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Barryhund Administrators Acquired Several JetStor Arrays With LSI SAS Switches

From Advanced Computer & Network Corporation

The organization

Barryhund

Barryhund Administrators, Inc., based in West Sacramento, CA, plays a role in construction projects. Construction jobs begin only when contractors assess the work and submit bids. To do so, they require blueprints and architectural designs, which used to be reproduced on specialized copiers. Founded in 1997, Barryhund eliminates this costly and time-consuming step by making blueprints and designs available digitally. The ten-person company provides an online project and bid management web portal for construction associations, which are clearinghouses for contractors, construction companies, and public agencies about upcoming projects. There, contractors view blueprints and specifications either online or as downloads, expediting the industry’s processes.

The challenge
Barryhund provides its solution, called Online Plan Service, via hosting services and software-as-a-service. The offering must be always fast and available or contractors would be unable to access construction blueprints and documents, and projects would be delayed. In addition, the firm must contain expenses to ensure construction associations find online plan service more cost-effective than hosting their own. Low costs also deter any competitors from undercutting Barryhund on pricing.

Finally, any technology must adhere to the primary rule of Rex Klein, founder and CEO of Barryhund Associates: “I must understand my systems and be able to manage them, even at 3AM when no one else is around.

Barryhund had used several storage systems to house and deliver terabytes of data, including PDFs, scanned images, databases, and financial and business data. These solutions, however, were at the end of their life-cycles and their manufacturer had increased replacement costs. Moreover, they demanded frequent firmware updates, which often caused availability issues.

As a small company with storage at the core of our services, I need storage that is easy and inexpensive to own and operate, yet still delivers the availability and performance my customers demand,” said Klein.

The solution
Two JetStor SAS 724S 24-bay RAIDs, one JetStor SAS 742S V2 42-bay RAID, and one JetStor SAS 764S 64-bay RAID from Advanced Computer & Network Corporation (AC&NC).

System configuration:

  • Two JetStor SAS 724S 24-bay RAIDs
  • One JetStor SAS 742S 42-bay RAID
  • One JetStor SAS 764S 64-bay RAID
  • Two LSI SAS 6160 switches
  • Three Dell R620 servers

Benefits realized
As Barryhund provides infrastructure for the construction industry, JetStor platforms buttress the firm’s infrastructure. Four JetStor RAID arrays link via a switch to three servers, providing the benefits of DAS with all the capabilities of shared storage. The firm gains the speed and simplicity of DAS and the capacity and flexibility of clustered storage.

Whereas our prior storage had Ethernet links, our JetStor solutions utilize 6Gb/sec SAS2 connectivity, delivering excellent performance but with far fewer cables,” said Klein. “Our firm may be small, but our customer base is large and we’re meeting its needs quickly, easily, and economically.

The arrays also meet Klein’s rule for ease of use. He relies on the JetStor RAID Manager browser-based management and monitoring software to remotely configure and control his solutions and to receive e-mail alerts of any system events. All he requires is a laptop with connectivity to manage the platforms and check their health.

If I were unavailable, it would be easy for someone to understand our deployment and administer the JetStor arrays,” said Klein. “I save a lot of money by not having to train someone to manage our storage. But even better, our JetStors are bulletproof and require hardly any attention, which is essential when IT resources are limited.

Additionally, Klein protects his data by dedicating half of the arrays’ capacity to production data and the other half for backups. By backing up data between the JetStor solutions, backups are fast.

With a DAS to DAS configuration, I can backup 32 VMs in less than 60 minutes,” said Klein. “Because I’m backing up to my production platforms, I can get operational in minutes should a failure occur, rather than hours or days. This capability offers us both a measure of safety and a competitive advantage.

How it was done
Barryhund replaced its legacy storage first with a JetStor SAS 742S 42-bay RAID.

I had prior experiences with a JetStor solution and they were very positive,” explained Klein. “The system was simple to install, fast, and ultra-reliable.

He then deployed a JetStor SAS 764S 64-bay RAID which provided greater capacity in the same 4U form factor. He linked both to Dell R620 servers via two LSI SAS 6160 switches. One switch is active while the other offers failover redundancy. Dual SAS2 links connect the JetStor systems to the switches. Finally, he added two JetStor SAS 724S 24-bay arrays.

They’re very compact 2U systems that use smaller drives and thus consume less power,” said Klein.

The architecture is clustered because each JetStor array shares its storage with two servers. It is also virtualized using vSphere 5.5. To contain costs, the platforms are provisioned with 1TB SATA drives for a total capacity of 130 TB.

The JetStor solutions are configured for RAID Level 0+1. RAID-0+1 delivers the same fault tolerance as RAID level 5 and offers high I/O rates thanks to multiple stripe segments. The systems are engineered for non-stop operation with a cableless design, dual hot-swappable power supplies, and hot-swappable drives with automatic rebuilding of data on new drives.

Conclusion
With JetStor systems, Barryhund enjoys a virtualized storage solution in a small form factor. Their basic DAS configuration provided high-speed, plug’n play operation.

If you need simple, reliable, fast, and clustered storage that takes very little time to manage, then your answer is simple-JetStor,” concluded Klein. “Having tried many competing products, I can honestly say I’m a JetStor fanboy.

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