On Mon, 8 Nov 2004, Edward Valencia wrote:
Oh dont get me wrong, playing with these machines is great, but to use them at home for more than just learning is a different story. I was just daying you'd better have some deep pockets to play with thats all.
I've got an F330 at home for my home network, and an F720 and F760 at home as part of my company's network. I've been running filers since 1995 and I wouldn't store my data on anything else - I have never lost a single file due to a NetApp hardware or software error, something I can't say for any other storage solution I've used. And like most sysadmins, backups are not my favorite thing in the world, so my home network tends to be neglected... :-/
As for replacements, old Seagate 4GB drives are practically free these days - I've got dozens pulled from an old Auspex that someone gave me, as well as a couple of full DEC BA35x shelves that came with drives - I just bought it for the SBBs and spare power supplies, and the seller didn't even charge me for the disks. (Sure, 72GB or 144GB 15k RPM FC-AL drives cost actual money, but we're talking about running an EOL'ed filer at home, not a FAS980. :-)
So, yes, although I could easily replace my filer with yet another box to maintain with "cheap" 200GB drives, I don't need the worry or the hassles. Besides, I must not have enough pr0n or mp3s saved up because my home directory (with about 10 years of data in it) is barely over 6GB. So my little F330 is perfect; it just runs and runs and serves up NFS to the pile of random Unix boxes in the house without a fuss - Enron/PGE power prices be damned!
If I've learned anything in 20+ years in this stupid computer industry, it's that there are two things you should never scrimp on: always buy quality disk storage, and a good quality monitor.
Plus, it's cool as hell to have NetApps in the house. :-)
Cheers,
-- Chris