Our lab is outgrowing the HP Smart array storage that we currently use. So we are looking at other options. I like the ideas and capabilities behind ZFS a lot, so I thought I would look at OpenSolaris and Nexenta with the focus on Nexenta because it's not clear what will happen to OpenSolaris.
Nexenta is a mix of the OpenSolaris kernel with the Ubuntu 8.04LTS runtime. Both Nexenta core 3.0 and NexentaStor 3.0.3 were easy to install. With the core platform, it's a bit tricky sometimes to figure which version of a command to use: something from Solaris or something from Ubuntu. It makes it so I need to read Nexenta's web site, the Opensolaris manuals and sometimes look at Ubuntu instructions.
NexentaStor is interesting--it is an appliance interface on top of the core platform with additional commericial plugins available. The appliance approach is interesting because after setup, it would make easier for others to administer the boxes when I leave the lab. There is a free community license that I'm using to evaluate the product.
