Compaq StorageWorks NAS B2000
The Compaq is certainly the largest unit we tested, at 2RU high and almost 70cm deep, but it's also easily the best in terms of workmanship. The front panel is dominated by six drive bays. The configuration we tested used five of these bays; a mirrored pair of 18GB drives for the OS and three 72GB RAID 5 drives for data. The server can be equipped with a fourth drive for a total of 291.2GB raw storage. In addition, StorageWorks 4300 external drive enclosures can be connected for a total of 126 72GB drives, or around 9TB of storage.
The removable drive cradles are large and substantial units but a little care must be taken when inserting the cradle that it actually seats properly; it is possible to latch the cradle in place when it's still not quite in home position.
Also on the front panel are a slimline floppy drive and CD ROM drive, power switch, and status LEDs for the network and system. Each drive cradle has integrated drive status LEDs. There are Unit ID (UID) indicators on both the front and rear of the unit which can be toggled from the Web admin console so you can easily locate the relevant unit in a large stack.
Located at the rear is a pair of Ethernet ports, two USB ports, two PS/2 ports, a serial port, and an external SCSI connector. There are also two pairs of status LEDs for the hot-swappable PCI64 expansion slots.
The NAS is fitted with a Remote Insight Lights-Out board that is independently powered and includes its own processor with keyboard, VGA, and LAN connectors so it can be locally or remotely administered. This allows the administrator to remotely power down or power up the NAS.
Redundancy is not something Compaq has taken lightly in the design of the B2000: there is provision for a second 1.4GHz Pentium III CPU, it has a pair of hot-swap power supplies and there are eight cooling fans excluding those in the power supplies. The cooling fans are generally paired in case of failure and if one fails a status LED on the top glows amber; they are a user replaceable item. The B2000 even has four spare memory slots when configured with 512MB of ECC SDRAM.
The installation kit is very complete with a rear "cable tidy’, and heavy-duty sliding rack mounts (given the unit's weight, they are definitely necessary). The documentation is primarily PDF-based although the large foldout "Quick Reference and Rack Installation Guide’ is superb.
The Compaq was one of two units we tested to run Windows 2000 internally (the other two running embedded Linux), and uses the standard Microsoft Web interface. The interface is clean and simple to use with most of the functions maintaining a similar look and feel in terms of layout and functionality.
Of the three NAS units we looked it without gigabit Ethernet capability, the Compaq was in general the fastest, particularly in the PostMark benchmark. It's a shame HP didn't send us the $500 gigabit Ethernet card, because we feel it could have performed a lot better with this option installed.
| Product: | Compaq StorageWorks NAS B2000 |
| Price: | AU$24,000.19 |
| Vendor: | Hewlett-Packard |
| Phone: | 13 13 47 |
| Web: | www.hp.com.au |
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| Interoperability: |
Supports Windows (SMB), Netware, NFS, Appletalk. |
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| Futureproofing: |
Excellent expansion potential from dual CPUs to large external drive enclosures. |
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| ROI: |
Relatively expensive, but includes solid performance and an extensive features. |
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| Service: |
½3-year warranty and free 24x7 support. |
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| Rating: |
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6%
3%
