We use it for storage for our ESXi hosts at our smaller sites.
It increased our uptime because we switched from physical stuff to virtual stuff, and being able to have that we could do the high-availability and failover.
I like the ease of configuration, the quick setup, and the fact that it seems to be hardened. We haven't had any issues with them. In terms of simplicity of ownership, once they're running you don't have to touch them.
They're also simple to manage. We came from the VNXe 3200s so it's very similar.
We integrated it with vSphere but that integration was "iffy". It was okay but we had a few challenges with it.
One to three years.
It's very solid. No issues at all. The only issue we have is that the power supply ramps up and down and makes some noise on SPA. But other than that being a nuisance, we haven't had any reliability issues at all.
Scaling is easy. Just add drives, extend the space. It's super simple.
We called them and put in a service ticket on the power supply issue. We tried a few things and then they sent us another one, but other than that we haven't had any issues. They've been easy to work with.
The initial setup was straightforward. Coming from the VNXe's, it was almost identical, just has a different GUI platform. It was very easy.
The price is up a little bit from what we used to pay so I'm hoping that it's a little bit of a better system than the VNXe was. But I still think it's a good value. It's new, so I'm sure there's room for the pricing to drop.
We did have an issue with licensing once but we were able to reach out to the licensing group and do an online chat. They helped instantly, so that was nice.
My advice is to follow the installation guide, it's pretty straightforward, step-by-step.
In terms of the purchasing process, after we had figured out what we wanted, it became easy. But we had to get into our first set of standards. The first one that we ordered had the SFP module cards in it, which we didn't need. We just use the 10-gigabit copper. After figuring out our standard template, it has become super simple every time.
What I look for when selecting a vendor to work with is somebody who
- is big
- guarantees their product
- has good support; somebody who is going to answer their phone 24/7.
So far, I rate the Unity a nine out of 10. It has been easy to set up, we've only had a few small issues. Once they're set up, they're running, you don't have to touch them. The one point I held back is because we're new to them. The version we're using is the 300 and it's also new out there so there has been a little bit of a struggle here and there with some small things; for example, the fans ramping up and we have one right now that's not responding after updates.
It fits what we're trying to do. It has everything and more. There are some features that we're not even using yet.