Reldata IP StorageGateway 9200

The appliance was linked to a Gigabit Ethernet network and we used a dual-Xeon server running Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft iSCSI initiator 2. To test raw throughput, we employed Iometer configured with two disk workers, 64KB sequential read transfer requests and ten outstanding I/Os. We found NAS performance to be good, with the appliance returning a speedy 80MB/sec with a SMB file share mapped to the server. We then created a single iSCSI target and logged the server onto it, after which Iometer reported a fast 97.5MB/sec throughput. This is well above average and beaten only by NetApp's FAS3020, Adaptec's Snap Server 18000 and, of course, the EqualLogic PS300e.

The 9200 is an interesting storage solution that allows all manner of SCSI and FC disk arrays to be mixed together and presented as iSCSI and NAS storage. It would also be a good choice where companies want to maximise the usefulness of legacy disk arrays, although the management interface needs more work to make it easier to use.

Author: Dave Mitchell