SAN tips for Newb's like me.

This past year has been a learning experience with SAN's. Everything from Fiber Channel, iSCSI, vendor selection, snapshots, replication, LUNs, volumes, RAID types, best practices, ease of use... A lot to take in.

Ultimately, we decided on an EqualLogic solution consisting of a PS300, PS400,(The Dell EqualLogic PS5000E replaces the EqualLogic PS50E, PS70E, PS100E, PS300E and PS400E models.) and PS3700x (The PS5000X is the new name for the EqualLogic PS3700X model.) tied into two redundant Cisco 3750 switches.

So I offer the following for a first time SAN buyer with limited knowledge like myself.

- Ask questions, lot's of them.
- Subscribe to email lists...SearchStorage is a good one.
- Ensure your existing switch infrastructure is up to date and can support your SAN.
- Make sure to allocate enough space for Snapshots.
- Know your RAID levels..1,5,10,50.
- Know the amounts of raw storage, and how much storage will be left after the RAID configuration.
- Use tools like "perfmon" to look at disk i/o on your Windows boxes.
- Learn the differences between Fiber Channel and iSCSI.
- Ask questions..again.
- Think about long term growth, capacity, storage requirements.
- Take credit for everything when your SAN applications run like a champ.