NetApp as SAN

[Coolmar]

Hi,

We require a SAN in our environment which is fairly small. We have 5 HP-UX servers running Oracle. Eventually we would like to get all the NOvell servers using the SAN as well. My question is, does anyone out there have NetApp as their SAN, and are you happy with the performance? It seems to be cheaper than EMC, Hitachi, and IBM and we are a small shop...but it is meant more for NAS and if it is going to eventually cost the same to get it somewhat comparable to EMC, IBM, etc...then we might be better off with the bigger outfits like IBM. Thoughts?

[Patrick Terlisten · Accepted solution]

Hello Coolmar,

which Filer would you choose for you enviroment? Do you need FC or only iSCSI? Snapshots and integrations for other applications like Exchange?

NetApp is still using RAID 4 and 4DP for their Filers. I have some customers which are using Filers for their enviroments and some of that customers are very happy with NetApp. The read-performance is quite good, write-performance is not so good, because of RAID 4/4DP.

Filers can be cheap, but if you need additional licenses for Fibre-Channel, Snapshots, Snapshot Restore.... it can be very expensive.

Regards,
Patrick

[avik]

I heard that Oracle is hosting their databases in Linux & NetApp NAS boxes.

[Coolmar]

Hi Patrick,

I am VERY green when it comes to SANs, other than asking for LUNs and adding them to HP-UX systems - so I know they plan on this SAN being fibre channel. It is more of a NAS, is what they are saying, but we want it as a SAN. Will that cost all kinds of extra money to make it act as a SAN? YOu speak of filers....I am not too sure what they are and will look into that today. We are looking at the FAS3020 model.

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello Coolmar,

take a look at the homepage of NetApp. The FAS3020 is a midrange system, which can deliver block- and file-based services with FC, iSCSI, NFS, SMB/CIFS and some more.

I don't work with NetApp Filers, but some of my customers use them for many purposes, among other things like databases or heavy load file-services.

Regards,
Patrick

[sivam]

HI Coolmar,


NetAPP filer 3020 is a good option. As per your requirement you can go ahead with NAS Boxes.

The perfomance will not be hit unless you dont have more Read Operaions.

As per cost NetApp is Cheaper than EMC/HP/HITACHI/IBM.

We have our NetApp Filer 3020 configured as SAN. We are running CAD Applications. The perfomance is good.

As off my experience IBM UK is not giving the proper support for their SAN products. I am not sure about theri support in US.

You need think about your Capacity planning as well. If your Disk Space is to Grow, go ahead with SAN Products from Hitachi/EMC.

Sivam