SANS DIGITAL EliteRAID ER208I+B 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, JBOD 8 x Hot-Swappable 3.5" Drive Bays 2U 8 Bay SATA to iSCSI 2x GbE RAID 60 Rackmount

Pros: We are currently using two of these for iSCSI archive storage for three IP video servers at a College.. Well, I was not expecting much as one wouldn’t for taking a chance with a 3.5 HDD storage enclosure in a rack mount from a company I had not heard of and at a price that seemed way too good to be true. But the budget was tight at the time, and I did not have the funds for a Dell or HP solution so gave it a chance. Bought two of them and dumped some 2TB Seagate Constellation ES’s in there, ran the wizard to make them into a RAID5, and over two years later with 24/7 uptime I am very pleased.

Cons: Only problem (if you call it a problem) was figuring out how to expand the RAID5 from the initial 5 disks to an additional 3 I dropped in. Couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to do it. I dropped an email to their tech support and in two days had a response asking if we could have a remote session to show me how to do it. I said yes and chose a time in the options he gave. The next day the tech calls me on the nose. He had a bit of trouble getting connected to me, but once it he walked me through the steps. I couldn’t have been happier. Both enclosure now have usable space of 13TB and get hammered every 4 hours. Now if the enclosure and drives could run smoothly until I retire.

Other Thoughts: The price is just crazy when you consider the build in RAID controller for around $3500 you can have 14TB of storage in a RAID5. I know use it as the standard for all the new video servers.

Pros: Affordable, fast and easy to setup and use.

Cons: None so far

Pros: Good packaging came secure in a heavy duty box - nothing moves around. Overall very happy. Easy to set-up, nothing to install. I use this for my home central storage and for fast VMware server deployment. I bought the open box (sorry there was only 1 - paid $990). I will keep it simple.

1. Well Built
2. Cheaply upgradeable cache from 512MB to 1GB with memory you may already have laying around - only 1 slot. DDR Ram.
3. 3 NIC connections - one for admin - 2 for throughput. 190 MB/s is achievable.
4. Easy Web GUI - set on DHCP from the factory - install in rack, plug in drives, connect to network, turn on, open IP in browser - configure.
5. RAILS RAILS RAILS - there is no mention of this either here or on the Sans Digital website but the rails come with it, already installed and very high quality and very heavy duty.
6. Thought I read it has redundant power built in - will look tonight.

Would definitely recommend this product to anyone if iSCSI is what you are looking for.

Cons: I have no cons - only wish they would have made the case not as deep - with pull handles the overall depth (length?) is 23" and I have a small rack enclosure for house and rear clearance is tight. There is empty space in the enclosure if you pop off the cover, they could have made the unit smaller. I will be buying Sans Digital again if the opportunity comes up.

Other Thoughts: I have this unit in a small rack with a Tyan GT14 2X4 core AMD server - boot Tyan has no drives in it - just an 8GB USB drive running VMware and all the storage is on the ER208i+B unit. 8 X 1TB drives. I run various VMware servers, and everything configures as the documentation states. This unit is on the VMware Certified list for iSCSI storage devices. Will be running Astaro VM and OpenFiler VM on the Tyan with the iSCSI in the next week. Overall very happy with purchase.

I have PDFs of the Quick Install and Detailed Users Manuals will try and find a place to upload and link as they are NOT available on the Sans Digital website.