-----Original Message----- From: Stephen C. Woods [mailto:scw@sprynet.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 1999 12:45 PM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Shelves, disks, et al
I've got a couple of questions for the list.
(1) Can 9 GB drives be used in the same type shelves as 4 GB drives? I'm talking about narrow drives here.
(2) Can they be mixed (4 and 9 GB drives) in a shelf? How about on the same controller?
(3) Is there any source for drives other than Netapps?
(4) If one obtains drives from another source can they be put under support (yeah I know, fat chance)? Would they void current hardware support? Would they void software support?
(5) If I had some extra narrow shelves is there a market? We're thinking about decommissioning one of our older filers.
Reply-to set to the list, as I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that other folks are interested.
Thanks in advance Steve Woods
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Hi Steve and to the other members of the toasters@mathworks.com list I am happy to answer the questions you posed about Network Appliance storage
Regarding the question about using non-Network Appliance disk drives in our filers. Our policy is that only Network Appliance-supplied disk drives can be used in our filers else the warranty is voided on the filers. There are very good reasons behind this policy.
1. Extensive screening and thorough integration is the difference.
Network Appliance-supplied drives are burned in, carefully integrated, and screened to minimize reliability problems and maximize uptime.
2. Special driver software.
Network Appliance drives have special driver software that has been written to optimize the performance of drives and filers. Every disk drive has unique characteristics. We carefully evaluate those characteristics and we specify specific changes to ensure the best possible performance.
3. Must meet exacting specifications.
Drives are often seen as indistinguishable and interchangeable. This is not the case. 9 GB drives can differ by power consumption, vibration characteristics, firmware levels, revision levels, cooling requirements, actual performance, and quality. Network Appliance tests to ensure those specific characteristics working well together. So, just buying a 9 GB drive is not the answer. Buying to our engineering and purchasing specifications is what is needed.
4. Total Solutions.
Network Appliance provides a total product solution. These drives are part of the total Network Appliance solution. Our total solution is not designed to work with other components, even if the raw component manufacturer is the same.
5. Support, Support, Support.
Support and service are an integral part of our products. The advance replacement feature and technical support on our products is part of what sets drives purchased from Network Appliance apart from drives purchased from others. We stand behind our drives in a way other outlets won't.
6. Extensive quality control. NetApp has an extensive quality control system in place. We have to be sure of the whole process by which components (such as disk drive) are manufactured, tested, and delivered. Purchasing from another source prevents Network Appliance from ensuring the customer of the quality they depend on. Plus, the unique changes our vendors perform for us will not be found in drives purchased from other sources.
7. We fail what commodity outlets buy. Finally, drives that customers can buy from commodity outlets have failed the exacting quality, performance, and reliability standards of Network Appliance. Network Appliance has specifically rejected the drives that show up at these venues. In addition, drives at commodity outlets are subject to damaging handling and failure-inducing shock and vibration. Customers who buy from commodity outlets suffer greater data loss, shorter drive life, and higher incidences of failure and downtime.
Regarding the question about using 9 GB drives in the same shelves as 4 GB drives, there are several guidelines that need to be heeded. First, the disk shelves that supported 4 Gb drives did not support properly the 9 Gb drives and network Appliance was forced to go to a new shelf design. Therefore, our engineering analysis determined that putting 9 GB drives in the 4 GB shelves would result in insufficient power and cooling to ensure the reliability our users have come to expect from Network Appliance. Second, there are guidelines for using 4 GB drives in new filer models. These guidelines take into account the operating system limitations of each filer. Be sure to review the technical product bulletins to ensure that the operating system limits on your filer are accounted for in terms of total storage capacity as well as the maximum number of slots available for the dual-channel SCSI adapters. Let me summarize these guidelines for you:
Filer Storage Options
F220 14 x 4 GB Fast Narrow SCSI drives
F330 28 x 4 GB Fast Narrow SCSI drive OR 14 x 4 GB Fast Narrow SCSI and 7 x 9 GB drives
F540 52 x 4 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives OR 26 x 4 GB Fast Wide SCSI and 13 x 9 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives
Note: 4 GB count could include up to 24 Fast Narrow SCSI drives F210 14 x 4 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives OR 7 x 9 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives
F230 14 x 4 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives OR 14 x 9 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives OR 7 x 4 GB and 7 x 9 GB drives
F520 28 x 4 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives OR 28 x 9 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives OR 56 x 9 GB FC-AL drives OR 14 x 4 Fast Wide SCSI GB and 14 x 9 Fast Wide SCSI GB OR 21 x 4 GB Fast Wide SCSI and 7 x 9 GB Fast Wide SCSI OR 7 x 4 GB Fast Wide SCSI and 21 x 9 GB Fast Wide SCSI
F630 52 x 4 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives OR 52 x 9 GB Fast Wide SCSI drives OR Up to 168 x 9 GB FC-AL drives OR Up to 84 x 18 GB FC-AL drives
On Thu, 11 Mar 1999, Alvarado, Michael wrote:
- Extensive screening and thorough integration is the difference.
- Special driver software.
- Must meet exacting specifications.
I think you're going to have a tough time convincing everyone that slapping a Netapp label on the front of a Seagate drive somehow makes it worth the Netapp markup, burnin or no.
In fact when we bought our first filer we transferred a bunch of existing 4gb Seagates bought from Another Vendor to it, *with* the blessing of tech support. Is it the right model? they said. Is it one of the following firmware revisions? they said. Then go for it, they said. And the drives worked just fine. *Technical* restrictions for support, like model numbers and firmware revisions, sound perfectly reasonable to me.
Our then salesguy even put them on our support contract. Our current salesguy won't, but I have a hard time believing that reflects anything other than profit maximization.
And that's not something I begrude Netapp per se. They have a great product that I've generally been delighted with, and I wish them all the financial success the free market can drop in their laps. But let's be realistic about what's driving buy-only-our-drives support mandates.
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Alvarado, Michael -
Jim Davis