Anyone have any experience with NetApp?
We just deployed our brand new SAN with 500TB for storage, virtualization, and backup. I'm getting the basic troubleshooting/repair/backup restoration training, but I'm wondering about taking the certification path. I've looked into their website, but I'd also like to get a second opinion.
Thanks!
NetApp
Re: NetApp
Fuck certifications for storage systems, they change so frequently, unless you're a freelance contractor laying your hands on all the various storage types frequently it's not really needed. Perhaps if you're an authorized reseller/technician (again outside of one location) it might be worth pursuing. Unless you work for one of those shops that gives raises based on certifications instead of merit and performance ;P
All sans at the basic level are pretty much the same. Put disks in raids, carve raids in luns, put luns and hosts together in a group. Learning snapshots and site replication is good - but these actions are frequently performed at a software/host level much cheaper/with more features than what the native firmware provides.
Most important thing to watch for especially with massive amounts of storage, but fewer disks (I'm guessing you deployed 250 2TB SATA drives, and not 1000+ 450GB FC/SAS drives) is to avoid spindle contention while also avoiding using too many parity disks - each parity disk is loss of 2TB which stacks up quick if you're carving up 3-4 raids per tray and a global hot spare every 1-3 trays.
Every application usually needs the storage to be tuned for it anyways, so you'll be better off with google based on the requirements of the app - as not all database servers need to be configured the same for instance. Some are heavy read, some are heavy write, some are archive and never need to be touched. One of the big things a lot of the storage guys are doing are the automated tiering systems - with some like pillar manipulating where on the disk the data resides to get bigger performance boost out of 'lesser' disks to ones that rely on different types of storage/spindle counts (SATA/15k FC/10k FC/etc). Even then, there's disparities as how they prioritize data - some will move data based on that which is most frequently used, and others based it on data which is least frequently used.
Long answer short - fuck it - as with almost all certification programs, the real world experience outweighs the generalized information provided. It's usually them reading the manual to you with a few non real world examples, because you were too lazy to read it yourself.
All sans at the basic level are pretty much the same. Put disks in raids, carve raids in luns, put luns and hosts together in a group. Learning snapshots and site replication is good - but these actions are frequently performed at a software/host level much cheaper/with more features than what the native firmware provides.
Most important thing to watch for especially with massive amounts of storage, but fewer disks (I'm guessing you deployed 250 2TB SATA drives, and not 1000+ 450GB FC/SAS drives) is to avoid spindle contention while also avoiding using too many parity disks - each parity disk is loss of 2TB which stacks up quick if you're carving up 3-4 raids per tray and a global hot spare every 1-3 trays.
Every application usually needs the storage to be tuned for it anyways, so you'll be better off with google based on the requirements of the app - as not all database servers need to be configured the same for instance. Some are heavy read, some are heavy write, some are archive and never need to be touched. One of the big things a lot of the storage guys are doing are the automated tiering systems - with some like pillar manipulating where on the disk the data resides to get bigger performance boost out of 'lesser' disks to ones that rely on different types of storage/spindle counts (SATA/15k FC/10k FC/etc). Even then, there's disparities as how they prioritize data - some will move data based on that which is most frequently used, and others based it on data which is least frequently used.
Long answer short - fuck it - as with almost all certification programs, the real world experience outweighs the generalized information provided. It's usually them reading the manual to you with a few non real world examples, because you were too lazy to read it yourself.
Pyrella - Illusionist - Leader of Ixtlan on Antonia Bayle
if you were walking around and you came upon a tulip with tits, would you let it be for the rest of the world to enjoy.. or would you pick it and carry it off to a secluded area to motorboat them?
-Cadalano
if you were walking around and you came upon a tulip with tits, would you let it be for the rest of the world to enjoy.. or would you pick it and carry it off to a secluded area to motorboat them?
-Cadalano