Introduction to NetApp storage and tips for successful administration based on 6 years experience

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https://communities.netapp.com/people/BrendonHiggins/blog

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Throw it at the wall and see what sticks

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Spend more time at the start on the storage basics or move quickly
technical detail and best practice advise.

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11. How to share, shared storage
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12. One good reason, given the presentation is for the virtual machine user
group (VMUG).
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13. May still come across DoT 6 systems but they are becoming rare. Lots
of 7 mode systems out there still however. New features are only
being added to the DoT 8 cluster mode code.
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14. https://communities.netapp.com/people/BrendonHiggins/blog/2013/01/
31/develop-an-understanding-of-das-nas-and-san
DAS and SAN look the same to the application and are block based
SAN means LUNs
NAS is file based and requires network protocols, NetApp supports
CIFS, NFS, FTP & HTTP
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15. Key NetApp advantage
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16. Still engineers do not know… Lots of wasted effort by the filer. NetApp
now includes tools to detect LUN alignment issues. Great jumping off
place to start learning more,
https://communities.netapp.com/message/58686.
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17. Not such a problem in newer operating systems such as Windows
2012
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18. CIFS share set up correctly but not working? See this frequently after
enabling NFS for VMware.
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19. Add more ‘power’ to a system by swapping the filer heads. The data
stays on the disk and is unchanged. Simple process.
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20. Scale out cluster limits change with every release, so check. SAN is
held back by Asymmetric Logical Unit Assignment (ALUA) technology.
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21. Lots of wizards to guide and help with tasks. Hiding the complexity
whenever possible.
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22. https://communities.netapp.com/people/BrendonHiggins/blog/2013/01/
07/introduce-netapp-interfaces--filerview-cli-system-manager-rsh-
powershell-etc
Console is the most powerful tool for daily administration.
All console sessions should be recorded
Filerview has been discontinued
System Manager is the replacement but be sure to keep it upgraded
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27. Based on http://oracle-study-notes.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/simple-
concept-map-for-some-basic.html
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28. More Back to Basics
Learn the fundamentals of NetApp core technologies. Instalments in
this series so far:
Chapter 1: Thin Provisioning
Chapter 2: Deduplication
Chapter 3: FlexClone
Chapter 4: Volume SnapMirror
Chapter 5: RAID-DP
https://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-12850
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29. Key NetApp advantage
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30. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/desktop/bb968832(v=vs.85).aspx
New SQL DBA’s always say to me that the last backup product they
used is ‘so’ much better than this NetApp mumbo, jumbo but they fail to
understand that the underling technology is the same. In order to get
the backup to run reliable, just sort out the application environment out
and everything works just fine…
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34. One way process…
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35. Based on snapshots, easily reversible and a key NetApp feature
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37. Sometimes ‘Sorry boss’ is not enough.
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38. So many consoles…
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41. The default reported state HAS to be healthy or people use accept it is
constantly ‘broken’. Check at least twice a day and resolve any issues
ASAP.
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44. Day long workshop in its own right
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46. Day long workshop in its own right
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47. http://www.purplemath.com/modules/meanmode.htm
Note the mean number is not in the list of actual numbers in the range.
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48. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution
When putting forward calculated numbers as ‘actual’ results be sure to
consider what the range of data looks like and how far your number
deviates from the centre.
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50. Day long workshop in its own right
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51. An Exchange 2003 datastore on a single LUN. The aggregate had 60
300gb 15k FC disks and in Aug 2010 the FAS3070 heads were
upgraded to FAS3170. In Nov 2010, the flash cache was enabled.
Notice the average trend before and after flash cache. Also this
diagram enabled the upgrade to fly through the Cap-Ex process.
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53. Export the disk performance to Excel. Notice that dparity & parity disks
have negligible IOPs and skew the results of any calculations so
remove them.
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54. As the disks of the aggregate become more busy, the latency will
increase.
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55. As the disks of the aggregate become more busy, the latency will
increase.
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56. Let the tools do the heavy lifting
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59. Always test for yourself what is being reported by using a known
source.
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62. Create your own support issues. Get the a support number and start
the clock on the SLA timer. Call the support number after about 30
minutes, if you have not received an email or phone call. If you find
you are not getting the support you need, ask for escalation. In the
unlikely event this does not happen, ask to speak to the duty manager.
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63. Learn this tool! - http://support.netapp.com/NOW/asuphome/
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66. Recertification every 2 years
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67. It is how I did it
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