So I’m getting more and more jazzed to head to Dallas for the EL User Conference. I’m guessing I will learn a lot of stuff that I will wish that I had known before our install but hey that’s life. So my gripe list and conference conversational starters are for the moment this:
Why is it so hard to google documentation about EqualLogic? I understand if this top secret proprietary stuff, but all I want to do is be able to find manuals. Why is all of this stuff hidden behind the support site? No offense to Dell or their web developers but Google is very good at searching stuff… why don’t you let it do its job and you spend your time making your product better. When I go to buy a product the first thing I like to do is read as much about it as I can. I couldn’t get to a lot of the answers until after we brought the product… it could have swung the other way, we could have chosen something else. So, I can’t think of any reason to ‘hide’ this stuff. Get it out there!
Being able to download and then update the firmware from the EqualLogic box itself would be nice
So using an EqualLogic box is simplicity itself but everything else surrounding it is a lot more difficult! What I would desire is a ‘cookbook’ type of setup. So, for example if I bought a PS6000 and had future plans of buying more EqualLogic SANS (who wouldn’t) then (I think you would) would most likely recommend two 48 port 6224’s that you would then stack (we unfortunately ended up with the 24 port version which we will have to upgrade soon since we outgrew it, this sucks. I mean the whole point of EL is to be able to add, add, add to the virtual storage pool… well if I run out of ports I can’t very well do that can I?) Also, be very clear of the ramifications of total number of iSCSI connections to a pool! With just a couple of ESX servers you can easily blow that number out of the water!!! This is a great post about that BTW http://www.2vcps.com/2010/02/16/iscsi-connections-eq/
of course 10 gig ethernet will help this out tremendously, but we were caught with our pants down on it once and I hope others are not!
So the cookbook would have all of the information that I would need in order to actually set this up. And for the love of Pete make it so that I can find it on the Internet…. you know using something like Google!!! It sounds like this was the way EqualLogic used to function before the acquisition so I would like to see more of this type of hardware ‘bundle’ come back into play. When your customer asks what should we buy, you can have the answers, and a setup guide to make it happen!
Hmmm I’m sure I will think of more, and don’t get me wrong, our EqualLogic is working great for us!
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