netapp snapmanager for sql server vs netapp san level replication

[SDAVIDCHUK]

We are about to implement netapp san in our company. In our environment we have 300+ small databases residing on two clusters.

Windows 2008 r2 and sql server 2008 R2.

Plus DR site with two standby sql servers....

My question is what are your thoughts on which way should we go?

SAN level block by block replication for these 300 small databases or snapmanager backups?

my concerns with snapmanger are: database 'pausing' for full backup (which using netapp technology) to make it 'fast'

and in regards of trans log backup - it looks like it's a regular trans log backup cmd issued to sql to execute it.

we have our native sql server backups schedule in place, such as full once a day and trans log backup every 3 hours.

so basically when netapp trans log backup command is executed let's say every 30 minutes ( for DR purposes)

trans log will be truncated and there is nothing left to backup for our sql native production backup ( every 3 hours)

may be i am misunderstanding how snap manager works!!

please comment

[resqme914]

Not sure what you mean by database "pausing" for full backup.  Doing a Snap Manager backup should not affect your normal operations.  The database integrity verification (of the Snap Manager backup) should be done off-hours as that could affect your response time.

Assuming you will have NetApp filers in your DR site too, you should look into doing Snap Manager full database backups (volume-wide backups) and snapmirroring of the volumes to your DR filers.