Hewlett-Packard is shipping a substantially smaller and less power-hungry version of its enterprise blade server. But an accompanying storage blade, also new, could make small a big deal for some non-enterprise users.
Nicknamed "Shorty," the HP BladeSystem c3000 is roughly half the size of a full-featured HP BladeCenter c7000. It's an eight-slot enclosure that measures just 10.5 inches high and plugs directly into 110- or 220-volt wall outlets -- a happy change from the data-center-class power setup of HP's larger units.
But with the addition of another new product, the All-in-One (AiO) SB600c storage blade, Shorty gains some storage stature. This blade adds 1.16 Tbytes of SAS storage, plus NAS, iSCSI connectivity, snapshots, optional mirroring, and integration with HP's tape backup software.
Shorty and the SB600c are both shipping now, priced from $4,300 and $9,968, respectively.
For better or worse, Shorty-plus-SB600c has a Byzantine set of fine points and interconnections with other HP products that could turn up both pleasant and unpleasant surprises. Here's a sampling of some of them:
- Shorty works with all of the HP ProLiant, Integrity, and StorageWorks server and storage blades the c7000 does.
- The backup software used on the SB600c blade is HP's Data Protector Express (DPX) software and features the same wizards and interfaces.
- The SB600c software stack also includes a scripting interface for help integrating third-party backup software.
- The SB600c can link to a backup server or to an Ultrium 448c Tape Blade ($2,000) in the c3000 chassis, or via iSCSI over the network to an HP VLS1000i or an HP D2D Backup System.
- Data (like SQL or Exchange) can be migrated from older servers to the SB600c via an integral Application Storage Manager (ASM, a common feature of All-in-One products) in the module.
- Raw capacity of the SB600c is 1.16 Tbytes, of which 30 Gbytes is required for the AiO software stack. That remaining storage can be used for NAS, but capacity depends on RAID settings and other variables.
- The SB600c includes two 1-Gbyte Ethernet ports and incorporates Microsoft iSCSI Target Software to create iSCSI LUNs on the blade.
