In my earlier post on the new and delectable HP MSA 2040 SAN storage device, I declared it to be the storage superstar at HP Discover 2013.
I wasn’t kidding.
When you had looked at entry-level SANs a while ago, the space was dominated by EMC’s CLARiiON products.
Luckily for us, we got into the SAN space after making a decision to go all-HP after our first attendance at HP Storage Tech Day in Colorado Springs back in September of 2009.
Impressed by what I saw at HP, I was determined to give them an opportunity to earn our storage business as we moved further upstream for pure SMBs to the midmarket.
HP delivered, and we became users of the P2000, picking up a fairly used unit for internal testing, before eventually placing a small number with our clients that needed the flexibility and reliability that the product delivered.
Well, at HP Discover 2013, HP announced, and delivered the next generation of their entry level SAN, the HP Storage MSA 2040.
I found it completely drool-worthy.
What is the HP Storage MSA 2040 SAN?
The MSA 2040 is an entry-level, 4 Port Converged SAN Controller which currently supports dual FC modules with iSCSI host interfaces expected shortly. I also believe that the MSA 2040 will support mixed-mode iSCSI/FC configurations.
The technical specifications are quite impressive:
- Dual MSA 2040 SAN controllers with 4GB cache each
- 4 8/16Gb FC ports per controller
- Up to 199 SFF (small form factor) SSD, SAS, or midline drives
- Up to 96 LFF (large form factor) SSD, SAS, or midline drives
- 288TB support per SAN using available drive enclosures
- Storage mirroring
- SAN backup
And best of all, it supports Windows Server 2012*, Server 2008, and Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 right out of the box! It also supports VMware ESXi 5x and other OSs we don’t care about here. ;)
Additionally, it supports Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 (SCVMM), and…tada…. Native Windows Server 2012 GUI with a storage configuration tab!
| P2000 | MSA 2040 |
| 2 GB Cache/Controller | 4GB cache/Controller |
| 512 LUNs | 512 LUNs |
| 99 SFF drives | 199 SFF Drives |
| 60 LFF drives | 96 LFF drives |
| (2) 8Gb FC | (4) 16Gb FC |
| (2) 1GbE iSCSI | (4) 8Gb FC |
| (4) 3Gb SAS | |
| 255 Snaps | 512 Snaps |
Moreover, the MSA 2040 offers the ability to make Remote Snaps.
- 64 snapshots standard, full hypervisor integration
- SSD Support
- 8Gb/16Gb FC
- 80,000+ IOPS
Finally….
As you can see, the MSA 2040 is quite the revolutionary upgrade to the P2000.
From the HBAs to the use of SSDs and to the increased capacity, it looks like, and is the entry level SAN to beat. When you mix in Microsoft Windows Server and Systems Center integration from the OOBE, you can see why I am looking forward to testing this SAN.
In addition to our internal tests, I will ask the august members of my Storage Royalty List to help derive testing methodologies I may either not have thought of, or may be overlooking.
My test MSA 2040 should arrive within the next 72 hours.
* I fully intend to use it as my test bed for the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 technologies. Unsupported? Yes/maybe. But, c’est la vie.
© 2002 – 2013, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited
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