Thanks Greg!
Yes, for those of you not familiar with the licensing fine points of
NetApp products, licenses technically are, or are not, transferable,
depending who you talk to. When somebody describes them as transferable,
what they are really saying is that they are transferable to the extent
that NetApp allows the new owner to repurchase them all over again. This
is problematic for small shops, as it presents a huge barrier of entry.
These licenses are not cheap! You have the option of buying either
CIFS/SMB or NFS, or both. Buying both typically represents half of the
TCO of a NetAppp system. If you can get away with using only one
protocol, you can save quite a bit of $$$. While their software is
pricey, it is also best of class. Their CIFS software is far superior to
anything in the OSS world, and ofcourse, the WinTel product cannot touch
it in terms of raw performance, reliablity and scalability.
The good news is that if you press NetApp hard enough, they will
negotiate. I am currently negotiating with some of their top sales staff
at this time so chances are good that the next licenses can be purchased
at very deep discounts.
To further clarify Greg's earlier comments amount NetApp licensing,
unlike the Micorsoft CAL model, once you buy the licenses, you are
allowed an unlimited number number of concurrent client connections to
the filer. As Greg has also said, these system are quite robust, and the
NetApp brand is a mainstay in many of top-notch production facilities. I
speak from experience as I have personally managed/administered this
system. It is truly awesome!!!
Feel free to contact me with any questions you have about this system.
Jeff Yana
(Tel# suppressed)
Greg Ercolano wrote:
Jeff Yana wrote:
> Hello Group.
>
> I wanted to announce that a company I represent will soon be selling
> their recently acquired FAS 940 filer.
Yes, I asked Jeff to post this.. as many of you are probably
in need of a bullet proof file server when you start approaching
large sized networks of >40 or 50 machines.
Most companies can't afford *new* Network Appliance
(www.netapp.com) file servers, so used ones are good deals.
NetApp's are the premium file servers I've mentioned to many of you
that are really solid under heavy load, and can handle farms of
100's of machines without trouble. PC file servers usually give out
at around 40 or 50 machines worth of load.
Jeff did point out a few things I wasn't aware of about Netapps;
there are some additional licensing cost issues you inherit
which are apparently non-transferrable.
I believe you have to license the protocols like NFS, CIFS/SMB,
etc. from Netapp. (Probably similar to Microsoft Server's
"CAL" licenses) eg. note message #2 in this google.groups thread:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&threadm=aeagj9%242p2r%241%40news.bnc.net&rnum=8&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dnetapp%2520license%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26c2coff%3D1%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg
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