Boston Igloo 2U-10T Stor-10GCX4 review

SIS is easy enough to configure, as you just decide which volumes to run it on and leave the Groveler service running in the background. For testing, we created a couple of shared folders on one test volume and copied the same 4GB data sample to each one. We started SIS on the volume and after less than an hour the amount of used storage on the volume had dropped from 8GB to only 3.5GB, showing that there was also file duplication within our test sample.

A wizard helps with iSCSI target creation: you select a volume, provide a meaningful target name and assign logged-in initiators to it. Within the target you create virtual disks that require an absolute path name for the VHD file and a size.

To test IP SAN performance we used a Boston dual Xeon 5160 server running Windows Server 2003 R2 and logged on to the Igloo using Microsoft's iSCSI initiator 2.08. The Iometer utility showed a 106MB/sec raw read speed, which isn't far from the limit of a Gigabit connection. That said, we've seen similar speeds from storage appliances using SATA disks, so this alone shouldn't persuade you that iSCSI is right for your business.

Snapshots for virtual disks provide point-in-time backups and are included as standard. You create a daily, weekly or monthly schedule and apply it to all - or selected - virtual disks.

WSS2008 also offers iSNS services as standard, while the Storage Manager for SANs feature provides enhanced LUN management. The latter requires a hardware provider for Microsoft's VDS (virtual disk service), which we were able to download from the LSI support site.

You also have Microsoft's DFS (distributed file system), which lets you define folders on multiple servers that contain the same files but appear under a single namespace. Clients accessing these shares are unaware they reside on multiple servers, so if one goes down they won't lose access to their data.

All participating servers must be either domain controllers or members, and once the namespace server has been defined, the data in the specified folder will be replicated at the block level to all other members. This will prove useful for disaster recovery as member servers can be in different locations.

If you want more capacity and expansion potential, then check out Broadberry's CyberStore 316S WSS but if the performance of SAS appeals more you won't go wrong with the Igloo.

Author: Dave Mitchell