Hello all, my company is looking at replacing our NFS home directory storage solution (currently Sun boxes strewn all over the place) with a centralized storage solution. We're looking at a number of options (Sun StorageTek, etc) and NetApp is one of them. We've traditionally been a Sun shop, so there is some comfort there with our relationship with them and how they do support for us, but NetApp's storage solutions would appear to be far more mature at this point.
We'll probably be needing only around 2TB of storage to begin with, but clearly would like the ability to expand beyond this. I've picked out the FAS270C as a potential solution for us.
Questions are as follows:
With the 270C, do we purchase a "head unit" and then buy a disk shelf and populate with disks? Or is the head unit and disk shelf one integrated unit?
In order to do the clustered failover does this just involve purchasing a second head unit? Or a complete second set of disks as well? Would we need to purchase additional software licensing to enable this functionality?
Any particularly compelling reason to go to a 2000-series vs the 270C given our relatively small disk needs at this point?
How have you all found Network Appliance's support to be? Do you need to purchase an additional 24x7 support contract or is this included with your appliance? Do they do on-site service?
I am a little concerned as I have placed two requests (both via a call and via web form) on Thursday of last week and as of today (Tuesday) I have yet to receive a call from a sales rep. If sales is this non-eager to get back to you -- how will support be? Perhaps if we were looking to spend a little more $$ the first time around they'd be more interested in returning my calls? :)
Thanks in advance for any advice/tips.
Ray