RE: SAN evaluation
- From: "Matthew Zito" <mzito@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jkstill@xxxxxxxxx>, <oracledba.williams@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 15:35:37 -0400
Also, the question of what can be done online/offline is very much in
the details - for example, EMC will often claim that there's no reason
to ever bring a Symmetrix array down for maintenance, that everything
can be done online. However, in order for that to be true, you have to
meet a very specific set of criteria, and even then, there are downtime
scenarios. It is much better to assume that for any maintenance you'll
have to bring the SAN down, and architect your availability accordingly.
Then, if you really do get away with not having downtime, you can be
pleasantly surprised.
I also second the verdict on NetApp support - I was an EMC and netapp
customer before I went to go work for EMC. I knew EMC support was bad,
but I thought, "You know, once I work for EMC, I'll have direct access
to the *real* support guys". How wrong I was. I dialed the exact same
phone number that customers did, except that instead of giving my
customer number and site ID, I gave my badge number. NetApp support has
been consistently very good, and they have a good community of users.
The "toasters" mailing list has a bunch of NetApp employees and customer
experts, and even the CEO of NetApp reads the list and posts
occasionally.
Netapp also has a lot more transparency than EMC about their issues,
software internals, etc. For example, NetApp has a simulator, which is
a version of their software that runs on top of Linux, and can be used
to test different scenarios. So, if you want to test how their
replication software works, you can just download the simulator and give
it a shot.
Thanks,
Matt
________________________________
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jared Still
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 1:40 PM
To: oracledba.williams@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: Tom.Terrian.ctr@xxxxxxx; ORACLE-L Freelists
Subject: Re: SAN evaluation
On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 8:37 AM, Dennis Williams
<oracledba.williams@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
That may be it. But I'm specifically thinking about what
circumstances you need to take the SAN offline. I'm not sure how this is
reflected in MTBF. As a specific example, I have seen a comparison
between NetApp and EMC. A lot of money could be saved by using NetApp,
but there were more situations where the SAN would have to come offline.
For example, I understand that you can apply an upgrade to the EMC
without taking it offline. My point is that you need to understand the
criticality of your application and determine whether the availability
of the SAN would meet your requirements.
An issue that I have not seen addressed is technical support.
We have found our experiences with NetApp support much more
palatable than those with EMC support.
Here's an example from someone else:
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=678938&tstart=50
We have had several such experiences with EMC support.
--
Jared Still
Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist
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