I've been a user of Fibre Channel SANs for about eight years. I have used the Dell | EMC–based arrays throughout and have gone through a few product transitions from the FC4700 to the CX-600 to most recently a CX3-80. I always liked the Navisphere management tool and was able to great performance across the range of applications that I set up to use the Fibre Channel storage.

About eight months ago I was finally convinced to try out some iSCSI arrays. First, I worked with the Dell | EMC CX3-40c, which has both Internet SCSI (iSCSI) and Fibre Channel ports. This configuration didn't really seem all that different from what I was used to with Fibre Channel, mostly because I was still using Navisphere. Next, I set up and used a PowerVault MD3000i and found this array to be really easier in some ways, although it didn't have the same features in lots of respects. Finally, about four months ago I started using some Dell EqualLogic PS5000 Series iSCSI storage arrays. And I did some performance testing with them that is covered in a white paper released about a month ago. The net was that this setup is really much easier, and I was able to get great performance.

A Dell TechCenter chat discusses when to use what type of storage for virtualization, and we expect a lot of the discussion to be about iSCSI versus Fibre Channel. Feel free to join the chat or check out the transcript, depending on when you are reading this blog.

I haven't done a head-to-head performance comparison of Fibre Channel versus iSCSI, and I don't plan to either. I've been able to get great performance with both in the tests that I have run. It's more the ease of setup and use that makes iSCSI so compelling for me. I had resisted iSCSI for a while because I just knew that it wouldn't be good enough, but now that I have started using it I find that it works fine. I think that Fibre Channel still has places where it fits best, but I would highly recommend that iSCSI be considered for all new projects. I'm still using both in my lab. You just might find that you will like iSCSI—if you try it.

Todd