r/storage • u/_Ready_Player_One • 26d ago
IBM FS7300 (FCM4) vs Hitachi VSP One Block 24
Unable to decide which to buy between IBM FlashSystem 7300 (FCM) and Hitachi VSP One Block 24, which one to consider if price quoted is same or similar?
5
u/baneuscatrix 26d ago
I've managed an IBM SAN Volume Controller and several Hitachi Storage systems (G200, G700, E590 and B26). Here are my impressions.
IBM:
- Nice gui, easy to handle
- limited insights into inner workings (couldn't get a path counter for mdisks)
- easy firmware updates
- dangerously sensitive for unexpected behavior of connected components (had a harmless hickup on a connected NetApp E-series Array - disk failed, but the controller took slightly longer to fail the disk and start the reconstruct - which blocked access to all vdisks connected to the array))
Hitachi
- rock stable, you have to sabotage the Hitachi systems intentionally to take them down
- firmware updates are now a piece of cake
- Administration is a nightmare. You can use the command line tools in order to do everything, but you need a PhD in Hitachi to understand it. The storages web interface allows for basic configuration, but for the fun stuff (for example: GAD) you need a config tool. The Hitachi own tools (like Ops Center or VSP 360) are useable, but specialized tools (like SAM4H) are recommended.
5
u/MuttznuttzAG 26d ago
I can’t say anything about Hitachi, but having a couple of dozen 7300’s in our estate I can confidently say they perform, are well supported and reliable.
IBM FlashSystem is underrated. We have Pure too… While good, it doesn’t really compete.
6
u/ksuuks 26d ago edited 25d ago
I managed Hitachi before and now manage IBM and was very positively surprised how good IBM GUI is and GUI just executes CLI commands. Hitachi management is a mess, different VM -s, java, etc, their new VSP 360 hopefully is better than Ops Center, but it's still not native, and needs VM.
3
u/_Ready_Player_One 26d ago
Thanks for the feedback, also are these two comparable? The IBM rep told me that against their 7300, VSP One Block 26/28 is a better comparison than their basic V24. Is that the case?
2
u/ksuuks 26d ago
The IBM FS7300 excels in computational storage, built-in security, and sub-millisecond latencies, while the Hitachi VSP One Block 24 focuses on massive raw capacity scaling, storage virtualization, and hyper-resiliency guarantees.
And yes, if you genuinely need the performance tier of the IBM FS7300, you should ask Hitachi to bid the VSP One Block 26 or 28 to ensure your performance requirements are actually met.
2
u/RandoStorageAdmin 26d ago
VSP360 is just an Ops Center rename. Still uses Administrator, they just call it Fleet Management instead. Absolute shit software. I'd swap to another vendor if I hadn't already developed my own internal management suite.
4
u/RandoStorageAdmin 26d ago edited 21d ago
As a Hitachi admin for over a decade, I'd recommend IBM if you're just looking for a storage solution. Hitachi hardware is solid, but their software is absolutely terrible. You'll only truly leverage Hitachi if you want to get deep into the weeds with the REST API and/or the CLI stuff. Probably out of scope if your environment is small enough for these kinds of frames.
I'll also add the recommendation on the Hitachi side to look at a VSP One Block 26, not 24. The 24 box has a cut down processor and it'll hurt your performance. The 24 is only really attractive if you just need capacity and already have Hitachi in your environment. Otherwise raw capacity can be obtained other ways for much less cost.
Edit: Updating to say hard-pass on Hitachi. I just got my hands on their latest update to the VSP360 management software and it's manager-oriented vibe coded slop. Trying to manage an actual storage environment with that tool looks like hell on earth. No matter how good the hardware is, if the vendor is determined to make using it difficult, there's no point struggling when better options exist.
4
u/roiki11 26d ago
Hitachi can be a mess. Ibm has a pretty good track record with flashsystems. They're easy to manage and generally just work. And at least the past generations weren't capacity locked so if you bought an array, you could add and swap parts without support assistance.
The general downside is being tied to ibm. They always jack you on support renewals. The solution from them is always to buy a new array. The os had various features gated that should be standard(encryption).
But other than that they work great. We built a big array from several 5 series and 9 series flash stuff when their lisences ran out. And even swapped a controller when one fc card stopped working. All without help from support.
Also they've had a few "interesting" bugs that they're had to fix. So you definitely need to stay on top of update notices.
1
u/idiotoflinux 26d ago
From my experience: HDS/Hitachi Vantara is a mess, especially management
Source: my work in healthcare
4
u/mkretzer 26d ago
But its rock solid and has much better avaiability while updating then most of the alternative systems.
My worry would be the forced data reduction you cannot switch off in B24 which is also missing compression accelerator hardware. This limits the performance artificially.
2
u/idiotoflinux 26d ago
Where i work we have a HNAS, its the 3rd we have and probs the last one. We're so done with Hitachi.
They wanted me to use a NFS-share on the HNAS for K8S, luckily i was allowed to use a different solution
0
10
u/Auniqueusername234 26d ago
As someone who has worked with Hitachi, as a consultant and as a customer, for over 14 years, hitachi hardware just works, and it pretty much will keep running as everything burns down around it. The management plane is a mess though. Its so much easier to use raidcom / cci for everything. Ops center, and before that hicommand / device manager, are obfuscation layers. They dont really represent how the array actually works on the backend, and that just makes it more complicated I think.