Sun Storage 7000 / Microsoft Windows Server 2003 WHQL Qualified!
Although this isn't the preeminent blog or information source regarding Windows and the new Sun Storage 7000 series, I do want to comment on its current and future certifications.
All three devices have passed the Windows Server 2003 x86 and x64 WHQL Hardware Based RAID (Storage System) tests. The only NAS protocol that can be qualified is iSCSI. There is currently no NFS or CIFS qualification.
What do these tests check, you may ask? First, all of the iSCSI operations are verified to be in compliance. These include CHAP, mutual/two way CHAP, iSNS, and digests. The test suite also checks the basic SCSI layer compliance. The SCSI Compliance test verifies that a block storage device (RAID adapter or disk target) that is supported by the operating system fully complies with the SCSI standards described in the SCSI-3 Primary Commands-2 (SPC-2) or later, and SCSI Block Commands (SBC) or later specifications1 Finally the device is put through several stress tests, one of which is a 72 hour Disk Verification Stress test.
There are no performance numbers associated with these tests, but rest assured, the iSCSI implementation on these boxes is solid. In short, this means that Exchange Server, SQL Server, Sharepoint Server and more can be implemented and supported on the Sun Storage 7000 line since they are WHQL qualified.
Coming soon will be 2008 qualifications as well as cluster qualifications with the Sun Storage 7000 line being used as shared storage.
Sun™ Storage 7110 Unified Storage System
http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/item.aspx?idItem=25696a81-5ae6-4cfd-463f-93894d8d3f60&bCatID=1282
Sun™ Storage 7210 Unified Storage System
http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/item.aspx?idItem=71f480b0-dfea-c023-223e-499a83b0ef53&bCatID=1282
Sun™ Storage 7410 Unified Storage System
http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/item.aspx?idItem=e06e9289-b860-7ede-5dca-f34580ba16f5&bCatID=1282
Want more? ESRP 2.1 docs will be coming as well as more and more use cases, white papers and success stories. What about running Windows 7 (2008 R2) Cluster Shared Volumes on it? Sounds cool, I just need to clone myself...
1. WLK 1.2 Test Suite Documentation
Posted at 02:52PM Nov 10, 2008 by Ryan Pratt in Sun | Comments[0]