Cisco Nexus 7000 Design Manual page 20

FlexPod Design Details
If storage requirements change over time, the NetApp storage offers the flexibility to change quickly, as
needed and without expensive and disruptive "forklift" upgrades. For example, a LUN can be changed
from FC access to iSCSI access without moving or copying the data. Only a simple dismount of the FC
LUN and a mount of the same LUN using iSCSI would be required. In addition, a single copy of data
can be shared between Windows and UNIX systems while allowing each environment to access the data
through native protocols and applications. If a system was originally purchased with all SATA disks for
backup applications, high-performance SAS disks could be added to support primary storage
applications such as Oracle®, Microsoft® Exchange Server, or ClearCase.
NetApp storage solutions provide redundancy and fault tolerance through clustered storage controllers,
hot-swappable redundant components (such as cooling fans, power supplies, disk drives, and shelves),
and multiple network interfaces. This highly available and flexible architecture enables customers to
manage all data under one common infrastructure while achieving mission requirements. The NetApp
Unified Storage Architecture allows data storage with higher availability and performance, easier
dynamic expansion, and more unrivalled ease of management than any other solution.
The storage efficiency built into Data ONTAP provides substantial space savings, allowing more data to
be stored at a lower cost. Data protection provides replication services, making sure that valuable data
is backed up and recoverable. The following features provide storage efficiency and data protection:
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For more information on NetApp Data ONTAP, see:
http://www.netapp.com/us/products/platform-os/data-ontap-8/index.aspx
Data ONTAP Operating in 7-Mode
As previously mentioned customers have a choice of deploying their NetApp storage environment
operating in 7-Mode or clustered Data ONTAP. Data ONTAP operating in 7-Mode provides customers
a broad suite of application integrations, storage efficiencies, and a legacy of customer satisfaction.
As well known and trusted as Data ONTAP operating in 7-Mode is, technology companies must always
look toward new innovations. For this reason NetApp has continually invested in clustered Data ONTAP,
which truly changes the conversation of storage from a cost-center discussion to one in which storage
can add value to the company.
VMware vSphere 5.1 on FlexPod with Nexus 7000 Using FCoE
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Thin provisioning—Volumes are created using "virtual" sizing. They appear to be provisioned to
their full capacity, but are actually created much smaller and use additional space only when it is
actually needed. Extra unused storage is shared across all volumes, and the volumes can grow and
shrink on demand.
Snapshot™ copies—Automatically scheduled point-in-time copies that write only changed blocks,
with no performance penalty. The Snapshot copies consume minimal storage space, since only
changes to the active file system are written. Individual files and directories can easily be recovered
from any Snapshot copy, and the entire volume can be restored back to any Snapshot state in
seconds.
FlexClone® volumes—Near-zero space, instant "virtual" copies of datasets. The clones are
writable, but only changes to the original are stored, so they provide rapid, space-efficient creation
of additional data copies ideally suited for dev/test environments.
Deduplication—Removes redundant data blocks in primary and secondary storage, with flexible
policies to determine when the deduplication process is run.
Compression—Compresses data blocks. Compression can be run whether or not deduplication is
enabled and can provide additional space savings, whether run alone or together with deduplication.
SnapMirror—Volumes can be asynchronously replicated either within the cluster or to another
cluster.