NetApp SnapMirror Reviews

Its ability to transfer data retaining its complete integrity, access, permission etc.

We have migrated data from old and expiring Netapp hardware using Snapmirror - thereby allowing us to decomm the old hardware and save power, maintainence, cost etc.

None for now.

8 years.

None.

None.

Excellent. None of the users whose data has been migrated using Snapmirrot have ever complained back to us.

10/10, just like any Netapp support.

No - this is the best tool from Netapp and we never thought of any other tool. In fact, all additional features like Netapp Datamotion for vfilers use SnapMirror as their backend.

Straight forward - infact just 3-4 commands can effectively deliver the power of Snapmirror.

Obviously in-house.

100%.

No idea. I am a technical guy and dont get into finances.

None. This technology has been in place for last 10 years as I know and I have personally worked 8+ years on it.

Administration of Netapp Snapmirror and Netapp Storage through CLI or Oncommand manager is the best.

Creation of any size of storage LUN and replication of the same with Snapmirror environment is most valuable.

I can not say much, but obviously Netapp came out with different types of GUI based management tools for Performance management and Replication Management which has made acceptability of Netapp environment better than earlier.

I must say that Netapp will have to come out with Better performance and Faster Data replication technologies.

We have been using Netapp Storage and Snapmirror for 4 Years for Banking Domain applications, I have also seen that many clients using Netapp Snapmirror for Messaging as well.

About about a year now we have faced random issues related power supply or auto failover failback issue which was related to bugs in Firmware.

No, it's very good.

I would rate is with 3 as India Support which I am experiencing is not that good when compared to EMC.

I would also rate is with 3.

It is straightforward in terms of LUNs,NFS and CIFS with Snapmirror at DR.

Vendor Team - Yes Experience was good

I am not aware of it as I am the administrator, Client used to manage costs.

Of course. We checked for EMC's VNX and Hitachi's HNAS.

I find the most valuable features to be the management suites, integration into VMware with the Virtual Storage Console, and the capabilities it offers toward disaster recovery such as Snapshots, Snapmirror, and Snapvault.

A NetApp storage solution allows a company to architect a disaster recovery plan that protects all company data. For instance, you have a production NetApp. All company CIFS data is located there. All VMware NFS volumes are located there. All server LUNs are located there. In essence, the livelihood of the company is served up from a central NetApp storage system because all company data is there. This production storage system offers local snapshots for easy restore capabilities. You can then Snapmirror all of this data to a separate NetApp storage unit in a different hosting facility. You can also implement Snapvault. If disk-based recovery is enough you can stop there. Or if you prefer, one can implement tape-based backup via NDMP against the DR NetApp SAN then ship tapes offsite to Iron Mountain or somewhere else. This essentially gives you local Snapshot to production, Snapmirror to DR SAN and offsite tapes. This is a simple and brief description but should provide an outline to its benefit to an organization as it relates to disaster recovery or a backup solution. There are a number of different capabilities a NetApp filer provides that is a clear benefit to any organization.

This has to do with Snapmirror to an unlike NetApp unit and disks but the process is called Deswizzling. This process can get out of control sometimes and cause excessive disk utilization. You really have to be careful with Snapmirror planning as it relates to how often synchronizations are completed especially on large volumes. The other improvement area could be support for replication from Windows file servers. There is the NetApp OSSV solution but you are version locked with ONTAP. You cannot run cluster mode on 8.2.x and still support OSSV. There is an appliance but that can get a bit pricey. There are open source solutions if you look hard enough and put some effort into implementation.

I have used NetApp storage products for the past ten years.

With large implementations there are always hiccups but nothing serious that can't be fixed with minimal effort.

Initially one can experience issues with stability if the NetApp unit is over utilized. This can happen. I have seen a NetApp unit with sustained 100% disk utilization over a period of a few days. This causes real issues. This is why I say it is imperative to really plan the deployment of disk storage systems. You cannot overload the system with production access, Snapmirroring, Snapshots, NDMP, and such. Definitely give your plan due diligence and design your implementation accordingly.

NetApp systems are very scalable especially with cluster mode ONTAP.

I do not interact much with NetApp customer service. That is the job of my primary purchasing vendor. However, the few times that I have it was great service.

NetApp's automated support is great. If the system encounters an issue it will fire off an auto support to NetApp. On the rare occasion that I have actually had to call NetApp support they were very responsive and actively worked to a resolution of my issue. Overall, excellent technical support.

It is not to say I ONLY use NetApp. That is simply not true. I just prefer NetApp. I have implemented storage solutions from pretty much all vendors. It mostly comes down to a business decision of cost vs. benefit. NetApp is not cheap by any stretch but you do get what you pay for.

The initial setup of racking, wiring, assigning shelves, IP addressing, and even array and aggregate creation is fairly simple. As you integrate systems and data onto the storage solution it can get a bit complex I think. I am so used to it now it is like second nature but I can see it being complicated for some who are not used to a particular solution or vendor. Examples of complexity could be implementing high availability, fiber channel, iSCSI, NFS, LUNs, flash cache, snap schedules, permissions, Qtrees, Quotas, NDMP, CIFS, etc. all on the same production filers.

This really depends on the size and complexity of the implementation but typically it is either in-house completely or a combination of in-house and vendor support. I have never relied on just a vendor implementation. The primary vendor I use is very knowledgeable and responsive to my needs.

It is sometimes difficult to quantify a return on investment when it comes to certain technology especially when it does not technically make the company money. However, with a NetApp storage solution, if designed and implemented for a specific purpose, it can provide some real numbers for a return on investment. If a particular solution was built to provide high availability, backup capabilities, disaster recovery capabilities and faster access to data then one can clearly calculate an ROI.

I cannot provide specific numbers but depending on the size of the implementation it can run well into the $100K+ range with recurring support contract costs. With power and cooling costs it can also accrue costs quickly. Again, certain solutions are cheap while others are not. It is really a business decision as to which is selected.

I evaluate different vendors regularly to keep up with new technology from various vendors. I have recently evaluated solutions from EMC and Dell.

NetApp is a solid solution for SAN needs. It is best to really do your homework and find the solution that is appropriate for the organization and allow for growth based on company historical data. You don't want to just purchase the top model solution just to say you did but at the same time you don't want to under engineer a solution either. Take your time and design what's best for the company.

I can elaborate on how I am using NetApp SnapMirror for server migration for one of my clients. We create a cluster, establish intercluster connectivity for the server migration, and then create cluster peering. After that, we configure server peering. We create a DP volume on the destination and then configure NetApp SnapMirror on the destination with a five-minute replication interval from source to destination.

NetApp SnapMirror has positively impacted my organization because it is a very helpful feature for any organization that needs to create a DR site for disaster recovery. NetApp SnapMirror replicates all of the data to the DR site, and with this feature, we can replicate all of the data to the DR site using an asynchronous policy.

The best features that NetApp SnapMirror offers for me are the replication features, as we can replicate all of the data to the DR site, which is very helpful for disaster recovery.

NetApp SnapMirror has positively impacted my organization because it is a very helpful feature for any organization that needs to create a DR site for disaster recovery. NetApp SnapMirror replicates all of the data to the DR site, and with this feature, we can replicate all of the data to the DR site using an asynchronous policy.

I have been familiar with NetApp SnapMirror for six years, specifically for server migration.

There is nothing that has been frustrating with NetApp SnapMirror; I think it is already a better option. I give this product an overall rating of 8.