovery cluster repository
Since the space is a spinning disk, it is inexpensive
All of our VMs are stored in a mass storage repository on the system, but we could carve out specific LUNs if needed.

Since it is a spinning disk, it isn't as fast as flash storage

The MSA is perfect for Disaster Recovery, but I wouldn't advise using it for production. Production is best left to flash storage and not spinning disk. I think the MSA would be appropriate for a test or sandbox network for testing and training as well. The storage is cheap and it is functional.

We have only been using the MSA for a year so we haven't seen our ROI yet, but we were able to get the same amount of storage on the MSA as Nimble for half the cost.
The MSA is an upgrade to what we previously had.
It is easy to administrate and you can set it and forget it.

The MSA is much cheaper than a Nimble. Spinning disk storage is much cheaper than flash storage. Just know that you are going to get what you pay for. The MSA doesn't stand up to what the Nimble can do, but at the same time, it works really well in disaster recovery scenarios.

Adobe Acrobat DC, Microsoft Exchange, Scrutinizer

Number of users

Network Technician and the IT Project Manager take care of the MSA. If you are familiar with other HP storage products, this should be an easy transition for you. If you haven't used an HP storage product in the past, there will be a bit of a learning curve, but it isn't to hard to pick up on.

HP StorageWorks MSA 2019-01-03 10:21:00

Operating Systems	Unspecified
Mobile Application	No

HPE MSA

Overview

What is HPE MSA?

HPE's MSA, a rock solid dual controller SAN, for multiple possible configuration for multiple deployment needs.

Replication Win with HP StorageWorks MSA

HP Storageworks MSA - Good value choice

Product Demos

Updating HPE MSA Storage drive firmware demo

HPE MSA Best Practice for Controller Firmware Update

Product Details

What is HPE MSA?

HPE MSA Technical Details

Comparisons

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