Thanks for the update, but this is a small business environment. So, I have no problem to down all VMs for 30 minutes or so for the snapshots. Using Zfs is an alternate solution, however, in this thread I am asking about using EMC or netapp directly sharing files as NFS (for users and VMs). So the snapshots are going to be dart vs dataontap snapshots. I want to know more information about dart vs dataontap knowing that I will be backing up using snapshots. Sorry if this is a bit off "zfs", but I thought this is a general "storage" experts list
Thanks for all your comments On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Erast Benson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If you do ZFS snapshots of VMs, you need to quiesce VM states first. > This can not be done without serious integration with ESX servers. And > yes, it takes more time then just a few seconds of ZFS-end snapshot. > > I suggest to take a look on commercial solution from Nexenta Systems, > which tightly integrates ESX (and other environments such as Xen/Citrix > in its future versions) with NexentaStor NAS using VM DataCenter plugin. > Here is the demo, so you'll get the idea: > > http://www.nexenta.com/demos/esx-zfs.html > > Comparing to EMC/NetApp - its ZFS and Open Storage based but does > everything you would expect normally from NAS box, i.e. total > integration. Don't lock-in yourself with HW storage vendor... there are > other choices - more open and user friendly. > > On Mon, 2008-10-20 at 11:42 +0200, Ahmed Kamal wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > > > I hope I'm not way off topic. Basically, I am considering purchasing a > > NAS storage for small business (around 70 ~ 100 users). This will have > > 2 uses, to hold Unix homes, and also to hold VMware ESXi images > > serving them over NFS. I am comparing EMC NS20, and netapp FAS2020. I > > sat down with reps from both companies, and each of them try to > > mention how bad the other one is. And how snapshotting, will kill > > their performance and cause fragmentation ... etc. I cannot believe > > any of that! But unfortunately, I dont have enough experience with > > both to judge. The configuration suggested is 12 disks of 300G FC or > > SAS. We plan to use snapshot backups mainly, for VMs and user homes. > > Around 20 snapshots. > > > > I am hoping if an in independent expert can let me know whether one is > > "significantly" better than the other vendor. In my country, EMC has > > much bigger presence and support channels, so I am leaning towards > > them, we also got a better from them. However, if everyone here for > > example says netapp is way ahead and more performant, I would have to > > think twice > > > > Greatly appreciating your advice > > Regards > > > > _______________________________________________ > > storage-discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/storage-discuss > >
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