DataCore SANsymphony Reviews

Our primary use case is to provide central storage for our VMware virtualization environment. 

We use DataCore SANsymphony within a data center spread over two locations. In the main data center, the storage is mirrored and asynchronously replicated in the second data center. 

DataCore SANsymphony provides us with a high-performance and redundant storage environment for our VMware platform. Hardware independence is a great advantage. With the help of auto-tiering in three levels, the data is available at optimal speed.

DataCore SANsymphony ensures high business continuity. For example, through the possible reactivation of vDisks at another location and the secure restoration of a previous “healthy” data state. 

The synchronous mirroring of the vDisks ensures very high data availability for employees. Company users do not notice service or maintenance; hardware replacement and updates can be carried out virtually unnoticed. 

In addition, synchronous mirroring simplifies maintenance and patching operations considerably.

The most important features of DataCore SANsymphony are the scalability and flexibility of this system. 

The infrastructure provides high fault tolerance through redundancy mechanisms such as memory mirroring or parity. 

What should be emphasized is the minimization of downtime. Our central storage has very high availability. 

Another advantage of DataCore SANsymphony is its ease of use, especially when presenting storage to virtual machines via Fibre-Channel. 

Ultimately, the sum of the excellent individual functions ensures the economical and safe operation of the storage system for our employees.

The constant further development of the product is a positive aspect. This means that useful functions are added or some are eliminated. 

DataCore should integrate its own file server into SANsymphony. A solution like vFilo is very comprehensive. The additional infrastructure for this is very complex. Its range of functions is too large for most use cases. Rather, I would like to see a file service that can provide mirrored folder shares which data should be able to be deduplicated and compressed.

We have been using Datacore SANsymphony since 2010.

very stable

No

We did not evaluate other options. We wanted DataCore SANsymphony.

SANsymphony is our software-defined storage platform that provides the best scalable high availability of our files, and it seems to have the best data protection. 

It enables us to deploy multiple servers and multiple sites to increase data availability. 

SANsymphony ensures business continuity with three lines of defense: transparent bypass of storage problems, reactivation at another location, and secure recovery of an earlier ‘healthy’ data state.

We have had no problems with our files for more than ten years.

Our filesystem has been a reliable and robust system that has been serving us well for many years. We have been using it without any issues, and it has been working smoothly and efficiently. 

The system has only experienced short downtimes for updates, which can be done part by part. This means that the company users don’t even notice any service downtimes. 

Our filesystem is a testament to our commitment to providing the best possible service to our employees, and we are proud of its performance over the years.

Our redundant file space is a reliable and robust system that has been serving us well for many years. We have been using it without any issues, and it has been working smoothly and efficiently. The system has been designed to ensure that there is no data loss, and we have not experienced any problems with it. Our redundant file space is a testament to our commitment to providing the best possible service to our users, and we are proud of its performance over the years.

Our system is designed to be scalable and flexible, so it can grow and adapt to meet the changing needs of our clients.

We regularly update our software and hardware to ensure that we are using the latest technology and security protocols. We monitor our system 24/7 to ensure that it is always running smoothly.

We have been using this product for a while now. And we have to say that we are still impressed. We need no more features. Our company needs no added or new features; it’s the best solution as it is at the moment. 

The product is (for our implementation) stable and secure. We highly recommend the solution as it is. Use it how it is, and you will see how perfectly it is working.

I'd like to see the company make the renewal of the software cheaper.

I've used the solution for more than ten Years. Our distribution partner recommended this solution. This was the best decision we have made.

We did use a different solution, however, DataCore brings us more comfort.

The service cost and setup are low. Licensing could be cheaper.

Our service provider recommended DataCore, and we have trusted the choices of our partner.

My primary use case for DataCore SANsymphony is SAN rapid storage for virtual machines and the high availability for infrastructure.

The feature I found most valuable was the high availability with mirroring.

There is room for improvement in the graphical interface. 

I have been using the DataCore solution for about 12 years.

My impression is that it is a very stable solution. However, I did have one encounter with this solution's crash as the result of a wrong action taken by a user. The crash resulted in some data being lost. We had to restore some data.

My opinion is that it's a very easy solution and that it's very scalable. I am very happy with this product's ability to adapt, increase, and modify existing infrastructures.

We have about 20 clients who are using this solution.

I would rate DataCore's technical support a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Each time I requested help, they would call me back in 20 minutes or less.

Positive

I think that the initial setup is quite simple.

The deployment of DataCore depends on many factors, but for us, it took about one day for each server.

The license is paid twice per year.

This solution is quite fluent and stable and very easy to administer and use. I would recommend it to other people.

The primary use case is the provisioning of high-performance and redundant storage for our VMware platform. With the help of auto-tiering, the data lands on the optimal storage tier for it. Furthermore, integration into the backup system is very important to us. We use Veeam B&R, which, with SANsymphony integration, is able to work much more efficiently via storage snapshots. 

We use SANsymphony within a data center distributed over two locations. This was very easy to implement. This also includes settings that optimize the data traffic between the locations.

With SANsymphony, we were able to set up fully redundant storage across two locations. We use SANsymphony as the main storage for our cloud and dedicated customer environments. 

We were impressed by the integration into virtualization and the backup system. SANsymphony integrates seamlessly into our VMware platforms. Auto-tiering enables us to keep the storage content on the optimal storage tier easily. 

Synchronous mirroring ensures very high availability for us and our customers. In the event of maintenance or failure, an automatic failover takes place. The automatic failback is the cherry on top of the cake.

Integration with Veeam Backup & Replication has enabled us to improve our backup infrastructure significantly. 

The use of storage snapshots and backup via Fibre Channel reduces the load on the productive infrastructure.

It is the sum of the many, often outstanding, individual functions that help us to ensure economical and safe operation for us and our customers. The most important functions for us are

The synchronous mirror allows us to operate a fully redundant storage solution that is distributed across two sites. It can even cover the failure of an entire site. This also benefits us during complex maintenance work, as no downtime is required.

Auto-tiering enables us to store the data on the storage tier that is optimal for it. This also works within a vDisk, so old or cold data ends up on cheaper data carriers than the new or hot data accessed more frequently.

SANsymphony is being continuously developed. This makes it easier for us to respond to new challenges.

I see potential here in the support of NVMeoF, both as a target and in the backend. In addition, there should be new ways to improve the redundancy of the pools created with it - e.g. through extended RAID functionality (RAID5 or RAID6) or erasure coding.

Management could be improved. The management console sometimes reacts very slowly.

In the area of the HCI solution, I could imagine a different mode of operation. For example, a group of servers form a pool in which the data can be stored. 

Protection could also be guaranteed here via replication and erasure coding.

We have been using Datacore SANsymphony since 2007.

The systems are very stable. No great administrative effort is required to keep the system in good condition. Provided it is well-sized, it optimizes itself.

SANsymphony is very adaptable. Increasing the storage capacity and/or improving performance through faster systems in the backend are no problem.

Datacore support is one of the best in the industry. They offer a fast response and competent answers or even remote sessions. Support is always available 24/7/365.

Positive

We used StoreAge SVM with Dothill storage systems. 

SANsymphony has more and better functions. The TCO is also better.

The setup is quite simple if you are familiar with the storage environment. Certification as a DCIE is required. This ensures that you are sufficiently familiar with the system to install and administer it.

We did implement it in-house.

I can't give an exact ROI. The stability, availability, and performance pay for themselves immediately.

Good sizing is the basis for a stable and high-performance environment. It is important to plan in sufficient reserves.

It can make sense to license a higher number of TB if this puts you in a better price category.

We did not evaluate other options.

SANsymphony is best in class. It's flexible, like a Swiss army knife.

DataCore is our main Enterprise SAN solution. We serve all workloads among five different DataCore server groups. These workloads include all hypervisors, SQL and Oracle Databases, file shares, archive, and backups. DataCore helps us achieve disaster recovery by allowing us to mirror our data between two sites.

DataCore has been doing software-defined storage since back before SDS was even a buzzword. It has provided a great deal of flexibility, performance, and efficiency for our Enterprise SAN. We are not tied to any one hardware vendor and over the nineteen years that we've had DataCore, we have gone through various models of IBM servers to Dell servers as well as various storage arrays from IBM, Dot Hill, XIO, Kaminario, and Dell (all with some of the same data from year one).

DataCore's ability to seamlessly move virtual volume data between storage pools as well as their synchronous mirroring has made maintenance and disaster recovery planning achievable. DataCore's auto-tiering feature also allows us to use our SSD arrays efficiently.

DataCore needs a more efficient and better way to keep track of metrics and counters so that we can do baseline analysis to measure performance. Datacore has some functionality where you can send performance metrics to a SQL database however it has not always worked well for us. We actually had to turn it off because we were actually collecting too much data, but in my opinion we sometimes want this data. Ideally if there was a way to see metrics for current and specific points in time it would be great for troubleshooting and any type of trend analysis.

I used to say the problem with DataCore was that it ran on Windows. However, with 2012 R2 and now Windows 2016, things have become much more stable. In general, stability has improved over the years. Most of the problems we've had in the past were due to Windows blue screen errors stemming from our HBA cards.

Scalability has worked well so far. We are up to managing about 2PB of data across five different DataCore Groups.

Technical Support is responsive. They could be a little faster when there is a critical emergency, but for the most part, technical support is good.

We have always had DataCore as our Enterprise SAN.

We've always had DataCore come in with Professional Services to do the initial setup.

In regards to Fibre Channel, buy a server that can handle the highest number of Quad Port HBA cards. Purchase as much memory for the server as you can afford. Anything you spec out, you will need to double if you want redundancy.

We did not evaluate other solutions prior to selecting this one.

Usually, our clients want to replace some storage units from NetApp. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't because NetApp still has some features that DataCore SANsymphony would like to have.

DataCore SANsymphony's stability is okay.

DataCore SANsymphony should integrate file servers at a good price into the solution. The licensing is expensive, and you cannot manage a big file server with DataCore SANsymphony without paying a lot of money. NetApp is easier to sell, and we have had projects where NetApp was a lot cheaper than DataCore.

Our customers want their block storage to be fast, redundant, and highly available. You also might have a large fire storage for data that the customer does not need to access urgently. When you want to enclose this in the DataCore architecture, you have to pay the full amount of money as with block storage, which can be very expensive. Sometimes, it is very expensive to use DataCore SANsymphony.

I have been using DataCore SANsymphony for about one year.

I didn't notice any problems with the solution's stability. DataCore SANsymphony's stability is okay.

The first installation of DataCore SANsymphony took a long time. I am not sure if that was due to a lack of experience or software issues, as I was part of the sales team. I am not mounting DataCore SANsymphony. I am just selling the solution to the customers.

I rate DataCore SANsymphony a seven out of ten for stability.

You can scale DataCore SANsymphony as much as you want if you are willing to pay the price. The solution’s scalability is high and theoretically has no limit.

We won three or four projects last year but also lost some. In some cases, the decision was to go back to maintaining NetApp. Our clients are enterprise businesses.

I rate DataCore SANsymphony a six out of ten for scalability.

I have to contact the sales team and system engineers. I'm quite content with DataCore SANsymphony's system engineers.

Positive

I am not completely satisfied with the initial setup. I rate DataCore SANsymphony a five out of ten for its initial setup.

DataCore SANsymphony’s deployment takes around eight weeks.

DataCore SANsymphony's pricing is very high and should be much cheaper. You buy a license of DataCore SANsymphony, and then you have to add three or four times the price in hardware.

You have several SLAs. You have to buy the hardware equipment because DataCore SANsymphony doesn't run independently but on server hardware.

On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate DataCore SANsymphony's pricing a seven or eight out of ten.

We sell DataCore with the package that permits to use the latest version. We wouldn’t install another version.

NetApp is very good compared to DataCore SANsymphony in terms of flexibility and licensing.

I don’t know. I would ask them to compare.

DataCore SANsymphony is a good product, but there's room for improvement.

Overall, I rate DataCore SANsymphony a seven out of ten.

We have two VMware servers attached to two DataCore SanSymphony servers. The two SanSymphony servers are in high availability. Each server has two NVMe cards and some SAS disk in RAID5. 

We use the auto-tiering function to manage the two kinds of storage and place the dormant blocks on the SAS disks. 

We also use the Continuous Data Protection function to protect our volumes against crypto lockers, for example. 

The solution allows us to have real Business Continuity Planning on our storage system.

DataCore SanSymphony helps us to have a real performant and secure storage system. We can use the storage technology of our choice because SanSymphony can manage any storage that Windows accept.

The solution helps us to protect the data with the high availability function, which synchronizes in real-time the block between the servers. The continuous data protection function can log all the changes on the storage to allow us to go back in time within the last 72 hours.

We thought about replacing our two VMware servers and the two DataCore servers with the hyper-converged DataCore solution. 

The first valuable aspect is the software-defined storage. We like the fact that we are not dependent on a constructor. We can mix them as we wish. We can also mix the storage class as we want. 

The second thing we like is the cache which is the RAM of the server so we can choose the cache we need and we want. It provides us with a real performance for the writers but also for the readers.

Next, today, Continuous Data protection is mandatory for us. These days, with the multiplication of crypto lockers, we are more confident in the protection of our data.

It's difficult to say if something is missing in this solution. Maybe we'd like to manage the raid on the disk directly in SanSymphony. 

We essentially use RAID5 for our SAS disk and SSD, and now we need to create this RAID on the raid card. If we could bypass this card, we could really manage all the storage from the solution, which would be ideal.

The graphical interface needs to be improved. We have noticed some bugs in it.

A vCenter integration just appeared in the last version. However, we have only some functions within it. I am confident that many new things will arrive in the next few months to make it more robust.

I have been using this solution for 14 years.

I found the solution to be very stable.

The scalability is very good; we can add a disk or RAM if we need it.

The support is very good. They are fast and efficient.

Positive

We used EMC SAN. We switch due to the fact that, at the time, there was not high availability on the EMC side and the management of the storage was simpler.

The initial setup is very simple; there is a wizard to help you deploy the solution. 

I implemented the solution myself.

We evaluated EMC's MirrorView and recently Huawei with Dorado Hypermetro.

The solution is used for the provision of high performance and high availability block storage. By using auto-tiering, many applications can benefit from the high performance of current NVMe SSDs. At the same time, cold data is kept on low-cost storage resources.

The separation of data streams from different applications (e.g. SAP HANA, SQL server, virtualisation) also increases overall performance and availability.

The use of snapshots for data backup is already planned and scheduled. For this purpose, Veeam Backup 11 will be connected to SSY. The backup will then be LANless via Fibre Channel.

Among other things, we used SSY to bring a Splunk installation onto the existing central DataCore storage. Continuous data transfer rates of up to 2.6 GByte/s (16GB Fibre Channel, dual fabric synchronously mirrored systems over 20km) were also achieved.

The project was also much cheaper and easier to implement than any comparable solution.

The services already running (databases, virtualization) are not affected and run with the same performance as before the expansion.

Veeam is now configured to use storage snapshots. This reduces VMware snapshots to a minimum. The backup runs via Fibre Channel and relieves the LAN.

Synchronous mirroring was a prerequisite for the project. Two data centers are used, which are connected via two different WAN routes. 16G FC is used via the WAN. The "Systems managed Mirroring" feature was used for this.

Another feature that makes high performance possible is "pool striping", where accesses are distributed over a larger number of external data volumes (LUNs). The limiting factor for performance here is the external storage that is connected to the DataCore servers.

Snapshots are also an important feature. In connection with external applications, these enable an improvement in data protection.

CDP is an important feature for avoiding data loss in the event of ransomware attacks. You need more storage capacity, however, you get the possibility to return at any time and use the data saved up to that point. The recovery is much faster than with a classic restore.

With dedupe and compression, we can now save considerable capacity. An expansion of the capacity and thus the purchase of new licenses are thus avoided.

For an upcoming release, I would like to see a function that can manage the storage of multiple Datacore servers in a kind of "erasure coding". This would simplify scaling and make SSY more competitive with other providers.

NVMeoF should be implemented. This protocol will play a major role in storage infrastructure in the future.

Network protocols are becoming increasingly important. For future projects, protocols such as RoCE should be implemented. Especially in LAN infrastructures from 25G, a simpler and high-performance SAN infrastructure could be built here. The costs should be lower compared to Fibre Channel.

Improving support will be very difficult as it is already one of the best in the IT world.

I have been implementing SSY very successfully with many clients since 2008.

The system runs very stable. Through the use of server pairs, there is no more downtime. The storage service is always available, even if maintenance has to be carried out or a hardware defect has to be repaired.

The performance can be scaled very easily by adding data devices of the desired performance class.

It is also very easy to expand the capacity. By adding low-cost storage, cold data can be stored there. This also ensures that the hot data can be accessed with high performance.

Datacore offers one of, if not the best, technical support teams in the industry. Every request is handled very competently and in a short time.

The SEs are also very well trained and competent. They are always available for questions and are also very willing to give suggestions and information.

Positive

We previously used Netapp Metro Cluster. We switched due to the costs for the infrastructure (Metro Cluster) were too high. The performance was also no longer sufficient. The solution was too inflexible.

The implementation is somewhat more complex than with simple storage. In addition to the actual storage resources and the SAN infrastructure, the x86 server with Windows Server and SSY must also be installed.

The configuration of the storage is easy, as it is best to create many identical volumes and present them to the Datacore server.

These volumes are then included in the pool within SSY and centrally managed there.

The SAN configuration includes the construction of a FrontEnd, BackEnd, and Mirror layer. It is a little more complex, but not complicated.

The host systems access the resources via SSY, so these must also be configured in SSY. On the other hand, only the SSY servers need to be set up on the storage.

Being a DCIE myself, I did the installation.

Since the environment is dynamic (for example, changes, extensions), the ROI is not easy to determine. However, the TCO is more favorable than with other solutions.

Good planning is always very important. SSY is very flexible and can cover very different requirements. Therefore, it is important to keep a close eye on the requirements. If you have questions before implementation, ask support or a partner.

Also, pay attention to licensing. It may be cheaper to license a few TB more if you can make a jump in the discount scale.

Also note: Using DAS (internal storage) can be very cost-effective compared to external storage.

We considered different solutions such as Netapp FAS-Series, HP MSA, and 3Par.

I am glad to have used SSY. The solution is very stable and performs well. It requires very little effort.

What you do have to do, however, is regularly apply Windows patches. To do this, the node has to be restarted. You should therefore always use a pair with synchronous mirrors to avoid downtime.