DataCore SANsymphony Reviews

The solution is used for the provision of high performance and high availability block storage. By using auto-tiering, many applications can benefit from the high performance of current NVMe SSDs. At the same time, cold data is kept on low-cost storage resources.

The separation of data streams from different applications (e.g. SAP HANA, SQL server, virtualisation) also increases overall performance and availability.

The use of snapshots for data backup is already planned and scheduled. For this purpose, Veeam Backup 11 will be connected to SSY. The backup will then be LANless via Fibre Channel.

Among other things, we used SSY to bring a Splunk installation onto the existing central DataCore storage. Continuous data transfer rates of up to 2.6 GByte/s (16GB Fibre Channel, dual fabric synchronously mirrored systems over 20km) were also achieved.

The project was also much cheaper and easier to implement than any comparable solution.

The services already running (databases, virtualization) are not affected and run with the same performance as before the expansion.

Veeam is now configured to use storage snapshots. This reduces VMware snapshots to a minimum. The backup runs via Fibre Channel and relieves the LAN.

Synchronous mirroring was a prerequisite for the project. Two data centers are used, which are connected via two different WAN routes. 16G FC is used via the WAN. The "Systems managed Mirroring" feature was used for this.

Another feature that makes high performance possible is "pool striping", where accesses are distributed over a larger number of external data volumes (LUNs). The limiting factor for performance here is the external storage that is connected to the DataCore servers.

Snapshots are also an important feature. In connection with external applications, these enable an improvement in data protection.

CDP is an important feature for avoiding data loss in the event of ransomware attacks. You need more storage capacity, however, you get the possibility to return at any time and use the data saved up to that point. The recovery is much faster than with a classic restore.

With dedupe and compression, we can now save considerable capacity. An expansion of the capacity and thus the purchase of new licenses are thus avoided.

For an upcoming release, I would like to see a function that can manage the storage of multiple Datacore servers in a kind of "erasure coding". This would simplify scaling and make SSY more competitive with other providers.

NVMeoF should be implemented. This protocol will play a major role in storage infrastructure in the future.

Network protocols are becoming increasingly important. For future projects, protocols such as RoCE should be implemented. Especially in LAN infrastructures from 25G, a simpler and high-performance SAN infrastructure could be built here. The costs should be lower compared to Fibre Channel.

Improving support will be very difficult as it is already one of the best in the IT world.

I have been implementing SSY very successfully with many clients since 2008.

The system runs very stable. Through the use of server pairs, there is no more downtime. The storage service is always available, even if maintenance has to be carried out or a hardware defect has to be repaired.

The performance can be scaled very easily by adding data devices of the desired performance class.

It is also very easy to expand the capacity. By adding low-cost storage, cold data can be stored there. This also ensures that the hot data can be accessed with high performance.

Datacore offers one of, if not the best, technical support teams in the industry. Every request is handled very competently and in a short time.

The SEs are also very well trained and competent. They are always available for questions and are also very willing to give suggestions and information.

Positive

We previously used Netapp Metro Cluster. We switched due to the costs for the infrastructure (Metro Cluster) were too high. The performance was also no longer sufficient. The solution was too inflexible.

The implementation is somewhat more complex than with simple storage. In addition to the actual storage resources and the SAN infrastructure, the x86 server with Windows Server and SSY must also be installed.

The configuration of the storage is easy, as it is best to create many identical volumes and present them to the Datacore server.

These volumes are then included in the pool within SSY and centrally managed there.

The SAN configuration includes the construction of a FrontEnd, BackEnd, and Mirror layer. It is a little more complex, but not complicated.

The host systems access the resources via SSY, so these must also be configured in SSY. On the other hand, only the SSY servers need to be set up on the storage.

Being a DCIE myself, I did the installation.

Since the environment is dynamic (for example, changes, extensions), the ROI is not easy to determine. However, the TCO is more favorable than with other solutions.

Good planning is always very important. SSY is very flexible and can cover very different requirements. Therefore, it is important to keep a close eye on the requirements. If you have questions before implementation, ask support or a partner.

Also, pay attention to licensing. It may be cheaper to license a few TB more if you can make a jump in the discount scale.

Also note: Using DAS (internal storage) can be very cost-effective compared to external storage.

We considered different solutions such as Netapp FAS-Series, HP MSA, and 3Par.

I am glad to have used SSY. The solution is very stable and performs well. It requires very little effort.

What you do have to do, however, is regularly apply Windows patches. To do this, the node has to be restarted. You should therefore always use a pair with synchronous mirrors to avoid downtime.

DataCore is the primary storage solution for all of our VMware hosts, installed on a Dell EMC RX740 server with a combination of spinning and NVMe storage. We have just moved to a 2-host, hyperconverged solution utilizing DataCore. All of our servers and services are running off the 2-node DataCore solution.

DataCore has helped provide flexible, highly available, high-performance storage that otherwise would have been outside our price range.

The most valuable feature is auto-tiering, which allows for storage pools containing different speed storage systems and the data automatically moved to the most appropriate pool.

The cost is becoming prohibitive since they moved to a subscription model.  'Education' pricing is such in name only (we are a school).

When we originally purchased Datacore (in 2014) it was on a perpetual basis and provided exceptional value for money. We have renewed our DataCore solution this year, in 2019, and have found that DataCore has moved to a subscription model. Not only was the initial licensing far higher than previously, partly due to additional storage requirements but also because we can no longer acquire a 'limited' license and we also find we now have a large subscription to pay each year.

DataCore has been incredibly stable in the last six years that we've been using it, with zero downtime due to a failure in the DataCore component.

DataCore gives me the impression that it is hugely scalable. We currently use it on a tiny scale of two nodes, but this would be expandable to many many more.

DataCore support has always been top-notch whenever we've called on their services, although this has admittedly been rarely due to the stability of the product.

Previously we had local storage on separate physical servers. DataCore seemed the ideal solution for our vSAN when moving to a virtualized environment in VMware.

The initial setup of a conventional vSAN is straightforward.

Our recent setup of a two-node hyperconverged solution was a little more complicated, though this was mainly due to the Dell servers we had ordered as hosts, rather than DataCore itself. The DataCore consultants setting up the solution were very knowledgable and it was completed without too much trouble.

Our solution was implemented through a DataCore specialist, external contractor, who helped configure the whole solution.

When we initially purchased DataCore, it was extremely cost-effective with a perpetual license. They have since moved to a subscription model, which may prove too expensive for us in the future.

Make sure you are made aware of the annual subscription cost when purchasing.

DataCore appeared to be the most suitable, best-value solution at the time and as such, we did not evaluate other alternatives.

The product is primarily used for providing block storage space for the virtualization environment.

The server nodes caching algorithms will speed up your SAN storage performance, even if you are already using a high-class FC attached enterprise storage system.

The DataCore is open in order to attach a lot of different storage subcomponents.

The SDS is not dependent on a special hardware vendor. You will be able to mirror between different vendor systems if you like/need to. For example, to mirror data between one node with locally attached storage and the opposite node with an FC attached NetApp system. The data migration between old and new HW is quite simple.

The DataCore system has been rock solid since we have been using it - from 2007 on.

The caching functionality, which could speed up your attached storage, is great.

We use the reserved x% of space for free for new writes as additional speed improvement for multiple tier pools.

DataCore will reserve a percentage of your storage tier and tried to keep it free to write directly new data into it. In that case, your new writes will go directly in the free space of tier 1, which is the most common and fastest one. Afterward, data will be kept in tier1 or destaged to other tiers (2, 3, 4, etc.). This setting improved our SAN Speed for the complete pool.

It would be ideal if they were providing archive licensing with the ability to create a second pool on existing storage nodes. Maybe they could do it with limited max IO and/or without auto-tiering capabilities for the archive pool - to avoid interference with the performance pool.

I've used the solution since 2007 when the product was called SAN Melody.

The solution has 100% storage availability and we've had that for more than ten years.

There is scalability without any limit.

Customer Service is very fast. There is a high level of expertise and they are willing to help and assist you. They are industry-leading, I would say.

Positive

The local storage was used before and we found that it was not flexible enough.

The initial setup was straightforward and easy. With good planning and knowledge of your own environment, the setup works like a charm.

DataCore provides well-documented configuration guides.

It was a combined installation. Would like to say that the vendor assisted us.
Their knowledge and support were great, as was our internal expertise.

The availability is the best ROI.

DataCore is a good and valuable solution. The licensing costs depend on the storage and the volume of use. They were leveling on a good basis.

We did not evaluate any other solution.

DataCore is only as good as your plan for your environment. First, you need to know your own environment, including: 
- storage space
- throughput
- burst IO
- avarage IO. 
- good planning and testing.

Perfect choosen hardware is one that fits your needs. If you have that combined with DataCore, you will guarantee a success story.

SANsymphony is a hardware-independent solution that provides storage virtualization. We implemented SANsymphony because of its mirrors feature. So it allows you to store the data on two sides synchronously on a single storage server. However, that single storage server consists of two independent hardware boxes in two data centers, but it behaves like one storage server because it's mirrored. No other vendor was offering that kind of transparent behavior when we implemented it.

SANsymphony is flexible, with many potential options for implementation. SANsymphony's can be used with VMware, Hyper-V, or even with a hypervisor agnostic approach. It can also be used for strictly physical non-virtualized solutions.

SANsymphony is missing some features that vSAN has. For example, vSAN has a special feature called continuous data protection. It provides the ability to go back in time to a given moment. You can see what was on your disk in the past up to two weeks. That's a great feature because ransomware attacks are increasingly common, and that provides you some kind of protection.

I've been using different DataCore solutions for about 15 years.

SANsymphony's scalability is huge. 

I rate SANSymphony eight out of 10. I believe it's a great product with many excellent features. 

We use the DataCore software to provide (virtual) storage hardware to our virtualisation environment (VMware ESX).

• SANsymphony gives us the possibility to get storage redundancy with a very good ROI.
• It also helps us to get a more balanced performance of our storage systems.

• Redundancy of vdisk: It provides less downtime.
• Continuous data protection: It is always good to have a possibility to "go back".
• Technical support: Technical support is amazing. It is very fast and always has a solution in no time.

• It will help if there is a possibility to backup the vdisks directly.
• An idea could be that there is a second storage just for backup which doesn't count to the license usage.
• A better (and easier) tool to detect performance issues.

With SANsymphony we never had any issues of stability.

It is very scalable because you can just extend the storage with other (different) hardware. There is a lot of certified storage hardware. Also, the tier level helps to scale.

Fast, faster, DataCore support.

They are also kind and solution-oriented. They are easy to understand, and you have the feeling they want to help you and get you satisfied.

No, we have only used DataCore SANsymphony as SDS.

The setup was done by our IT partner. It is complex because he also had to set up our iSCSI environment. With Fibre Channel it would be much easier.

Our IT partner started the initial installation. We implemented it in our environment.
The partner had very good expertise.

We didn't calculate the ROI.

We have not calculated the ROI of the software. Only the benefits in redundancy and scalability were important for us.

The licensing is very easy to understand/calculate since the new license model. You just have to license the storage and additional features.

No.

The installation is only supported if it is installed by a DataCore certified implementation engineer. Also, updates should be done by this DCIE.

If you want to manage everything by yourself, you have to get a DCIE.

We use DataCore to improve the redundancy of our virtual machines so that we can achieve high availability of our server systems.

We are now able to run a hot standby solution for our virtual systems with separated server rooms (in case of fire), and so we can minimize downtimes of our IT infrastructure.

• High availability of storage
• Stability and performance
• Fast implementation and integration.

Installation time was about one day. Since then, it runs stable.

The product runs stable in the background and does what it should do, so I don't have any special issues at the moment, but increasing performance and improving the user interface for easier setup is always a good idea.

It runs fast and stable.

Since its installation, we had no problems.

In our actual environment it runs stable and fast, and about scalability, I can not (yet) say anything, sorry.

To be honest, we did not need the support until now.

No, we did not.

We installed it through our IT partner. Installation time took around one day.

Installed by our standard IT partner.

Expert level I think.

Increased high availability.

The product was installed by our IT partner in one day, so the installation cost is OK.

Pricing and licensing was also fair.

The product was offered by our system integrator, they had installed it several times for other customers without problems, so we trusted them and they were right.

Maybe using a good IT partner who already has some experience with the product.

We can not afford periods for maintenance. So we need a solution with which we can provide appropriate high availability. 100% guaranteed with DataCore SANSymphony-V.

Our data centers are divided into three sections. It is possible that the provision of data is guaranteed in the event of an error. We use a three-way-mirror from DataCore SANSymphony-V.

• Three-way mirror synchronization of the data over three sections
• Auto-tiering: effective utilization of fast to slow memory areas
• CDP: Continuous data protection is an important part of our backup strategy.

The management: management should take place via OS-independent access. Here a web-based client would be desirable.

Runs very stable and therefore very trustworthy. Without that, a storage solution would be unthinkable.

The scalability is given in all directions (frontend and backend, capacity) to our requirements.

Very fast, very competent, short ways via mail or telephone.

HP EVA4400.

Simple, as the initial training by the manufacturer and the help is very good.

Initially through a system house, then through our in-house team.

One hour of production downtime is more expensive than the solution.

A very good price-performance ratio. The license model is very successful.

The data was only asynchronously mirrored; thereby there was no transparent failover.

No, it was almost perfect.

We use this solution for providing software-defined storage that is virtualized, in a true HA configuration. It provides SAN storage services to VMware vCenter hosts and VMware Horizon hosts, as well as some physical Windows and Linux servers. This platform allows us to leverage any storage that Windows can leverage, including other vendor SAN devices.  This allows us to keep existing storage, mirror SANs from 2 different vendors and even allow very easy migration from one vendor to another.  Most of our locations just use RAID attached storage (as it is the least expensive) with enterprise-class drives (both HDD and SSD).

This solution allows the use of off-the-shelf hardware and charges by the TB of storage. So, we can throw in our own enterprise-class hardware (including SSDs) and not pay any extra based on the type of storage we use. This is the same model used with server virtualization.

This has allowed us to keep the hardware separate from software. It is true "storage virtualization" at its finest. It has all the features of any high-end SAN such as fiber channel, iSCSI, thin provisioning, storage tiering, snapshots, continuous data protection/recovery, synchronous and asynchronous mirroring, performance reporting/graphing, and true HA design.

DataCore recently added a hardware appliance for customers who what a turnkey, easy to install solution.  So if engineering the underlying-storage is not your cup of tea, their appliance, which is built on top of Dell server/storage hardware, is the way to go.

No more vendor lock-in, overpriced drives, or forklift upgrades. With DataCore SANsymphony, you can utilize just about any storage you wish with this product such as another SAN, NAS, JBOD, FusionIO, etc. If Windows can see it as a non-removable drive, you can use it with SANsymphony. Also, you can use this to mirror any of these various types of storage, which is awesome for migration. Say, for example, you have an HP SAN and you want to migrate off it to your own JBOD-type storage, or you have two sites with two different storage SANs that you want to replicate data between. With DataCore, it is possible to mix and match just about any storage platform you want to use.

As software-defined storage, the system is designed to run on top of Windows Server OS (which can be virtual or physical) and can utilize the server's RAM to provide disk cache. This makes our 7.2K HDDs class storage run really fast, allowing us to use a bottom-tier class of drive and get the performance of a much higher class of drive. Also, if we have to add capacity or replace drives then we can just order replacement drives off the web, saving us quite a bit of money. Of course, we still use "enterprise-class" drives but we don't pay through the nose to buy hardware. If we want to upgrade the Ethernet ports from 1Gb to 10Gb then we just do it. The same goes for FC. If we want to upgrade from 4Gb FC to 16Gb, we don't have to do a forklift upgrade. We just buy the HBAs and we're off the to races.

The other great thing is DataCore keeps their product on VMware's approved HCL. So even if you have a SAN (backend storage) that falls off the HCL with VMware, because it's virtualized storage behind DataCore, you're covered. If you put the storage behind DataCore then you won't have to worry about VMware's HCL any longer. Because of this fundamental practice, DataCore was one of the first storage vendors to support VVOLs.

The ability to pool the storage to leverage thin-provisioning is a huge saving in space and costs.

There's very little that I can find in their software that I would say needs to be improved. Sometimes the updates are too frequent, where just as we finish updating all of our sites, another update comes out.

The de-dup console is not yet integrated inside the main SANsymphony console. They are working on it but it's not there yet.

While their console allows you to connect to each of the nodes without closing the interface, you have to log out and back in when you switch between different storage server groups. It would be nice if they had an interface more like vCenter, where you see all of the server groups in a list and can just click on each group. It would be nice to be able to see multiple groups at the same time.

Having more of an Enterprise approach (v/s a local storage cluster) view would provide better management of the environment. For example, their current reports can only be run for each storage server group. There is currently not a way to run the same reports or look at performance across the enterprise (only the local site).

Having an enterprise "Storage Dashboard" that can show capacity, usage, performance, and any issues would be very beneficial. Currently, DataCore does not have this. They recently added a web-based dashboard called DataCore Insight Services (DIS) to their product. However, you will need to be on their subscription-based model v/s their traditional yearly maintenance-based model. Also, the current DIS product does not span multiple storage groups and is in its infancy and is still very rudimentary in nature.  However, knowing DataCore's track record for fast, innovative development, I know it won't be long before they get it right.

We have been using this solution since 2008 (over 12 years).

The software over the years has matured to be very robust and allows you to build a very high-performing storage platform.

This product in unlimited in scalability.

DataCore Support is OUTSTANDING and they release new updates and features frequently (sometimes almost too frequently).  Their support department is a well-oiled machine and is the gold standard for how all vendors should be. Their online ticketing system allows us to not just see individual cases but for anyone in our enterprise/storage team.

Yes - We had a mix of various, black-box, type SANs (Dell, HP, Lefthand, DottHill, and EMC to name a few).  We switched to standardize the storage across the enterprise, maintain VMware supported storage, reduce costs, and add flexibility.

If you're an experienced SAN administrator you'll have no problems understanding their setup.  It is very straight forward.  The design of what you can do, because it's so flexible, is the most complex part.  You have LOTS of options. 

In-House

Within the first year, the product has paid for itself.

I would recommend sending administrators through DataCore's DCIE training/certification.  DataCore has many options from hyper-converged solution, to even providing their own storage appliances if that's what you are looking for. 

Yes - Dell, EMC, and HP.

While they support de-dup, it is recommended that you not de-dup the storage used for operating systems or high-change rated type data. The requires some planning to ensure the storage that is targeted for de-dup only have data that end users would be using (such as MS Office files, etc.)