topic Re: New versions of S-Family when? in ONTAP Discussions

New versions of S-Family when?

ehoover99 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:31:39 GMT

Anyone have good info as to when the S-Family wil-----

1. relase 7.3 of Ontap

2. Offer Windows Server 2008 support (Snap drive 6, SME 5 )

3. any news on the phantom 2 port nic card?

Thanks, Eric

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

woodlandpark — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:31:27 GMT

I have the same exact concerns, and quite honestly it's getting frustrating. To pay this kind of price for a storage device should come with a little better support. We're almost at one year since Server 2008 RTM'd and still no support for it. I was going to deploy 2008 last year but have continued to push it back and back with no support from StoreVault/NetApp. I've also been waiting for the NIC to be able to implement jumbo frames (since everything else in my network supports it). Drew Meyer used to be our advocate on here to set things straight, but he has since moved on to another company. Don't know who will be the "people's" spokesman now. Has NetApp hung us StoreVault users out to dry? Just my $0.02.

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

ehoover99 — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:50:19 GMT

Robert, I was wondering if you were still out there.

Here is what I found out, this is by no means official but this info came from netapp employee who was part of storevault.

" There will not be an update to the StoreVault OS. An EOL notificiation for
the S550 is pending and there is no direct replacement product. NetApp does
not intend to leave this market segment and there will be bundled FAS2020
single controller offerings introduced in February with aggressive pricing.""

So the question that remains is how do we get from here (S550 no 2008 ) to our EOL array to something that supports 2008!!

Maybe we should pay NetApp more $$$$ and upgrade again. WTF

This is very frustrating for us small guys. If I would have known about Sun's Amber road project which is now

Unified storage system 7000 series (2TB SAS, ZFS,NFS,CIFS,ISCSI,Replication, RaidZ DP --- try & buy 8800.00

I would have went that route..... Sun just changed the game on Netapp, the same way NetApp did to Sun back in the mid 90's

Where to go from here.......

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

woodlandpark — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:01:26 GMT

Oh man. I sure hope that info is wrong. This is unbelievable. If true, the *last* thing I will do is pay NetApp more money to upgrade to a product that does what my S500 *should* do in the first place. When companies shaft the little guy, I take a hike and tell my friends. I hope someone from NetApp reads these boards and can, hopefully, tell us differently. I know we're not the only people in this boat.

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

gisabella — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:14:43 GMT

Hi,

Just wanted to add my concerns as a Storevault partner. I really hope that they don't hault/EOL the S550 line. Netapp must support Windows 2008. When the Storevault product came out, I thought that "Netapp" understood the market they were going after and I got on board with them.

I took every course and read everything I could to get ahead of the curve when the Storevault line took off.

Right now I've got this awful feeling in my stomach.....

I really, really hope that Netapp steps up and does the right thing....

If there is anything we can do as group, please count me in.......

Genito

Its official EOL for S Family!! :(

nbarsotti — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:54:46 GMT

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/products/eoa/

This really pisses me off. The article does say that they will offer support until 4-6-2012, but what does that mean? Will they be offering updates to OnTap until 2012? My supports expires on 06-2010, Can by a new 3 year support to last me until 2012?

Way to go NetApp one less customer that definately won't be upgrading to a FAS! Sun Unified Storage here I come.

Re: Its official EOL for S Family!! :(

woodlandpark — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:17:57 GMT

I had an Inside Sales Rep call me yesterday to "check in" on me. I relayed all our concerns and how disappointed we all are. I'm like all of you: I bought this StoreVault because of the NetApp name...which will mean nothingto me if they drop us. He said "I hear you" and is checking on what the options are for moving forward. We'll see what happens. As of now, I'm very skeptical.

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

mkincaid87 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:01:19 GMT

Hear, hear. We've been waiting on WS08 support and the second NIC as well. This is really frustrating.

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

woodlandpark — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:18:10 GMT

Well, I got the call back today from the sales rep, Michael Eley. After doing his digging, he verified two things for me...

There will NOT be any support for Server 2008.
There is NO possibility of any trade-up program or anything to help this.

That's the nail in the coffin for me. I expressed that me along with many others are very very frustrated and mad at this decision and that we've been hung out. I told him I was not going to give up and that I needed him to get me the name and number of someone up the chain. I do not at all mind being the person that climbs the ladder. I refuse to believe that I've spent over $6000 (which is a LOT for a small business) for a piece of equipment that I cannot move foward into the future with. I really think we should all be calling and expressing our concerns. Please join me in trying to get this decision reversed.

Re: Its official EOL for S Family!! :(

lung — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:47:37 GMT

Hi Nicholas,

Yes (as mentioned in the other thread) you can purchase up to three years of warranty and support extension for your S550. Also in February 2009, NetApp is changing the upgrade/trade-in program to include S550 systems. Please contact NetApp sales or support for more details.

We want to ensure you have the best customer experience possible with NetApp...pls keep your comments coming.

frank lung

product manager entry systems

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

gisabella — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:11:18 GMT

Hi,

Please count me in, I am just bought an S550 in November and I am really ticked off as basically my choices for futureproofing are to upgrade.........

I'm getting a hold of my rep.....

Whatever help/assistance you need count me in....

We have clients with fully loaded systems that they paid big bucks and what am I going to tell them:

The Storevault company went back to the parent Netapp
They discontinued the S300 line
They discontinued the S500 line
The brought out the S550 to replace
They are EOL the S550
You have to stay on Windows 2003 cause Netapp wants you to upgrade your system to go to Windows 2008
Pay to buy new SAN hardware
Pay consulting to move your data to new SAN hardware

I can safely say that my clients will be pissed and will not upgrade to new NetApp hardware cause their [NetApp] credibility is shot and they [clients] have no guarantee that NetApp would not do the same thing.

Netapp support and update the product line S55X until they EOL the hardware side of things.

I can't believe in today's economy that NetApp would risk business...

This is completely unacceptable and something must be done.......

Let me know however I can help.

Genito

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

ehoover99 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:01:10 GMT

Here's the official upgrade option from NetApp......

http:/http://www.sun.com/storage/disk_systems/unified_storage/7110/

Of course that doesn't help those of us who put money into NetApp products.

But look at the positive side, it will support Windows 2008.......................

Try & Buy price of $8800.00 I bet the FAS upgrade price isn't even that low.

Maybe someone should tell Dave Hitz and Company that the economy sucks &

Sun microsystems has just changed the game.

Who would have thought that we would be saying thank God for SUN Microsystems.

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

ehoover99 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:07:48 GMT

For what it's worth, I've been using the X1037 PCI-X card ( which is an older Intel Dual 1000t card)

in a Secondary S550 with 7.2.1S10. It works great the only thing is it says from telnet session that

"card in slot 1 not supported in S550" but it worksand is identified correctly . The newer intel 1000T cards do not work, Must

be an older firmware thing. Nothing like having all 4 interfaces show up in SV manager!

Any questions let me know...

Eric

Re: Its official EOL for S Family!! :(

mkincaid87 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:38:58 GMT

Frank,

Thanks, that's at least a start, but we would really like to see SnapDrive 6.0 and SnapManager for Exchange 5.0 make it over to S550. It seems like this would not be too hard: just issue NetApp license keys for SME going forward. Once licensed, the download would be available from NOW and S9/S10 already support NetApp licenses.

The upgrades already exist for FAS, so it's really just a licensing/distribution issue to make them available to S-family customers. If we won't have access to the latest software, what's the point of renewing the software maintenance contracts?

Meeting with my AE and SE

nbarsotti — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:51:20 GMT

I was able to meet with my Acount Executive, Mike Howard, and his System Engineer, Reggie Allen, and they

answered all my question that I had about the end of life for the S-Family.

* We can buy new 3 year contracts now if we want support until 2012

* There will be no more OnTap releases for S-Family

* There will be no new features

* They will fix bugs (not sure how they will do that without an OnTap release)

* There is a trade up program for S-Family, the quicker you take advantage of it the better the discount will be

I told them that is it totally unacceptable that they do not support Windows 2008 domains and StoreVault Manager running on Vista. Its the year 2009 for crying out loud. They told me they will report my feedback but I don't think it will change anything. They will need to make the FAS2000 series available at a HUGE discount for me to consider doing a business with a company that has so betrayed me.

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

dougperry — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:28:00 GMT

Are they serious??? Do they know how many people are going to be affected by the lack of Windows 2008 support?

We just bought our s500s a year ago with 2008 as part of our plan. WTF?

I am going to assume that they will come to their senses and get these devices to work in a Windows 2008 domain. If we don't hear something soon we're putting these on ebay and buying something for 1/2 the price from a company who treats their customers better.

HP has a storage product and has good support. Even Netgear is making headway into this market and has excellent support.

Is this how NetApp plans to keep customers? Many of their customers saw them through some rough hardware and software glitches...is this how they thank them?

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

PHOLTCT925 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:00:21 GMT

I was doing some research when I came across this post.

Unbelievable! We just invested a large stake of our virtual environment in 2 S550's and now we are scratching our heads on what to do next. I have sent out an e-mail to our reseller on what their version of this story will be. I'll stay tuned.

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

ehoover99 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:19:31 GMT

Glad you could join the party.

We invested 25K back in June of 2008 on a pair of S550s for Vmware & replication of

datastores. How much did you all donate?

The more noise we all can make the better.....

Eric

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

nbarsotti — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:06:34 GMT

We donated closers to $45K for two S500 about a year and a half ago. Our NetApp rep just offered to let us spend another $50K for two FAS2020's Just so we can use win2k8 domains.

Re: New versions of S-Family when?

PHOLTCT925 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:10:16 GMT

This is a kind of party I don't want to be invited to! We invested a substanital amount of dollars back in September of 2008 on what sounds like the same setup that you have Eric.