Hi all,

I've got a bunch of questions regarding performance and upgrade options
for disk subsystems on our database boxes, and I wondered if anyone
would be able to shed any light on compatibility, certainly with some
of the new storage arrays, and possibly our old boxes too. So, thanks
for your time!

Background:

Database machine running Sybase (32-bit; bleh) w. 4 engines on 4 procs
on an E4500 (Solaris 8) Storage is a couple of A5200s (fully populated
with 18GB and 73GB) mirrored in Veritas. Unfortunately the DB is big at
~250GB.

Our current version of Veritas is no longer supported and we've been
having lots of small niggling problems with the arrays over the years
(loops disappearing, arrays very occasionally locking up) so we're
begining to thing about upgrade/new storage options. Leaving aside the
option of upgrading our Veritas and trying to solve the array issues if
we were to go for new storage, it looks to me like there are two
options, namely new SCSI or new fibre

On the FC side, there's the 3510, are these definitely backwards
compatible with our FC host cards? what are people's experiences with them?
I've read mixed reports on DejaGoogle already.

The other solution would be a 3310 as a) SCSI arrays have got faster,
cheaper and bigger and b) we've had these problems with the fibre loops. The
question here is whether or not we can add a suitable SCSI adaptor, and
whether the PCI bus would be fast enough.

Part of me would like to part exchange them all and look at something like
a V490 with a couple of the new arrays; but the likelyhood of spending
$200k+ on a live and failover box is slim

If anyone who's had any experience with these newer arrays
(especially running them in an older environment) has any pointers, I'd be
very greatful.

Thanks!