What is our primary use case?
We are using OceanStor for enterprise and block storage. It is connected to our company and used as backend storage for different virtualization and database solutions.
What is most valuable?
We purchased the HyperMetro feature, but we have not really used it. It would've been very interesting, but we have mainly used the option and clean features.
What needs improvement?
CFS integration is one area where OceanStor has some room for improvement. The CFS on OceanStor is dedicated, so it's not integrated with the existing active directory domain. That's a big issue with this service. Huawei could also improve the power unit on this storage solution. When we conducted some tests, we noticed that the autonomy for the BBU is not really long. Within 15 minutes, it totally went down. OceanStor is out of support and off the market, so Huawei is moving now to Dorado.
Also, the interface is in Chinese in some places. It would be helpful if they could release some versions without Chinese.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used OceanStor since 2017.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
OceanStor's overall stability and performance are quite good. In terms of storage in full flash, we have not been pushing it to the extreme. But we haven't had any performance issues so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
OceanStor is supposed to be scalable, but we have not really tried it. For scalability, the company chose to move to another solution. They have a couple of systems for storage, with more than 200 hosts.
How are customer service and support?
Huawei technical support was not needed to fix production issues. But I got in touch with them once, and it wasn't very good because we did not get the solution. They were pushing us to embed it, which didn't work for our use case.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up OceanStor is pretty simple compared to Dell EMC, but the time needed for deployment depends on many things. It took around a month because it has to go through several processes to access the data center, get approval, plan the activity, and follow all the internal procedures. So these things make the process take longer.
In terms of maintenance, we load patches from Huawei by open request. They have patches that need to be applied from time to time. Three people are administrating OceanStor directly within the company. We have outside support who can access it on demand, but three people are storage administrators within the company.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
OceanStor's pricing is based on features and volume. If you have a feature like IPCC One or HyperMetro, you will get the license for a specific volume. So when you reach that volume limit, you need to extend the license. That is a significant issue with it.
With many other vendors, the licensing model is mainly based on the feature. For instance, if a file is part of the license for Snapshot, once you have the license, it's not linked to the volume or the number of snapshots you do, even when you extend your storage capacity. It is a perpetual license not based on volume. But with Huawei, that is an issue because you need to extend it to still benefit from the feature if you exceed the volume. You have to pay a lot for data. I would estimate that it accounts for about 10% of the license, but the fact that it is based on volume is not a good point, in my opinion.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
OceanStor is cheaper than Dell EMC, and its management interface is quite simple. Dell EMC's interface is also straightforward. When I compare OceanStor with the full flash of another vendor, I will say that it performed well with the full load, and we have not seen any efficiency issues.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Huawei OceanStor eight out of 10. I would recommend it to other people.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
(a)Makes sense to have the 6400 and 6800 is as flash in our private cloud and the slower 5400's as backup , but please make sure that you have an offsite copy as well, both for compliance and peace of mind!
(b)Also, when implementing those higher Tiers (Tier 1 : NVME), please make sure that the requirements are streamlined as the cost of NVMe can be 2.5 times those of SSD ( Tier 2) and the price even by Huawei standards is not on the lower side! Only the application requiring the fastest response time should normally be NVMe. Its important for users to understand the cost difference.
(c)About encryption, best done at application level.