I am also a big netapp fan, and Chris has told only part of the good news,
so I will add some:

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Marget [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]

> the snap mirror is *not* a copy of your data, though it appears to be.
> it's a snapshot of the filesystem metadata, (inode and superblock type
> things).  the data that's mounted in the snapshot directory is the same
> data blocks you're working with in the live filesystem... 
 
A fundamental part of NetApp's technology is snapshots, and several people
have extolled the virtues of this.  Snapshots are what Chris is describing
here.

NetApp then leverages she snapshot technology to create a remote asynch
replication strategy called snapMIRROR which is also cool.  snapmirror is a
complete separate copy of the data on a remote filer.  Good for disaster
recovery.  

Remote replication from EMC (and the like) is done at block level, with no
knowledge of the file system above the blocks, so SRDF either has to be run
in synchronous mode (and incur the performance penalty) or it has a tough
time guaranteeing data integrity.  Oracle will only certify SRDF run in
synchronous mode.  Celerra filers require synch mode unless you're REALLY
into buying extra disks.   NetApp is one integrated technology.  so they can
do remote replication asynchronously and still guarantee data integrity.
The data is not absolutely up-to-date, but at least you'll have a file
system that doesn't need FSCKing.  

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