NetApp Simulator Disk Fix

One of the great things about NetApp is that you can actually run fully functional Data OnTap Simulator of their storage appliances on any UNIX machine. It is a great way to test their product suite and demo up solutions before deploying to your production environment. I do have one minor gripe that is that [...]

Like a Gunshot In the Server Room

I’m told that’s what it sounded like when the power supply in our NetApp FAS 3020 dramatically failed last week. One of my administrators got a message saying there was problem with one of NetApps when he was home during the holiday weekend. He immediately called NetApp tech support which had already opened a case [...]

Syncing Files Between PC’s and Mac’s

I don’t know how I missed this, but Microsoft has a really great product/service that allows you to synchronize files between multiple computers (PC’s and Mac’s) across the Internet (thanks Mike for pointing this out). In addition the product also allows you to share files with your friends. This communication happens in a private peer-2-peer [...]

Storage Assessment, Datalink, and Rick Shangle

Way back in February we had a Datalink “an information storage architect … [who] analyzes, designs, implements, and supports information storage infrastructures that store, protect, and provide continuous access to information” come out to our site to perform a Storage Assessment. During that process they looked not only at the systems we currently have in [...]

Goodbye Dell, Hello NetApp (almost)

I’ve been writing about how Dell’s PowerVault 220s are junk for quite awhile now. We experienced our 3rd major crash for the year this week. We had everything restored and back in operation 23 hours later.
In the meantime we brought in a data storage consultant to analyze our storage infrastructure. They presented a detailed report [...]