Category Archives: NetApp

Demo virtual Equallogic PS6000 array available

If you’re a Dell/Equallogic partner you can finally have access to a software version of a PS6000 iSCSI array. This has been available internally at Dell since at least 2009 (the date of the included documentation) but it’s release to … Continue reading

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NetApp FAS2xxx / FAS3xxx 2 NIC Ethernet scheme

The NetApp FAS2020 was a pretty popular array, it had a very low price point, came with a lot of software and could handle a decent workload. The main problem was the lack of connectivity, a problem shared with many … Continue reading

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NetApp head swap (FAS2020 / FAS3240) and upgrade (7.3.6 to 8.0.2)

Three years ago a client purchased a FAS2020, with 12 SAS disks in the head and a Fibre Channel shelf of ATA disks. After a year (or so) they added a second FC shelf The FAS2020 was a big success … Continue reading

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Jumbo vs Flow Control

Don’t forget to check your Ethernet switches for Jumbo vs Flow Control support and recommendations – and double check your config to make sure it matches. Some switches support both, some prefer one over the other – or you might … Continue reading

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NetApp FAS3240 configuration with HP and Enterasys switches

The challenge is to configure a FAS3240 for iSCSI and CIFS traffic, giving both the best performance possible. The iSCSI network consists of two HP Procurve 2810s in a “stack” (which is what HP calls managing two switches from the … Continue reading

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NetApp port descriptions and what to do with e0M, SP and ACP

The current NetApp lineup has a variety of ports on the back which can be confusing to even the most experienced admin. A FAS3240 (single-chassis HA) for example has two SAS, two GBIC slots, two GBICs with FCP modules, five … Continue reading

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NetApp for VMware best practices

NetApp just published an update to TR 3749 to include vSphere 5. http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3749.pdf includes good tables listing all the features supported for FCP/iSCSI/NFS datastores.

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NetApp SnapLock Compliance clock

Found something interesting out today – the internal compliance clock used by NetApp’s Data ONTAP OS when SnapLock is enabled will stop if any snaplock_compliant volume is taken offline. This will result in skewing the compliance clock from the system … Continue reading

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NetApp vfiler / Multistore quick notes

For a good primer on the NetApp Multistore license check NetApp or Scott Lowe Quick notes on multistore: vfiler0 is the “root” or base and owns all the hardware. Only vfiler0 can use FCP. vfilers have a limited range of … Continue reading

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NetApp hot disks

If you run stats show disk:*:disk_busy on a NetApp filer to check for “hot” disks (where instead of the workload being spread evenly, one or more disks are being overused) you might wonder exactly which disk is which: disk:1011CEF0:FF1C5209:2623F1CB:314011A0:00000000:…:disk_busy:46% disk:24EFB7F4:CA46E36F:13F664F4:06469F84:00000000:…:disk_busy:22% … Continue reading

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