IT Pro Verdict
With Windows Storage Server 2012 at its helm, the StoreEasy 3830 provides an easily managed solution for amalgamating existing storage arrays and SANs. Its hardware credentials are impeccable and expansion potential is limited only by the size of your back-end storage systems.
Pros
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ProLiant Gen8 hardware; WSS2012 Standard included; Good value; Centralised SAN and array management; Good deduplication performance
Cons
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Minimal storage included; Extra HBAs must be factored into costs
HP has thrown its weight firmly behind Microsoft's Windows Storage Server 2012 (WSS2012) with its latest family of StoreEasy appliances. In this exclusive review we look at the StoreEasy 3830 Gateway Storage, which is designed to sit in front of existing SANs or storage arrays and provide easily managed file sharing services and application storage.
The 3830 focuses on managing external arrays and, as such, has no real limitations when it comes to maximum capacity. It's also designed to provide high levels of fault tolerance as it includes a licence for Microsoft's Cluster Service.
Provisioning is straightforward enough - regardless of whether storage is local or external.
A common factor across all StoreEasy products is the ProLiant Gen8 servers at their foundation. The 3830 uses a ProLiant DL380p Gen8 rack server, which impressed us mightily when we reviewed it.
The StoreEasy System Manager provides quick links to all storage provisioning tasks.
ProLiant Gen8 hardware
This 2U chassis is equipped with a single 2.4GHz E5-2609 CPU partnered by 16GB of DDR3 memory. Local storage is handled by the embedded Smart Array P420i RAID controller which includes a 1GB FBWC (flash-backed write cache) module and fast charging capacitor.
The price only includes a pair of 450GB 10K SAS drives preconfigured in a mirror and dedicated to the Windows OS. You can add more local storage if you want, but the idea behind the 3830 is that you choose the appropriate HBAs when ordering so you can connect it to an external SAN or storage array.
There's plenty of room to add HBAs as the base system has the primary riser with three PCI-e slots. The server accepts an optional secondary three-slot riser but you'll need a second CPU installed to enable this.
Wizards make light work of share creation and file classification.
