I am planning our first SnapCenter deployment (version 4.0) by reading NetApp’s documentation and would love to hear about real-world experiences. It appears complex compared to SnapDrive, SMSQL, and VSC which we use now. I would love any clarity on the following points:
- Is it a best practice to store the SC database and/or installation files on NetApp LUNs? Can the SC backup utility make use of native NetApp snapshot backup capabilities?
- How useful and/or important is it to include NLB/ARR? Does it work well?
- Is a Windows Failover Cluster an option vs. NLB? (I didn’t see it referenced in documentation. We are already familiar with WFC whereas we haven’t used NLB much).
Beyond this, I would love to hear of any experiences in general with transitioning to SnapCenter and any lessons learned. Thanks in advance!
