Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Israel
Posts: 1

Comparing IBM's ESS and HDS's 9900

Hi,

We are in the process of deciding which of these disk subsystems to purchase.

Can anyone share experiences, good or bad, with these products comparing ease of installation, problems encountered and performance.

Thanx

__________________
Gadi Ben-Avi
Malam System Ltd.
Jerusalem, Israel

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jun 2001
Location: USA
Posts: 176

I have used ESS (Shark) at two companies, performing extensive migration using TDMF onto them. The ESS' performance is, IMHO, comparable to the HDS9900, but I have no practical experience with the HDS box.

It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Do you want PAV and FLASHCOPY or HRC and HODM? How many devices? For what application and usage? Need PPRC or XRC?

The DASD is pretty much reliable from all the vendors.

__________________
Bob

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 2

EMC...

Hi...
what about a Symmetrix System from EMC ..?

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jun 2001
Location: USA
Posts: 176

EMC Symmetrix

I have worked with 5430s, 5500s, 5700s, and am now working part-time in the evenings doing TDMF migrations for a company that bought a couple of new ones (8730s).

As I stated in my previous post, all the vendors provide good, quality DASD. What differentiates one from another is mainly price and selected features.

Whether or not these "features" are important to your shop is what may drive the decision to go with a specific vendor.

And as long as I am commenting on DASD, let's not forget STK with their RVAs (now called SVAs, but originally were ICEBERGs).

So...bottom line:

Is PAV important to you? XRC/HRC? BCVs?, etc. ?

__________________
Bob

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 2

Service...

don't forget the service after you buy the system.
What is your service experience with the different vendors ?

First of all he should really know what he want...what kind of feature and software...!(SRDF,BCV with TimeFinder)
Do you need 24x7 hour availability ? and also 24x7 capable service...?

best regards
Marco

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jun 2001
Location: USA
Posts: 176

DASD service

Marco,

The service from all the major mainframe DASD players is adequate, at least in my experience.

Just make sure that if a vendor comes in to try and sell you, that you get his performance guarantees and feature promises in writing. And get some penalty clause put in if these things aren't met, like double the cache and double the channel interfaces.

__________________
Bob

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: USA
Posts: 1

HDS controller M-code is truly concurrent. ESS is not. It's semi disruptive, requiring you to take one 'storage cluster' or 1/2 of your pathing offline for the CE to apply code. if you're in a shared DASD/multi LPAR environment, this is a real pain in the rear.

__________________
RLL

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Feb 2003
Location: China
Posts: 1

actually as I know, during upgrade the ESS code in concurrent mode, it will upgrade the cluster one by one, so there is only 1 cluster working in code load progress, but the all paths is available, 1 cluster will take over all pathes.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged