SANavigator Corrals SAN Equipment

McData Corp.s SANavigator 3.1 provides powerful SAN management capabilities to help IT managers take control of their storage area networks.

SANavigator 3.1, which began shipping this month, runs on a wide variety of systems, including Windows, Solaris, Linux, AIX and HP-UX, and can be used to view SAN components. SANavigator 3.1 starts at $195 per port for small SANs (1 to 31 ports); volume discounts are available for larger networks. SANs with more than 3,000 ports can expect to pay $117 per port.

The Planning Window feature in SANavigator 3.1 is a useful tool, which allowed us to quickly create a sample plan of our SAN before starting the implementation.

Using Planning Window, we could simulate host-bus adapters, RAID units, switches and network-attached storage devices to find the best way to connect each device to our SAN.

In tests, we found that SANavigator 3.1 was easy to use and navigate. Using SANavigator, we could quickly view performance statistics on SAN links and see how changes in the SAN (adding or subtracting Inter-Switch Links, for example) affected the overall performance of links.

SANavigator 3.1 also enabled us to configure and manage zones within the test SAN, and it auto-detected the components in our SAN and told us the status of those devices.

We really liked the layout of SANavigator 3.1 because it allowed us to quickly view our SAN and get meaningful statistics. In addition, we were impressed with SANavigator 3.1s auto-discovery capabilities. In tests, the discovery tool was quick to detect the addition and subtraction of SAN hardware and Inter-Switch Links.

Interoperability between management tools such as SANavigator 3.1 and bundled management tools (such as those that come with RAID units) is still in its infancy, but we expect closer ties between the two in the near future.