My favorite.... Are you SNIA Certified? Anthony ... View more

Let’s try to understand this. I can see between Erick and Jeremy that you guys are both in the right direction. My understanding of basic RAID is that data needs to be laid out one time in a contiguous fashion. Doing so will create better performance for data that is accessed from said RAID set. An AGGR is a really big flat file system, and as a volume is created, it takes a chuck of the file system. So the first basic question is this.  Does a volumes block(s) span an AGGR from beginning to end like HDS and EVA SAN (virtualized across) or do they have a selected "chuck" of space that is fixed in the AGGR configuration.  As I writing this, I am considering the fact that Flex vols can be resized on the fly and that seems to be counterintuitive to what I stated. Does anyone know how the Flex Vol is actually laid out as data on an AGGR? Is anyone else wondering this? Anthony ... View more

David, I think you will find that Dedupe has just changed the way in which it stores it database and not improved on how it does the actual post process work. Snapshots are still a major factor when deduping volumes. You may want to reference this thread. http://communities.netapp.com/message/21982#21982 Anthony ... View more

Jason, After 10 years of working on NetApp gear, I have to agree on this statement. >>It seems every doc I read on NOW, the information is a bit different. That is a consistent problem I have. I find the best information is ascertained by testing and personal experience. My work with flex vols is very limited (two years) and I am currently testing reallocate on these types of volumes. In my previous three years I performed WAFL reallocate on Traditional Volumes, which would be similar to current AGGR's and I found some (20%) performance improvement for backups and read performance by doing this. Keep in mind, WAFL reallocate is a Defrag type of thing and when you perform an operation on a volume with this type of command, you will risk data loss (unlikely), but possible. Anthony ... View more

Hey Jason, Keep in mind that the reallocation of data at the AGGR level will affect the volume data as well, in the aspect of moving data blocks around. You can see that in this example taken from the NOW site. "Defining an aggregate reallocation scan After reallocation is enabled on your storage system, you define a reallocation scan for the aggregate on which you want to perform a reallocation scan. Considerations Because blocks in an aggregate Snapshot copy will not be reallocated, consider deleting aggregate Snapshot copies before performing aggregate reallocation to allow the reallocation to perform better. Volumes in an aggregate on which aggregate reallocation has started but has not successfully completed will have the active_redirect status. Read performance of such volumes may be degraded until aggregate reallocation has successfully completed. Volumes in an aggregate that has previously undergone aggregate reallocation have the redirect status. For more information, see the na_vol(1) man page." You can get more details from this page. http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/ontap/rel727_vs/html/ontap/sysadmin/tuning/concept/c_oc_tun_reallocate-how-to-manage-scans.html#c_oc_tun_reallocate-how-to-manage-scans Therefore, when you do an AGGR reallocate, volumes will be processed as well. Keep in mind that a volume is a virtual slice of a physical AGGR.  Much like a Qtree is to a volume. Anthony ... View more

Keep in mind that in OS pre 7.3, Ontap had to keep the Dedupe database in the volume. It would seem to make sense with me that you need a little bit of extra room between the max limit volume size, in order to perform a dedupe, considering this. Once you move to 7.3.1, most of the Dedupe database is keep in the Aggr, and volume max limit sizes are increased significantly. Anthony ... View more

Hey Eric, I have done a ton DR tests and I have never seen this before. I have seen an issue with auditing running and not allowing (something like) this, but the message was different. One thing you may try, is rebooting the filer itself (if this is allowed) and commenting out the vol in the "rc" that way it will not start up, and you may be able to move the relationship after manually starting the volume, or vice versa. Another thing I am thinking is a common snapshot is tying up the volume and it is either (busy) or needs to be deleted. I am curious to what version of the OS you are running. Anthony ... View more

You should be able to confirm the FIX using the Release comparison tool. I expect that would be highly accurate. I did do a ton of research for my company on Dedupe, and the 13TB was not fixed under 7.3 or 7.3.1 at the time (7.3.2 was not available then). I am sure NetApp has created a P fix on 7.3.1 or you just have to go with 7.3.2 Anthony ... View more

You may want to check out this article. https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb15822 I know that the reference in NetApp docs on Aggr Snapshot always mentions WAFL operations?!?!, which can mean any number of things. In certain instances you will do the operations in Maint mode and that will not require the Aggr Snapshot, but I would hesitate to lower the Aggr Snapshot below 3% as this article states. (especially if this is a production system) I would also run this buy your NetApp System Engineer (pre sales guy) to see his take on it. Hope this helps. Anthony ... View more

If you are NOT running 7.3.2, keep this in mind. Anthony http://now.netapp.com/NOW/cgi-bin/bol?Type=Detail&Display=308043 ... View more

So...now that it has been a few months (lol) since I posed this question...has anyone got any practical experience to share on this topic with PAM II cards? Thank You Anthony ... View more

Hey Larry, It would be awesome if future versions of Dedupe worked at a more "Global" level like AGGR based. Anthony Feigl ... View more

Hey Paul, You will not be able to reduce backup windows and backup costs with Dedupe on NetApp. Backups (to tape) are logical and will not backup in the Dedupe format. I am not sure of the EMC Technology currently. The only way on NetApp to backup to tape with Dedupe savings, is to Snapmirror to tape and this is problematic. Dedupe will help on reducing disk utilization or disk to disk utilization, without a tape component. NetApp does have a product SnapVault which allows you to do incremental backups from original data, which can help backup windows and capacity, you may want to start investigating that as an option. Hope this helps. Anthony Feigl ... View more

Hey Gregor, I am going to assume you will be managing CIFS quota's.  If that is the case yes NTP's QFS works well.  I have experience implementing and managing quotas for CIFS users with QFS on FAS940, 960, 980.  When you say previous generation filers, I will assume you are referring to 900 series. I have not heard of an issue doing quota management on 3000 series filers, especially since we are working on rolling to 3000 currently at my new work. If you are doing NFS quota management, it is easy with native NetApp. Anthony ... View more

Hey Michael, I am assuming that you cannot shut down the filer for some reason. Here is a doc on how to stop cifs access for a volume so that you do no not impact other volume access for cifs, so this may help. https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb17676 Hope this helps. Anthony Feigl ... View more

Do you have any specific examples? Here is my Prod rc (man do I hate networking...probably cause I don't understand it) hostname anthonyfiler1 # Setup production interface ifconfig e7a flowcontrol full ifconfig e7b flowcontrol full ifconfig e9a flowcontrol full ifconfig e9b flowcontrol full vif create multi trunk1 e7b e7a vif create multi trunk2 e9a e9b vif create single anthonyfiler1 trunk1 trunk2 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 .15.103 netmask 255.255.254.0 partner anthonyfiler2                                           oc2 vif favor trunk1 route add default .15.1 1 # Setup IP aliases for vfilers #ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.??? netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.50 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.51 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.52 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.53 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.54 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.55 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.56 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.57 netmask 255.255.254.0 # Setup filer management interface. ifconfig e0 `hostname`a flowcontrol full netmask 255.255.254.0 mediatype 100tx-f                                                                              d ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.59 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.60 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.61 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.62 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .15.79 netmask 255.255.254.0 ifconfig anthonyfiler1 alias .14.106 netmask 255.255.254.0 #routed on options dns.domainname mycompany.com options dns.enable on options nis.enable off savecore #exportfs -a nfs off ... View more

Hey Fabian, (I cannot comment on the Snaplock part) I have worked on filers which were under tremendous load, and every once of performance we could squeeze out of them was important. Yes I have done WAFL reallocate on Trad Vols in the old days, which are essentially what AGGR's are today. Yes I have seen performance improvement and the elimination of "hot disks", I would recommend it based on the following constraints. 1.     You always will have a chance of data loss running this command, so make sure your management is aware of this factor. (backups, risk mitigation, etc) 2.     You really need the faster performance for the environment, vs a like too have. Hope this helps. Anthony Feigl ... View more

Hey Adam, I have been told (by senior network people) that I cannot restrict the outbound traffic, it will route through the first available interface, if it is on the same Vlan as the other vfilers.  They have specifically said that unless the Vfilers are are separate Vlans that is not possible, unless other configurations are changed in routing tables.  This is referenced in a document based on Solaris interface groups (see below), that is my understanding. I am trying to get clarity on this for a definative YES or NO answer. Thank You Anthony Interface Group: =============== An "interface group" is a collection of source addresses that share a common subnet (also know as prefix). With the addition of this new feature to Solaris 2.6, systems can have multiple physical interfaces on the same subnet. With the addition of interface groups, the problem of inbound packets arriving through multiple interfaces and outbound packets leaving through one single interface has been addressed. IP uses an interface group to rotate source address selection when the source address is unspecified. In the case of multiple physical interfaces in the same group, IP scatters traffic across different IP addresses on a per-IP-destination basis. Interface group provides load balancing but does not provide automatic failover. Other aspects of interface groups are: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interface group works at the IP layer. Interface group works across different type of NIC's and network drivers. Interface group support is part of the OS with Solaris 2.6 and above. The same can be enabled by setting the ndd parameter ip_enable_groups_ifs to 1. The use of an interface group requires that the network interface cards have their own MAC addresses. Interface group allows for multiple interfaces on a system to have IP addresses belonging to the same subnet (but not the same IP address). An interface group can be formed with different network interface types. Interface types can be a mix of hme, le, qfe, etc. ... View more

Hey Jason, You can determine disk busy by looking at the sysstat in the following manner. As you can see below my Disk util hit 27%.  If this number is high (like 80%) than your disks (spindles/aggrs) are getting hammered. That would be when you would want to look at doing a wafl reallocate or to rebuild the aggr. I am not sure how to SNMP this, but you could write a script to rsh into the filer and pull the stats regularly and email them to you. ANTHONYS-FILER> sysstat -s -x 1 CPU   NFS  CIFS  HTTP   Total    Net kB/s   Disk kB/s     Tape kB/s Cache Cache  CP   CP Disk    FCP iSCSI   FCP  kB/s                                   in   out   read  write  read write   age   hit time  ty util                 in   out   0%     0     0     0       0     8     0    132      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    6%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0     4     0    128      0     0     0   >60   98%   0%  -    2%      0     0     0     0   1%     0     0     0       0     4     0      4      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    4%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0     5     0    132      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    7%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0     6     0    128      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    6%      0     0     0     0   1%     0     0     0       0     5     1    744    684     0     0   >60  100%  30%  T   27%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0     4     0    124      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    4%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0     5     0    128      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    4%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0    12     0    132      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    4%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0     9     0    128      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    5%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0    12     0    128      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    5%      0     0     0     0   0%     0     0     0       0    12     0    124      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    8%      0     0     0     0   1%     0     0     0       0     6     0    140      0     0     0   >60  100%   0%  -    6%      0     0     0     0 -- Summary Statistics (   13 samples  1 secs/sample) CPU   NFS  CIFS  HTTP   Total    Net kB/s   Disk kB/s     Tape kB/s Cache Cache  CP   CP Disk    FCP iSCSI   FCP  kB/s                                   in   out   read  write  read write   age   hit time  ty util                 in   out Min   0%     0     0     0       0     4     0      4      0     0     0   >60   98%   0%  *   2%       0     0     0     0 Avg   0%     0     0     0       0     7     0    167     52     0     0   >60  100%   2%  *   6%       0     0     0     0 Max   1%     0     0     0       0    12     1    744    684     0     0   >60  100%  30%  *  27%       0     0     0     0 Hope this helps. Anthony Feigl ... View more

Hey Reinoud and anyone else, My two cents on Dedupe and your comments. One thing is FAS Dedupe has a limited on Volume sizes that it can Dedupe based on the box sizes, this can be a big gotcha if you have vols 3TB plus. So you have to make sure thet the boxes you buy in the future support the current sizes you have and the bigger sized you expect before your next refresh. Also, it is my understanding (after chatting with a number of senior site engineers) is that the long term recommendation of NetApp Engineers for average size environments (60TB - 500TB Useable) with Flex Vols is that Vols should stay under 1.5 TB.  If you need to have them as large flat file systems it is recommended to use DFS or some other global name space product to present them as one container. FYI there are big differences in FAS Dedupe on 7.2.x and 7.3.x I have found it very frustrating on the part of some of my employers that FAS 960, etc do not support Dedupe, they have large footprints with zero downtime (uptime 500 days+) Anthony ... View more

Hey Tervor, I have to admit I am not familiar with Fractional Reserve, but Chris had a great Blog recently on the subject. http://communities.netapp.com/groups/chris-kranz-hardware-pro/blog/2009/03/05/fractional-reservation--lun-overwrite Check it out. Hope it helps. Anthony Feigl ... View more