DataCore SANsymphony Reviews

I run two servers with DataCore doing what it does. I then run VMware on top of that for my Window servers. I currently have roughly 50 users that are constantly using the various servers.

DataCore gave us speed, redundancy, reliability, and works great with our backup system.

It is easy to create storage and assign them to the various datastores in my VMware environment.

Installing updates could be a bit more straightforward and easier to install. I have only installed one update on the systems, and for that, I had to bring in outside help that was more knowledgeable with the product than I currently am. He also had to contact DataCore support for assistance as the update did not go smooth. I also did Windows updates at this same time as it was strongly suggested to me not to do the Windows updates as they are released. The Windows updates were installed with no problems and caused no problems to the system.

Very pleased. This system should last me for another five years. That is my hope.

I only run two systems, and I have not had any problems. Nor have I needed to add additional hard drives, but I have been informed that they can be added as needed. I have talked with other DataCore users in my area that have hundreds of terabytes, and they are very happy with the scalability.

I have only needed to contact them once, and they were quick to assist. Excellent support was provided locally and directly from DataCore.

No. This is my first time using software-defined storage.

I had to bring in outside support as I was not familiar with the setup. I believe it took about two days to set everything up.

Vendor team did the setup, and the individual that did the setup was a complete professional. I will continue to use this same individual.

I'm sorry, I don't know this.

I had the vendor that sold me the software and hardware assist with setting up the systems. I also paid for three years of support at the same time when I purchased the software. Again, I found it affordable.

I did look at using VSAN from VMware, but that was going to be more money, hardware, and time involved to implement.

As a side note, I use Veeam to backup my servers, including the DataCore servers, and I have had no problem doing so.

• A powerful, always-on system. We used DataCore for a few years. 
• The best solution to get build and an always-on strategy. It has zero downtime and is very fast and flexible.

• Creates and build fast flash-only storage systems
• Creates storages with TB in small units
• Saves many kW of power and cooling. 

Mirrored vDisk, and creating a third node with asynchronous replication to get the data out of the datacenter. The new third node is great for an always-on experience.

• Better integration into backup solutions like Veeam
• An HTML5 feature GUI will improve usability.

We are using DataCore to increase I/O, to more flexibly utilize storage and to provide a robust offsite replication solution.

It has really helped with I/O and being able to manage our storage more simply.

The ease with which I can create and manage storage for my entire network from one easy-to-use interface.

The only area I see lacking with DataCore is their support. It's not very good at all, and it's frankly, very frustrating and has almost caused me to swear off the product. With that said, the product itself (especially when working) is developed and runs very well and because of that I will keep using it.

Low-cost infrastructure for SOHO.

Excellent performance and reliability, and very low cost using home hardware.

Flexibility. You can install it on almost any hardware and/or hypervisor.

Deduplication works but implementing it is complex.

We use the DataCore software to provide (virtual) storage hardware to our virtualisation environment (VMware ESX).

• SANsymphony gives us the possibility to get storage redundancy with a very good ROI.
• It also helps us to get a more balanced performance of our storage systems.

• Redundancy of vdisk: It provides less downtime.
• Continuous data protection: It is always good to have a possibility to "go back".
• Technical support: Technical support is amazing. It is very fast and always has a solution in no time.

• It will help if there is a possibility to backup the vdisks directly.
• An idea could be that there is a second storage just for backup which doesn't count to the license usage.
• A better (and easier) tool to detect performance issues.

With SANsymphony we never had any issues of stability.

It is very scalable because you can just extend the storage with other (different) hardware. There is a lot of certified storage hardware. Also, the tier level helps to scale.

Fast, faster, DataCore support.

They are also kind and solution-oriented. They are easy to understand, and you have the feeling they want to help you and get you satisfied.

No, we have only used DataCore SANsymphony as SDS.

The setup was done by our IT partner. It is complex because he also had to set up our iSCSI environment. With Fibre Channel it would be much easier.

Our IT partner started the initial installation. We implemented it in our environment.
The partner had very good expertise.

We didn't calculate the ROI.

We have not calculated the ROI of the software. Only the benefits in redundancy and scalability were important for us.

The licensing is very easy to understand/calculate since the new license model. You just have to license the storage and additional features.

No.

The installation is only supported if it is installed by a DataCore certified implementation engineer. Also, updates should be done by this DCIE.

If you want to manage everything by yourself, you have to get a DCIE.

• We use DataCore SANsymphony as our primary storage solution replicated on two hosts since October 2012. In July 2018, we dispatched them to the two server rooms.
• Each DataCore node consists of a server and two storage bays connected in SAS.
• We use this SAN to store our VMware datastore (300 virtual machines) for our 10 ESXi servers.
• Each server is connected to storage via two fiber channel links 8Gbps.

Previously, we had some Windows and Linux servers with direct-attached storage. Our server's farm increases faster than our server room. So, we thought about virtualizing our applications. We chose to use VMware ESXi and DataCore SANsymphony to create our new infrastructure and then began to deploy our infrastructure on one server room. Then in 2018, we chose to dispatch them for more security in two server rooms.

• The better features are the synchronous replication and the management console.
• The synchronous replication gives us the ability to make business continuity planning.
• I like the management console which is very easy to use.

DataCore is currently working with Veeam software for a better integration; this is my only desired missing feature today.

With this feature, Veeam do a snapshot on Virtual Machine, then snapshot the storage.
When storage snapshot is done, Veeam remove the Virtual Machine snapshot to avoid long period snapshot.
With a VMware snapshot period smaller, consolidate will be faster and production will be less impacted.
Then Veeam save VMs directly from storage snapshot without VM performance impact.

When Backup Job is done, veeam ask to Datacore to remove Storage snapshot without any VM interruption or impact performance.

SAN volumes for all system types. You can serve Linux and Windows systems alike, just add the multipath software.

• Multi-site redundancy, who wouldn't want that?
• Cluster maintenance is super easy: just add a node to the second site and the software takes care of the data.

Auto-tiering moves data to fast disk if needed. Works great. I don't have to think about the second set of data.

Maybe adding a Linux data manager, and moving away from Windows. It has become more reliable when using 2012/2016.

Using the newer MS server version has made the system more stable.

Very helpful support!

Straightforward. It supports fibre channel.

In-house.

Check what's out there.

No.

Once you use it, you won't want something else. No vendor lock-in.

We use it as part of the PCA. And also to recycle berries for which we deport their native intelligence on DataCore.

DataCore SANsymphony has improved our organization in terms of performance, data security and maintenance plan. We can stop one of our machine rooms without interruption of service to the user.

The most useful feature is the continuity of service and the associated performance. It brings great flexibility.

Additional features that should be included in the next release are "application performance and storage" (new tuning and troubleshooting options).