DataCore SANsymphony Reviews

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. 

I work with many customers that ask us to put their solution near the production because they can't stop the production. It's easier to protect the network this way.

It has helped my customers because it's an SDS solution, and we can use all components that you put in a server. You have many options that meet customer needs, and you can find the best way in relation to performance and price. 

It's a software storage solution that can scale as we like. There is also has a parallel feature that enhances the performance of the storage solution. We can separate storage and computing, and we can scale these two parts of the platform to meet business needs efficiently.

The most important thing is the work we do on the new management interface called DIS. You can follow the evolution of this platform, and it's very important for me because the customer has to manage the platform. 

We add the workload on this platform, and they need the platform to evolve. It's very important to the customer, and we have to work on the DIS to realize the customer's this vision.

Problem detection could be easier. It should help customers identify problems very quickly because it's not easy to analyze on the platform today.

I have been using DataCore SANsymphony SDS for about six years.

DataCore SANsymphony SDS is a very robust and stable solution.

Technical support is very good. For example, their system engineer came down to help my customer resolve a problem.

I can't say that the installation is difficult, but it's impossible for a customer who doesn't know the product or the installation process. You will need the help of a consultant or a reseller to install and deploy this solution.

This product has a good ratio between quality and price. In many cases, it's less expensive to work with DataCore than other storage systems. 

On a scale from one to ten, I would give DataCore SANsymphony SDS a ten.

We use this product as a storage network.

The performance is good.

The interface is user-friendly.

I would like to see reporting added, such as a monthly connectivity report. Things like performance and usage can be shown.

It would be helpful to have better monitoring tools.

I have been using DataCore SANsymphony for 11 years.

The stability is perfect.

Scalability is good and it is important for us. I am working in an industry where most of the installations are long-term. Over time, we have to add devices to the solution.

We have two sites, each with about 1,000 people who are using it.

The technical support is perfect.

Pricing has improved but it is still expensive. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.

My advice to anybody who is considering SANSymphony is that it is flexible, user-friendly, and a product that I recommend.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

The most valuable feature of DataCore SANsymphony SDS is its high availability.

I also like that this solution has high stability and good performance.

One limitation of this solution is that it's Windows-based, e.g. one requirement to install DataCore SANsymphony SDS is putting it on a Windows server machine. It relies on Windows and that is a limitation because we have some customers who are looking for non Windows systems.

What we'd like to see in the future is for this software to support more operating systems.

We've been working with DataCore SANsymphony SDS for 10 years.

Based on customer opinion, DataCore SANsymphony SDS has very high stability. It's a good and stable solution.

The scalability of DataCore SANsymphony SDS is okay. I never had an issue with the scalability of this software, but it could be because we're working with medium-sized customers, not large-sized customers. I'm not sure if scalability would be a concern when dealing with large-sized customers.

Technical support for this software is good. We ran into a few issues and their technical support team were on time helping us, including our customers. I would rate the support for DataCore SANsymphony SDS five out of five.

We are not using software-defined storage, but we are partners with some vendors. We are distributors and resellers of software-defined storage solutions. We're working with DataCore SANsymphony SDS.

As DataCore SANsymphony SDS is a good software, it doesn't need to improve much.

Someone else set the software up, and I wasn't involved in the process of setting it up.

The advice I would give to a company that's thinking of implementing this solution is for them to have a good understanding of the documentation, and for them to be trained before installing the software in their production environment.

I'm giving DataCore SANsymphony SDS eight points out of ten. If they are able to support more OS (operating systems), I would give them a perfect score.

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.)

The first use case was for our data center at the headquarters. We currently have two server rooms, connected by fibre, and the data is synchronized between both using DataCore.

Since DataCore has been installed, the performance of our server has been improved. During the maintenance periods, on any part of the storage or VMware migration, we have had no downtime.

Recently we decided to deploy DataCore™ Hyperconverged Virtual SAN in our manufactury.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to migrate from one storage area to another one easily. The evolution of the solution by adding new storage without having to go through a difficult migration is very helpful.

I think the performance reporting can be improved by adding historical statistics into a database for the purpose of comparison.

A capacity planning solution would be a great addition.

We have been using DataCore SANsymphony for many years to protect data-availability and keeping productive. It helps us to improve reliability for our complete IT solutions.

In the time of using DataCore SANsympohny Hyper-converged-Infrastructure, we had no storage-related downtime in our environment. The server and storage functionality works, and maintenance is easier to handle depending on the redundancy.

DataCore is an administrator's and users' friend.

Performance boost (MegaCash, Parallel I/O technology) and Continuous data protection (CDP) are the features we love most because security and being productive are big points for us.

DataCore is helping us focus on our core business and keep it running, which is important for our customer success.

Supporting of Automated-Storage-Tiering (AST) is a good feature that saves money.

We are waiting for container support (on the roadmap), as well as a user-friendly full web-administration capability, and an improved API.

Supporting newer Windows Server versions faster (e.g. Microsoft Windows Server 2019) would be nice.

This solution is very robust and reliable.

It has good scalability. We can scale up in 1TB steps.

We have found that technical support has good skill levels and availability.

We did not have another SDS solution before this one.

This initial setup of this solution wasn´t complex. The necessary functional test plan of the implementation company was time-consuming, but it guaranteed the correct implementation.

We implemented this solution using our solution provider with vendor support in the background, and it worked well for us.

Overall, we are happy with innovations, but in the future, we will also look into more improvements.

With DataCore we manage the central storage for VMware virtualisation and Oracle databases. At the first location are two mirrored DataCore servers. At a second site, we use a DataCore server as an asynchronous replication target.

It is easy to manage the storage and simple to enlarge our virtualisation environment. 
DataCore SANsymphony has improved performance, stability and data security of our datacenter.

• The most useful features are the continuity of service, mirroring and auto-tiering, and the associated performance. 
• We enjoy great reliability, flexibility, and performance. 
• DataCore helps to use memory efficiently.

• The client console should be improved. It starts slowly and heavily. 
• After a long time (idle), the displayed information is no longer completely reliable. You have to close and reopen the console for current data. (symptom after upgrade to PSP8)

Very stable, no failures, no interruptions.

High scalability.

quick support enabled  ;-)

No, we did not.

The initial setup was straightforward, no special hardware, good documentation.

Implementation with a DCIE (DataCore certified implementation engineer).

Not calculated.

For installation and upgrades, work with a good IT partner with a DCIE.

EMC, NetApp.