Snap18000 & GOS 5

[MaddMatt]

A couple of the guys here have asked what I think of Gos 5 but as my 4200 is full of my collections of all sorts of stuff so I thought it best to try it on another unit first... so I brought home a Snap18000 that we would eventually have to get our techs to update anyway.

I thought I would do it just to try I out (professionally I am actually a sales person & product manager)... Unfortunately it is not my property but I do have permission to use it for self training... he he he...

I feel silly to admit that I did not even know how to get the "system status" page up (I thought it was the GOS 5 Version of the main admin page, the first time I saw it was Pheonix's post when GOS 5 was first released)

After several checks and even asking Phoenix I managed to find it on my own (what a hat-smaker I can be...! - My 4200 has it as well! v4.4.049!- I cannot believe that I didn't find this ages ago, the picture looks cool, I thought it was just a feature of GOS 5, DHT - Dork-Head Time).

Anyway - Here is the System Status page of the 18000 after the GOS 5 fresh install;



I didn't think I would get to see an 18000 up close and I can tell you it is not only impressive it is very noisy too... don't plan to have one near where you sit, go for the garage if you get the opportunity to own one.

Anyway the stats are impressive Dual Xeon's 2GB Ram & the NVRAM card, and although they don't travel well which led to some issues early on for the 18000 along with the limitations of a less mature OS (at the time) they did become known to be a bit troublesome.

When I say they didn't travel well I are referring to cases where they flexed and popped out memory and processors during freighting due to inadequate packaging early on and the awkwardness of there size and weight.

GOS 5 so far does not have any reference to Overland Storage that I have found, it should only take a patch or two before too long.

I really like the new raid 6 and 10 features, I plan to try both quite soon and with the 18000's 8 drives it does give us plenty of drives to play with.

Right now I have 2 sets of RAID 5 that are spanned into one volume... for much bigger arrays; the idea is "Smaller Raid Sets = faster rebuilds" we loose a extra drive but if one drive does die, the rebuild times are supposed to be much quicker.

This is not so much an issue over an 8 drive array but when you get 16 drive RAID 5 Array's you will definitely find it a much quicker scenario to span 2x 8 drive RAID 5's.

I just wanted to see how you put it together in application, this is the first chance I have had with more than 4 drives in the one box, in the field you would do this over a Snap520 + an S50 Expander.

In essence this is the close as you can get to a RAID 50 on a Snap, it is multiple RAID 5's but instead of striping them again across the raid card we are spanning them via the OS as a single volume.

Anyway I hope you liked it... I can say if I was anymore excited I would have wood... so if this post proves anything it will guarantee anyone's claim that I need to get a life!

[bitor]

MaddMatt, thank you for taking the time to review the GOS 5.0.1 . It is good for all to see and read.

bitor

[MaddMatt]

I am yet to try the print server, data migration tool etc

I forgot to mention that I have obscured the full version name as I am not sure if it is general release yet... it is actually GOS 5.0.1xx, I blanked it out along with the SnapServer Number, Name & S/N just in case...

Does anyone know;
A) what the latest available version is?
B) what version is shipping with all new units?

[bitor]

The newest release of GOS is 5.0.133 at adaptec's website via snapserver.com. http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support/snap/
Interesting, I cannot find a link(did not look really hard) to it at Adaptec's website on the front end.
The previously released version was 5.0.125 which had something wrong with it. I think it was an installation problem with some models.

Keep us posted on 5.0.1 and what the pros and cons are.

bitor

[bitor]

The public link no longer works. Looks like they are changing things around. If you go to snapserver.com it forwards you to overstockstorage.com. I hope this doesn't kill snap servers. I believe they should have two separate websites for there products and snap products. It looks like however, they are going to combined to one site.

bitor

[darcy]

Originally Posted by bitor

The public link no longer works..... I hope this doesn't kill snap servers..... It looks like however, they are going to combined to one site.

bitor

I think there is just a slight issue with the link... I am sure it will be back soon enough...

Snap have announced the 620, a new faster model that you can add either SAS or SATA Drives to.. They are also going to be heading toward a 8 or 12 bay base unit soon enough too expand the range and make expansion easier...

If the news is right from a friend of mine who was speaking with a support guy, it sounds like they have grand plans.. Judging by their other lines i think they can deliver... ie. Take a look at the VTL's and the DeDupe VTL, they are mind bending...

Time will tell on the website... but i do agree... 2 would be easier but will not deliver what they need.. product unification...

[darcy]

I really like the migration feature... doing a direct push or pull data copy or even a data move I found was roughly 3 times quicker than copying through a PC...

(on my trusty old unmanaged/mismanaged 10/100 switch... cough, cough... how embarrassment)

Through the PC it was going to take about 113hrs (or 4.7 Days) with filesync
Direct from the snap dd take about just under 35hrs...

[242]

I have two 18000's in my basement running 4.1.106 and I would love to update to 5 ... does anyone know what the process would be to purchase it? Do I have to get support?

thanks

-jeff

[darcy]

Hi Jeff,

....nice, worth the noise....

I noted somewhere that the new code is SWMAIN1E-S18K, you should sign up online and request a quote...

[blue68f100]

V4 use to run around $620USD but Adaptec would not sell it without a service contract. This was Adaptec rule so they could get service money. But from all of the feed backs we get here, there std fix was to reinstall the OS. Now that they have soldout some of there crap will improve.

Most of the regular heres started on the SnapOS when SnapAppliance owned them. Snap gave a free support, all we had to do was registered. The they went down hill after Adaptec bought them trying to get into the corporate market. I think the sell indicates that they have not learned how to treat customers. Good customer support will sell hardware, Bad will bring the bussiness down.

[242]

Thanks for the info.

I now have an issue that may make putting a new os on it moot.

I was having some problems with it and it went into maintenance mode. I didn't want to lose my data so I did an upgrade using the same os that was on there (4.1.106)

The shares come up fine, but I can not seem to administer the machine any more. I used the reset button to put the passwords to default, but ssh and web will not accept the password. Snap Server Manager does accept the password, but any attempt to do anything gives an Unknown API error: 100114. I have since pulled my data and would love to do a fresh install. Any way to force maintenance mode? I know you can do this from the lcd on some models but I can't find anything for the 18000's Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

-jeff

[darcy]

Hey Dave...

I think they actually mean; Only a service contract will give you access to the full upgrade...

Adaptec's was called "Bronze" it included full access to all downloads and Phone Support... so I think the recommended the full re-install so people would buy the support but I have seen dudes with contracts recover from CLI commands when I would have bet the unit was dead...

- the problem with the CLI is that there is never a shortage of Linux gurus who couldn't resist blindly tapping in his favorite redhat command to findout the hard way that when the tech supp guys gets the syswrapper it will show the last thing that happened...

Overland has what they call software maintenance which does the same thing as Adaptec's Bronze for the; A customer sent me these;
4200 USD RRP $395
4400 USD RRP $745
4500 USD RRP $745
12000 USD RRP $745
14000 USD RRP $745
15000 USD RRP $745
18000 USD RRP $745
SnapOS
1000 USD RRP $125
1100 USD RRP $125
2000 USD RRP $210
2200 USD RRP $210
4100 USD RRP $395

A bit too much for a home user but....