Sample RFP: Storage Arrays

Sample RFP: Storage Arrays

Written By
Henry Baltazar
Henry Baltazar
Nov 17, 2005
2 minute read
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STORAGE ARRAYS

Capacity

* What is the maximum capacity for your storage system? • For a single storage shelf? • At full capacity?

RAID

* What levels of RAID do you support?

RAID 0 RAID 5 Dual-parity RAID

RAID 10 RAID 1

* Does your array have the ability to change RAID levels non-destructively?

Data protection

* Do you offer redundant disk controllers?

* Does your storage array offer multipathing support?

* Do you offer redundant power supplies?

* Does your array have asynchronous or synchronous replication capabilities?

Connectivity

* How do you connect to servers?

iSCSI Fibre Channel NAS (CIFS/NFS)

Both iSCSI and Fibre Channel

* What hard drive types do you support?

Fibre Channel SCSI SATA

* If your array supports multiple drive types, can different drives be mixed and matched?

Power

* What are your power requirements?

Platform support

* What platforms does your array support? (That is, Windows Server 2003, Solaris 10 and so on. For Linux, please state which distributions are supported.)

Management

* Does your array support SMI-S management tools? While iSCSI systems cannot be managed by SMI-S yet—the standard is still being worked on—SMI-S is becoming a checklist item on many storage RFPs. SMI-S compliance provides managers the ability to manage all arrays using an SMI-S-compliant SAN management package.

A longer version of this RFP is online at eWEEKlabs.com/Labs/links.

With this sample RFP, eWEEK Labs focuses on midrange external storage arrays that connect to servers using either Fibre Channel or iSCSI.

Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis on enterprise and small business storage hardware and software.

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