I agree that using 9Gb drives is *better* than using larger drives for a separate root volume, but even then you're still using 27Gb of disk space for what is generally an under 100Mb set of data, and it reduces the max capacity of the filer by (what I feel is) a significant amount.
Like others have mentioned, I think I great future enhancement to the product line would be a separate set of media for the root volume, whether that's flash disks, microdrives, whatever.
-----Original Message----- From: Marchand, Paul [mailto:Paul.Marchand@netapp.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 10:26 AM To: Fox, Adam; 'neil lehrer'; toasters Subject: RE: boot volume with no data
I agree with Adam except I do like a separate root volume as it makes life much easier for all the reasons he mentioned. It is a huge waste of space unless you can convince the customer to purchase 3 9 gig drives, 2 for root 1 for parity in addition to their other storage requirements. You don't waste as much space that way and just maybe the customer may buy an extra shelf with only 3 bays occupied which could accommodate 4 more drives at a future point in time.
-Paul
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paul E. Marchand Network Appliance ~ Systems Engineer fast simple reliable marchand@netapp.com 408.822.3213 415.793.8881(cell)
-----Original Message----- From: Fox, Adam [mailto:Adam.Fox@netapp.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 9:54 AM To: 'neil lehrer'; toasters Subject: RE: boot volume with no data
Okay, I've heard lots of debates on this, here's my opinion and I'm sure others will disagree.
I'm not a big fan of root-only volumes. I think that overall they are a big waste of space for very little gain. However, there are some good reasons to do it depending on your scenario.
1. SnapMirror. If you are SnapMirroring all of your data then it is a good idea to have your root volume on a separate volume. This allows you to offline your data volumes at will which is good for initial transfers or resynching back to a source.
2. SnapRestore. If your application or dataset makes regular use of SnapRestore..yes I've seen this in a case where customers like to snapshot a known good dataset, have their users mess with it, then SnapRestore back to the known good dataset afterwards. If this is your scenario, then yes, a root volume is a good idea.
3. Lots of vol copy'ing. If you do lots of vol copy commands in your dataset, then for the same reason as SnapMirror, the offline ability is a good one.
There may be others out there in the world, but these are the most common. But in my opinion, for the 50-60MB that /etc typically takes up, is it worth dedicating 2 36GB or 72GB drives? Maybe so, but most of my customers don't think so.
Just one geek's opinion. There isn't really a single right or wrong answer on this one.
-- Adam Fox NetApp Professional Services, NC adamfox@netapp.com
-----Original Message----- From: neil lehrer [mailto:nlehrer@ibb.gov] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 11:56 AM To: toasters Subject: boot volume with no data
are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to just having ontap on vol0 and data on other volumes? --
regards
The problem with using smaller disk drives is that you still need a hot spare. That makes three slots dedicated to the root volume. I don't know if ONTAP is smart enough to match the size of the spares to the disks in a volume. If it is then you have three slots towards the root volume. In my set up slots are more valuable than the cost or wasted space of bigger disks.
-Michael Cerda
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Michael Cerda -
Mike Sphar