DataCore SANsymphony Reviews

The best features of DataCore SANsymphony include replication. The replication feature is great, especially real-time replication, which ensures high availability of the solution.

DataCore SANsymphony's ability to enhance storage utilization is very good because it's agnostic and it can be deployed on every environment, which is perfect for my clients.

DataCore SANsymphony brings stability to the infrastructures, and the infrastructures are healthy after, along with the redundancy. The administrator can be confident knowing that all the infrastructure is redundant.

The area of DataCore SANsymphony that has room for improvement is the support.

I cannot determine if certain features have been deployed and are available in the new software sold by DataCore.

I have worked with this solution for 15 years.

I would rate technical support from DataCore SANsymphony a 10. Each time I contact the technical support, it's when I don't have a choice because it's very difficult for me on site, and each time, I have good people online who are able to help me solve the problem.

Usually, the problems are not very technically difficult, but sometimes they are, and the support team is still there to help us resolve them. The majority of the problems are linked to licensing, so when the license has expired or the number is not correct, they are proactive and change things live, which is very good.

Positive

The initial setup of the solution is quite simple to deploy, quite simple to analyze, and it's not so hard to administrate. It's a good solution.

I am an integrator and a DataCore partner working with Neovad, which is the distributor of the software. I buy the solution through Neovad and integrate the solution for clients when I am on site for the final client.

Regarding the pricing of the solution, it's better than before. They have made some improvements regarding the pricing, but it's still too expensive. As an integrator, I consider that it's at a good price.

It will be okay to ask a few questions about my experience with the solution. I can assure you it won't take long, just a couple of minutes.

I rate DataCore SANsymphony a nine out of ten. It's not the best solution in the world, but the solution is quite good, very user-friendly, and very performant.

I usually recommend DataCore SANsymphony for companies in the domain of research, energy, governmental, and education.

Stability, the price, and ergonomics are the features I find most valuable in DataCore SANsymphony.

DataCore SANsymphony's auto-tiering is working well and is a great feature.

DataCore SANsymphony is improving the access speed of data, the reading, and the writing significantly. I can see it when I deploy the solution, but just as with auto-tiering, I don't know by which multipliers it improves performance in fact.

I assess DataCore SANsymphony's ability to enhance storage utilization across heterogeneous environments.

It's difficult to know how DataCore SANsymphony can be improved.

I think DataCore SANsymphony could be deployed on Linux environments, which could be a great thing for clients.

I would like to see the stabilization of the Veeam implementation in the future, and perhaps the integration or officialization of compatibility with Proxmox and XCP-ng.

With Proxmox, it wasn't easy while integrating it with third-party solutions. It's working, but it was a bit difficult to deploy.

I have been working with DataCore overall for 15 years.

The implementation process is easy for DataCore SANsymphony. I know the solution perfectly and I know how to deploy it without any mistakes. It's very easy.

I think the technical support by DataCore is very good. I rate their technical support a 10.

Positive

I don't use DataCore SANsymphony's analytics and reporting features as much as I could because I am implementing the solution, and later I am going to take reports, a part of reports, but I'm not a specialist of the reporting part of the product.

I am saying that the pricing is reasonable. It's not that expensive, and the product is also pretty stable. It's a good solution and the price is okay regarding the other products.

I see some good competition to DataCore SANsymphony at the moment.

I don't think DataCore SANsymphony is the best option on the market at the moment as they still could learn something from their competitors.

It's very difficult to answer how DataCore SANsymphony's auto-tiering feature is helping my customers with optimizing storage performance. I don't know how many or from how many, but it's improving performance.

I leverage DataCore SANsymphony's caching feature, as it's activated by default from the start. I never utilize DataCore SANsymphony's asynchronous replication.

DataCore SANsymphony may not be well-known in Switzerland, and we can deploy more, but they are not aligned with the strategy and topology of DataCore. However, in France, it's okay. The situation is different in Switzerland.

Our main use case for DataCore SANsymphony is that we are a very big company that has two sites with a distance of 50 kilometers and it needed disaster recovery and business continuity.

I have nothing else to add about my main use case.

The best features DataCore SANsymphony offers are that it is independent from other vendors and it is very scalable.

This flexibility and scalability have helped our organization in practice because it is important for us as it decouples the storage management software from the physical hardware, creating a software layer of intelligence.

DataCore SANsymphony has positively impacted our organization because it is scalable and has a fundamental concept that aggregates and pools available storage resources, hiding the complexity, which makes it very simple.

DataCore SANsymphony can be improved with high availability as it offers synchronous mirroring between physical and separate sites to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery.

I do not have more to add about any needed improvements or any challenges we've faced.

DataCore SANsymphony is stable.

DataCore SANsymphony's scalability is very simple and very high.

The customer support is perfect.

I would rate the customer support a 10 on a scale of one to 10.

Positive

We previously used Pure Storage many years ago before switching to DataCore SANsymphony.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that in many cases it is expensive, but we can find a solution every time to have a discount for selling it.

I have seen a return on investment as we need fewer employees.

DataCore SANsymphony is deployed in our organization as a hybrid cloud.

Before choosing DataCore SANsymphony, I did not evaluate other options.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate DataCore SANsymphony a 10.

I gave it a 10 because it's a very good product.

My advice to others looking into using DataCore SANsymphony is that its scalability, independence, and ability to resolve many problems regarding business continuity and disaster recovery make it an excellent choice.

I do not have any additional thoughts about DataCore SANsymphony before we wrap up.

Positive

We use the product for customers seeking a simple yet highly redundant storage solution independent of any specific hardware. It supports synchronous mirroring and enables storage migrations across different hardware platforms, making it versatile.

The platform's most valuable feature is its synchronous mirroring capability, which ensures bit-identical copies of data and offers excellent failover capacity. Additionally, the storage migration feature with pass-through functionality is useful.

One area where the solution could improve is its software platform. Many customers have expressed dissatisfaction with the software running on Microsoft Windows. Although an attempt was made to develop a Linux version, that project did not advance, and it remains a concern for some users.

The price could be an obstacle for some customers, especially considering the additional costs for hardware and storage. 

I have been working with DataCore SANsymphony for about ten years. I am currently working with the latest version of the storage virtualization solution, which is version 10. The most recent update I am using is version 10.17. I initially started with version 9 in 2014, which was eventually replaced by version 10.0.

The software is very stable. I rate the stability a nine out of ten. 

The solution is highly scalable, accommodating as much storage as needed, and independent of specific hardware. I rate the scalability a ten. 

The vendor's support is fast and highly qualified, making it a reliable resource for resolving issues.

Positive

The initial setup is relatively easy but requires a certified DataCore implementation engineer to deploy the solution in a production environment. 

The deployment following the qualified procedure, typically takes about a week, depending on the amount of storage and the specific environment. With my experience, I can set up the system within two to four hours; however, the qualification process, which includes detailed planning and testing, adds additional time.

It involves gathering the customer's requirements, preparing comprehensive documentation for validation, and conducting tests in collaboration with the customer. This documentation includes a site planning checklist, a pre-installation checklist, and a functional test plan to ensure everything is in order before deployment.

Overall, I rate the process an eight. 

I rate the pricing of this solution as an eight. It is relatively expensive, and the additional costs for hardware and storage can make it a significant investment for customers.

The solution's auto-tiering feature significantly improves customer data efficiency by automatically migrating frequently accessed data to the fastest available storage tier. This dynamic data management helps ensure optimal performance.

I advise others considering this solution to ensure they have a highly experienced consultant or implementation engineer overseeing the installation. A well-planned and carefully executed installation is crucial to fully reaping the advantages of this storage virtualization solution.

Overall, I rate it an eight.

Our company uses SANSymphony as the central storage system for our ESXi servers, which is characterized by a redundant structure. We deploy five hosts in each of our two data centers, resulting in a total of ten ESXi hosts. Together, these hosts manage over 300 virtual machines (VMs) that support a variety of business-critical applications and services. The servers in our data centers are interconnected via 16G Fiber Channel (FC) switches, which ensures fast and reliable data transfer between the hosts. The connections between the data centers are implemented using dark fiber. 

DataCore, the provider of our storage system, provides 40 TB of storage space per node. As we have two nodes per data center, this results in a total of 80 TB per server. This capacity is essential to cover the storage requirements of our extensive VM environment. 

To ensure optimum performance, we have distributed the VMs across five logical units (LUNs). This distribution allows us to better control and optimize performance as each LUN can support specific workloads and requirements. This setup provides us with a robust, scalable and high-performance infrastructure that is critical to maintaining our daily operations and supporting our continued growth.

From 2023, we have significantly improved our storage infrastructure with the new DataCore system, which is equipped exclusively with NVMe SSDs. The impact of this technology upgrade was immediate. 

Before implementing NVMe SSDs, the response times of our virtual machines (VMs) were 30-40 milliseconds. After switching to the new DataCore system with NVMe SSDs, we saw a dramatic improvement: Response times dropped to an impressive one to four milliseconds. This significant performance improvement has allowed us to increase the density of our VMs. We can now run even more VMs on the same hosts without sacrificing performance.

Another important aspect of the new DataCore system is its synchronous mirroring feature. This feature provides us with improved data security as it creates an exact copy of our data on a secondary system in real-time. This is particularly valuable for maintaining business continuity and for disaster recovery scenarios. In addition, synchronous mirroring simplifies maintenance and patching operations considerably. As an exact copy of our

A key feature that makes DataCore SANsymphony an extremely useful solution for our storage infrastructure is its synchronous mirroring capability. This feature enables seamless and fast switching between mirrored data sets, which is critical for maintaining business continuity and minimizing downtime. Especially in critical situations where immediate recovery is required, synchronous mirroring proves to be indispensable. 

Another advantage of SANsymphony is its ease of use, especially when installing or upgrading the system. The processes are relatively simple and intuitive. This saves valuable time and resources and reduces the likelihood of errors when implementing such processes. 

I also appreciate the direct contact with DataCore at events. These opportunities are invaluable as they give me the chance to speak directly to the people who are sometimes responsible. Such conversations not only provide the opportunity to gain deeper insights into the workings and future developments of SANsymphony, but also to clarify specific questions or concerns directly with the experts. This direct exchange is particularly advantageous as it enables a personal and individual approach.

I still see room for improvement with DataCore SANsymphony in the area of alarm and task management. Currently, I find these functions somewhat confusing and there is a lack of flexibility in customizing settings according to our specific needs. One challenge we face is the handling of alerts. For example, we constantly receive alert emails when our backup script is running. This happens because for a short period of about one second the database is stopped, which DataCore recognizes as a state change and triggers a warning. However, these warnings are misleading in our case, as stopping the database is necessary for the backup script and does not represent an actual danger to the system. 

Looking ahead to future developments, such as the upcoming PSP17 release, DataCore appears to be addressing some of these concerns. One of the planned changes, the removal of the display of all VMs in the console, is a step in the right direction. This feature is not necessary for most users, as usually no DataCore disks are passed directly through to a VM, but is always done through the ESXi host. These improvements show that DataCore is responding to user feedback and strives to continuously optimize its products.

I've used the solution since 2016.

The stability is very good due to the mirroring.

The scalability is very good! Hard disks can easily be added.

I assume this refers to DataCore support. They have always been able to help us quickly, and if you have dumps, they look at them properly and look for solutions. So far, we have always been satisfied with the support

Positive

No, we did not use a central storage solution before, however, we only used local hard disks of the ESXi.

The initial installation is carried out together with a professional. However, I found this to be quite simple

The installation must be carried out by a certified technician. This is not from the manufacturer directly but from a system house or similar. In our case, the expertise was very good.

By using them centrally, we save the costs of the hard disks on the ESXi.

You should start small, as data deduplication reduces the amount of data. One problem could be that an FC infrastructure structure has to be set up. It might be better to switch to an alternative that you already have.

Yes, we got quotes from the market leaders. However, they were usually far too expensive for a completely new purchase.

Concentration on existing infrastructures is important so that the customer does not have such extremely high acquisition costs.

I needed to protect the storage of my virtual machines in my VMware vSphere cluster. The simplicity of management and the increase in its capacity were a mandatory technological choice. I don't have a large infrastructure; I wanted to secure it on two sites. This choice allowed me not to invest in two large storage bays at the time of purchase, to invest a large sum at the time of purchase, and to continue paying for the entire lifespan and use. The savings can be used for other investments.

The solution is made up of two servers loaded with several hard drives with several third parties. it is possible to use different types of hard drives (SATA, SAS, SSD, NVME) and even reuse storage bays on iSCSI or FCP protocols. A simple network with protection thanks to multipathing on the front end but also the back end and mirror links. Its console allows you to administer the entire solution from 1 administrator station but also from the servers themselves if you partition the storage infrastructure for security reasons.

Replication between servers is really the main function. It allows data to be available from two DataCore servers. Once the paths are discovered, the configured storage areas are automatically presented on the front-end links. 

Data and access protection is truly a product that can be trusted and is robust. Many large companies have trusted this solution for several years. Thanks to its simplicity of administration, the procedures for teams who do not know the solution are simple to carry out. This is also an important point for the publisher.

The solution is constantly evolving. Recently, deduplication and compression have been further improved to meet customer needs, and updates are easily implemented without stopping production. The update assistant checks the state of health before using good practices, during checks that the data is still presented for service continuity, and afterward, if the actions carried out are indeed active. Technical support is truly available even without a production incident. This is really essential right now.

I discovered the product when it was released, however, I've only put it into production since version 10.

Smart bays are also operational. However, the purchase and maintenance costs have become very excessive

The installation is really important. It is preferable that the installation be carried out by a certified integrator. This is perhaps a little more expensive than doing it yourself, however, the good practices imposed by the publisher are respected.

I did not evaluate other options. I was presented with the product and the solution appealed to me. I inquired about their client's testimonials. Everything was beneficial for us.

The primary use case is the provisioning of high-performance and redundant storage for our VMware platform. With the help of auto-tiering, the data lands on the optimal storage tier for it. Furthermore, integration into the backup system is very important to us. We use Veeam B&R, which, with SANsymphony integration, is able to work much more efficiently via storage snapshots. 

We use SANsymphony within a data center distributed over two locations. This was very easy to implement. This also includes settings that optimize the data traffic between the locations.
We plan to extend our system to 4 nodes. We want use the 2nd synchronous mirror to enhance the resiliance.

With SANsymphony, we were able to set up fully redundant storage across two locations. We use SANsymphony as the main storage for our cloud and dedicated customer environments. 

We were impressed by the integration into virtualization and the backup system. SANsymphony integrates seamlessly into our VMware platforms. Auto-tiering enables us to keep the storage content on the optimal storage tier easily. 

Synchronous mirroring ensures very high availability for us and our customers. In the event of maintenance or failure, an automatic failover takes place. The automatic failback is the cherry on top of the cake.

With the new functions of the 2nd synchronous mirror, data can now be kept even more secure and availability increased.

Integration with Veeam Backup & Replication has enabled us to improve our backup infrastructure significantly. 

The use of storage snapshots and backup via Fibre Channel reduces the load on the productive infrastructure.

It is the sum of the many, often outstanding, individual functions that help us to ensure economical and safe operation for us and our customers. The most important functions for us are

The synchronous mirror allows us to operate a fully redundant storage solution that is distributed across two sites. It can even cover the failure of an entire site. This also benefits us during complex maintenance work, as no downtime is required. 
With the 2nd synchronous mirror, full redundancy is still provided even in the event of maintenance or an unplanned outage. I know of no other storage system that offers something like this.

Auto-tiering enables us to store the data on the storage tier that is optimal for it. This also works within a vDisk, so old or cold data ends up on cheaper data carriers than the new or hot data accessed more frequently.

SANsymphony is being continuously developed. This makes it easier for us to respond to new challenges.

I see potential here in the support of NVMeoF, both as a target and in the backend. In addition, there should be new ways to improve the redundancy of the pools created with it - e.g. through extended RAID functionality (RAID5 or RAID6) or erasure coding.

Management could be improved. The management console sometimes reacts very slowly.

In the area of the HCI solution, I could imagine a different mode of operation. For example, a group of servers form a pool in which the data can be stored. 

Protection could also be guaranteed here via replication and erasure coding.

We have been using Datacore SANsymphony since 2007.

The systems are very stable. No great administrative effort is required to keep the system in good condition. Provided it is well-sized, it optimizes itself.

SANsymphony is very adaptable. Increasing the storage capacity and/or improving performance through faster systems in the backend are no problem.

Datacore support is one of the best in the industry. They offer a fast response and competent answers or even remote sessions. Support is always available 24/7/365.

Positive

We used StoreAge SVM with Dothill storage systems. 

SANsymphony has more and better functions. The TCO is also better.

The setup is quite simple if you are familiar with the storage environment. Certification as a DCIE is required. This ensures that you are sufficiently familiar with the system to install and administer it.

We did implement it in-house.

I can't give an exact ROI. The stability, availability, and performance pay for themselves immediately.

Good sizing is the basis for a stable and high-performance environment. It is important to plan in sufficient reserves.

It can make sense to license a higher number of TB if this puts you in a better price category.

We did not evaluate other options.

SANsymphony is best in class. It's flexible, like a Swiss army knife.

SANsymphony is our software-defined storage platform that provides the best scalable high availability of our files, and it seems to have the best data protection. 

It enables us to deploy multiple servers and multiple sites to increase data availability. 

SANsymphony ensures business continuity with three lines of defense: transparent bypass of storage problems, reactivation at another location, and secure recovery of an earlier ‘healthy’ data state.

We have had no problems with our files for more than ten years.

Our filesystem has been a reliable and robust system that has been serving us well for many years. We have been using it without any issues, and it has been working smoothly and efficiently. 

The system has only experienced short downtimes for updates, which can be done part by part. This means that the company users don’t even notice any service downtimes. 

Our filesystem is a testament to our commitment to providing the best possible service to our employees, and we are proud of its performance over the years.

Our redundant file space is a reliable and robust system that has been serving us well for many years. We have been using it without any issues, and it has been working smoothly and efficiently. The system has been designed to ensure that there is no data loss, and we have not experienced any problems with it. Our redundant file space is a testament to our commitment to providing the best possible service to our users, and we are proud of its performance over the years.

Our system is designed to be scalable and flexible, so it can grow and adapt to meet the changing needs of our clients.

We regularly update our software and hardware to ensure that we are using the latest technology and security protocols. We monitor our system 24/7 to ensure that it is always running smoothly.

We have been using this product for a while now. And we have to say that we are still impressed. We need no more features. Our company needs no added or new features; it’s the best solution as it is at the moment. 

The product is (for our implementation) stable and secure. We highly recommend the solution as it is. Use it how it is, and you will see how perfectly it is working.

I'd like to see the company make the renewal of the software cheaper.

I've used the solution for more than ten Years. Our distribution partner recommended this solution. This was the best decision we have made.

We did use a different solution, however, DataCore brings us more comfort.

The service cost and setup are low. Licensing could be cheaper.

Our service provider recommended DataCore, and we have trusted the choices of our partner.

Our primary use case is to provide central storage for our VMware virtualization environment. 

We use DataCore SANsymphony within a data center spread over two locations. In the main data center, the storage is mirrored and asynchronously replicated in the second data center. 

DataCore SANsymphony provides us with a high-performance and redundant storage environment for our VMware platform. Hardware independence is a great advantage. With the help of auto-tiering in three levels, the data is available at optimal speed.

DataCore SANsymphony ensures high business continuity. For example, through the possible reactivation of vDisks at another location and the secure restoration of a previous “healthy” data state. 

The synchronous mirroring of the vDisks ensures very high data availability for employees. Company users do not notice service or maintenance; hardware replacement and updates can be carried out virtually unnoticed. 

In addition, synchronous mirroring simplifies maintenance and patching operations considerably.

The most important features of DataCore SANsymphony are the scalability and flexibility of this system. 

The infrastructure provides high fault tolerance through redundancy mechanisms such as memory mirroring or parity. 

What should be emphasized is the minimization of downtime. Our central storage has very high availability. 

Another advantage of DataCore SANsymphony is its ease of use, especially when presenting storage to virtual machines via Fibre-Channel. 

Ultimately, the sum of the excellent individual functions ensures the economical and safe operation of the storage system for our employees.

The constant further development of the product is a positive aspect. This means that useful functions are added or some are eliminated. 

DataCore should integrate its own file server into SANsymphony. A solution like vFilo is very comprehensive. The additional infrastructure for this is very complex. Its range of functions is too large for most use cases. Rather, I would like to see a file service that can provide mirrored folder shares which data should be able to be deduplicated and compressed.

We have been using Datacore SANsymphony since 2010.

very stable

No

We did not evaluate other options. We wanted DataCore SANsymphony.