SQL Server with Mr. Denny » NetApp

Still time left to sign up for Storage and Virtualization class

Denny Cherry — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:11:26 +0000

My Storage and Virtualization Class, which is available on demand, has started but you can still sign up for this great class and watch all the videos and get all the training to get you up to speed on Enterprise Class Storage and Virtualization so that you can get the best possible performance from your systems at work, and have an intelligent conversation with your storage and virtualization admins.

The course cost is $169 for full SSWUG.ORG members and $199 for non-members. The cost of the DVD with purchase of the course is an additional $199. The DVD costs $399 if you do not purchase a course seat. Course downloads, office hours and the ability to email questions to the instructor are included with course purchase only.

Class attendees will have access to me via a live chat daily (once I get back from Europe next week), through out the month of the class, to get all their questions answered.

Denny

Spin, spin, spin, it’s all about the spin

Denny Cherry — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:00:21 +0000

So I recently got an email from my NetApp sales rep telling me how awesome the Flash Cache is on the NetApp arrays. The email was really short and to the point.

Not sure if you’ve heard about how we’re leveraging cache to augment storage performance.

Here’s a recent article…

NetApp Customers Purchase More Than a PetaByte of Flash Cache for Greater Performance and Storage Efficiency.

Then there was a link to a press release telling about how NetApp customers have purchased a PetaByte of Flash Cache for their systems.

If you don’t know what the NetApp flash cache is, its a flash based IO card (kind of like a Fusion IO card) that the NetApp array uses as cache for reads. Each flash cache card gives you either 256 or 512 Gigs of cache that is used to speed up reads. You can put up to 4 TB of flash cache per NetApp array.

There’s two ways that you can take the statement that NetApp Customers have purchased more than a PetaByte of Flash Cache (which is VERY expensive to purchase). The first is that NetApp customers have such high IO loads that they need this cache layer to get the performance level. The second is that because NetApp arrays are all RAID 6 (yes I know that NetApp calls it RAID DP but the DP just stands for dual parity, which is RAID 6) that to get the write performance that others can get with RAID 10.

Given that so many NetApp customers are purchasing the Flash Cache, 5000 units have been sold since September 2009 and it’s shipping in 20% of the units that you can cram it into (according to the NetApp press release) this leads me to believe that its more about the later than the former. If that many customers needed this level of performance this soon after the option became available this leads me to believe that the NetApp arrays just weren’t able to give the level of performance that people needed until this Flash Cache can deliver.

But that’s just my take on the marketing spin.

Denny

UPDATE 7/12/2010: Corrected the post to show that NetApp’s flash cache only speeds up reads. Thanks to TechMute for pointing out the error in the post.

EMC and NetApp are having a little fun with each other to help cure cancer

Denny Cherry — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:19:49 +0000

I read this on the net tonight and thought it was an awesome idea.

A friend and colleague at NetApp let me know they were doing a drive for St. Baldricks – a campaign where people shave their heads to help raise funds for fighting cancer in children. So, in the spirit of competition driving positive things and staying above the fray, we made a little wager.

If they can crack $10K before mid-day tomorrow, my NetApp brothers will shave “EMC” into their heads – as of this moment, they have raised $3,600 from EMCers.

So in the spirit of fanning the flames, I’m posting a link to it. So it you work for EMC or NetApp (or know someone who does) hit the link and donate, donate, donate.

Denny