LTU question

[M1kkel]

Hello. I am bew to this board, 3par.

I am buying a used 3par 7200 - HP demo sys. The array have 32 drive LTU's licensed and registered, plus base ltu ofcourse.

I tried to contact HP about this question, but where not able to get a decent answer.

The question is, if i need to buy 32 new LTU's before i can use the system? In my head, i cant see why that should be nessecary, given the LTU's have been registered to this array already (in another persons name)

Thanks
Regards Mikkel

[Josh26]

The key thing is making sure the support gets transferred to your name. You REALLY want this addressed in advance of it becoming a problem.

[M1kkel]

The key thing is making sure the support gets transferred to your name. You REALLY want this addressed in advance of it becoming a problem.

Currently there is no extra support, only default 3y hardware support/warranty - do i need to transfer that aswell?

Can you reply to the ltu question?

[Josh26]

You cannot buy these units without a support agreement. Ex-demo - I don't know.

If you don't have access to proper support, you're going to be in for an interesting ride with this hardware. I would heavily advise against its use in production. You can't look at these things without HP getting involved.

Can you reply to the ltu question?

I couldn't find any reference anywhere - including within HP partner information - regarding whether these can legally be transferred. All I can suggest is it's a bit grey.

[M1kkel]

You cannot buy these units without a support agreement. Ex-demo - I don't know.

If you don't have access to proper support, you're going to be in for an interesting ride with this hardware. I would heavily advise against its use in production. You can't look at these things without HP getting involved.

Can you reply to the ltu question?

I couldn't find any reference anywhere - including within HP partner information - regarding whether these can legally be transferred. All I can suggest is it's a bit grey.

I think you are misunderstanding me. The array is with default 3 year hardware warranty. I will ofcourse buy software support aswell - the only thing i have in doubt is weather i need to buy new drive and base ltu, and no one can tell me this!

[jgmke]

The way to buy a (gently) used 3PAR is via "HP Renew". This is a fully sanctioned way to get discounted HP gear. The person that put the quote together should be able to answer all of your pricing questions.

If you received a proper Renew quote, it should have all of the licensing included.

[M1kkel]

The way to buy a (gently) used 3PAR is via "HP Renew". This is a fully sanctioned way to get discounted HP gear. The person that put the quote together should be able to answer all of your pricing questions.

If you received a proper Renew quote, it should have all of the licensing included.

Hi Jeff. This is not hp renew, but demo system from ho demo room through a broker.

I spoke with hp today, and they finally answered my question. The ltu's registered on the array is still usable, but not transferrable. Great! I can move on.

Jeff, i see you're a storage architect, is this system a good system compared to similiar netapp, in your opinion?

Ive heard that 3par take a perf hot on autonomic tiering. However, it was something a netapp guy told me..

[jgmke]

I'm of the opinion that 3PAR is a better architecture than NetApp. 3PAR is designed for block level storage, whereas NetApp bolts block on top of a filesystem. (So yes, 3PAR's NAS functionality is file bolted onto block...)

There are some concerns over the reactive nature of 3PARs tiering. (Adaptive Optmization) I think that what you heard was a reference to that. Rumor has it that a new release will offer real-time AO.

Both systems have their strong points and weaknesses, but for 95% of the scenarios, I'd bet on 3PAR being a better cost/performance play.

[Josh26]

You'll get marketing material from both ends. I'm more qualified to talk about the 3PAR's capabilities, and I know for a fact several of the "issues" raised by our local Netapp salesman aren't truthful.

I think everyone is capable of giving a LUN to a Windows server and having that Windows server manage file - level shares, whereas, as per jgmke's statement, getting a Windows admin more involved with the SAN in order to deal with file-shares complicates things.

[Richard Siemers]

I did a side by side bake off between Netapp and 3PAR, and we chose 3PAR based on our benchmark results. If there is any truth in the Netapp claims against 3PAR performance, I would have to counter with the 3PAR is still faster, even with AO running its batch cycles, than a netapp for block level access.

Netapp storage tiering is not tiering, its caching in SSD, Compellent can do this too, and I would speculate that 3PAR is working on that too. One thing Netapp is bad about is tiering. It is very difficult to move a volume non-disruptively from and FC aggregate to a SATA aggregate, something almost everyone else does effortlessly and non disruptively.