I prefer to have my root volumes separated from the data volumes. For one, this helps to keep the root volume from becoming 100% full. In the even a root volumes becomes 100% full, a filer may simply reboot or all out panic. Before anyone tells me how remote that chance is, I have dealt with those consequences already. It is more of an annoyance then a real problem but the separation of root volumes provides me with one less thing to worry about.
I must agree with all of the others reasons as well as they were so well put. If one were inclined, the cost is easily justifiable in larger shops but I will admit in smaller installations such justification may be harder to come by.
Number of disks required to store a core dump
When the filer creates a core dump, it saves the contents of the memory and NVRAM to a set of fixed-sized areas at the beginning of all the disks. Therefore, you must make sure that the filer has enough disks to create a complete core dump for a given size of memory and NVRAM.
For DOT version 6.0.1 here are NetApp recommendations for the minimum number of disks that must be installed for a filer to successfully perform a core dump is shown in the following table.
Memory 4-GB 9-GB 18-GB 36-GB 72-GB NVRAM disks disks disks disks disks
512MB 32MB 6 3 2 2 1
1GB 32MB 12 6 3 3 1
3GB 128MB n/a 18 9 7 2
as pulled directly from the DOT 6.0.1R3 Start Here document, Chapter 2: Information for All Users, System requirements for this release of Data ONTAP.
neil lehrer wrote:
are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to just having ontap on vol0 and data on other volumes? --
regards