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NetApp FAS Storage Arrays

NetApp FAS Storage Arrays

Overview

What is NetApp FAS Storage Arrays?

NetApp's FAS series systems offers a storage array system for enterprises.

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Recent Reviews

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The NetApp FAS8300 has been widely embraced for its ability to support large-scale storage requirements across various systems and data …
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Product Details

What is NetApp FAS Storage Arrays?

NetApp FAS Storage Arrays Video

Trusted Data Protection with NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF)

NetApp FAS Storage Arrays Technical Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

NetApp's FAS series systems offers a storage array system for enterprises.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.9.

The most common users of NetApp FAS Storage Arrays are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(52)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

The NetApp FAS8300 has been widely embraced for its ability to support large-scale storage requirements across various systems and data centers. Users have praised its snappy performance and impressive power, making it a valuable asset for organizations with demanding workloads. With innovative features like flash cache and deduplication, the FAS8300 stands out as top-tier storage that delivers exceptional speed and efficiency. Additionally, the FAS8300 has been leveraged as a reliable solution for NFS-connected storage in VMware environments with multiple hosts and hundreds of guest operating systems.

NetApp's FAS series devices, including the FAS2200 and FAS3210 models, have found their place in diverse use cases. These devices have successfully housed entire virtual server networks, offering ample speed and bandwidth to run multiple servers simultaneously. They have also served as CIFS servers, replacing traditional Windows servers to enhance security protocols. Furthermore, NetApp FAS controllers have served as primary storage for critical system data at operational sites while also providing primary storage for VMware-based storage at multiple locations.

One notable use case in Brazil showcases the exceptional reliability and availability of NetApp FAS. Thousands of users have accessed over 700TB of user data without any incidents over the past seven years. This highlights the robustness of NetApp's NAS workloads in delivering high availability and resiliency. The flexibility of the FAS series is further demonstrated by its ability to function as both a SAN and CIFS file system, effectively replacing outdated and undersized storage arrays.

Overall, the NetApp FAS series has proven itself as a versatile solution for various IT infrastructure challenges. It facilitates seamless IT growth, simplifies backup and restore processes, and enables users to store databases and replicate data across different environments. Its role as a NAS device extends beyond file services to include support for FC and iSCSI protocols. With strong operating systems and reliable customer support, the NetApp FAS series remains a popular choice for organizations seeking robust and scalable storage solutions.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-3 of 3)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
August 28, 2020

Strong and Reliable storage

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Oil & Energy Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
NetApp has been defined as a Global standard for NAS (CIFS, NFS) workloads in our company, so it is being actively used in several of our sites across the globe. The largest sites using it are the USA, Brazil and Norway.
One of the main reasons for it to be selected as the standard for NAS workloads is the resiliency and high availability it provides. In Brazil, we have ~5000 users accessing more than 700TB of user data (CIFS shares) on a daily basis. We didn't have a single availability incident in the last 7 years!
Pros and Cons
  • NAS Workloads (CIFS, NFS)
  • Snapshot retention/management
  • Disaster Recovery protection (SnapMirror and SnapVault)
  • Storage efficiency (compress, deduplication)
  • The workload balance between the nodes is managed manually
Likelihood to Recommend
In my opinion, NAS workloads and data protection are two of the strongest points that Netapp has. It sounds a kind of obvious as they created the NAS concept. A NetApp FAS cluster suits very well for scenarios/companies where the unstructured data (users CIFS shares) are one of the most important workloads. This is our scenario in many of our sites and this is why it was selected to be our standard solution. It also handles SAN workloads very well, but maybe you`d rather go with an HCI solution for block workloads.
Return on Investment
  • The technical and intangible benefits overcame any financial burden.
Alternatives Considered
NetApp is a truly unified solution, with a single OS to manage both SAN and NAS workloads.
Both the legacy EMC solution we had in place and the 3PAR + Storeasy solutions used a server host backed by SAN LUNs to provide NAS workloads. It works but adds some complexity and performance/availability issues.
Also, the 3PAR + Storeasy solution used a Windows host as the 'NAS server', and Windows is not so good to manage NAS workloads at this size.
Support Rating
10
NetApp support in Brazil is managed by its partners. We know in other countries, such as the US and NO, they have support directly from Netapp. We have a very good NetApp partner working with us since the beginning, on both the implementation and daily support. Very few cases needed to be escalated to NetApp support, most of the cases are handled and satisfyingly closed by the partner.
Other Software Used
Nutanix AOS, Veeam Backup & Replication, Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery
March 04, 2020

NetApp (F)ast (A)nd (S)table

Verified User
Technician in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 201-500 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
NetApp FAS is being used in our environment as our SAN and CIFS file system. This system replaced an old (and undersized) storage array. This system is now used for a number of things including a complete disaster recovery plan and backup system. One important part of this was to speed up backup recovery times. NetApp software makes this possible.
Pros and Cons
  • Backups are a piece of cake with Snapshot technology.
  • Disaster recovery plans are made much easier with SnapMirroring to remote locations.
  • The support is incredible. Auto Support makes it incredibly easy. The Auto Support website also gives you a great view of your NetApp deployment.
  • Redundant paths make updating and maintenance much easier with no downtime.
  • System Manager is missing some commands and therefore you have to rely on CLI. This is not a problem for most admins but it has room for improvement.
  • Cabling diagrams for redundant path can be confusing.
  • When we had one of the older models in place our drives would spontaneously pop out of place due to old plastic clips. We have not had the same issue again with a newer NetApp model.
Likelihood to Recommend
NetApp FAS systems are extremely scalable and therefore, in my opinion, they can have a place in any environment. The built-in software has some great use cases including recovery and mitigation of ransomware attacks. The speed of backups and restoration is incredible. The ability to restore a single file out of millions is also incredibly handy.
Return on Investment
  • The speed of file recovery is the biggest positive impact. Recovering from a ransomware attack in minutes is something you can certainly brag about.
  • Integration with products like Exchange and SQL can certainly speed up normal day to day processes. Not just in backup recovery situations either.
  • Redundant paths make migrations and updates very easy with no downtime.
Alternatives Considered
We had used a Dell EMC product before moving to the NetApp. This was in combination with a tape drive array. The drastic improvement in moving to the NetApp was incredible. Our backup maintenance time was shortened to next to nothing. No more tapes. No more running out of space constantly.
Support Rating
10
I've said it before. I'll say it again. NetApp has fantastic support. The Hardware Universe and the Auto Support websites give you incredible information. This info is not just generic model info but it is driven by the data sent by your actual filer. When you get on a support call they can see everything currently in place in your environment.
Other Software Used
August 09, 2019

NetApp Reliability and Support is Not Quite There

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Restaurants Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use a NetApp FAS3210 in our main office and a FAS2240 offsite in our colo. The FAS3210 is our primary storage for all of our VMWare environment, which includes 9 VMWare hosts and over 220 virtual servers. The FAS2240 in the colo is used for a handful of production VMWare machines, as well as the storage of some offsite backup from our executive office.
Pros and Cons
  • It was fairly easy to implement with guided assistance from NetApp.
  • We haven't had many drive failures.
  • The pricing was right.
  • We have had too many troubles with the controllers, had one die completely, and are now fighting an issue where the two don't communicate.
  • They try to nickel and dime you with extra costs for additional features.
  • Software upgrades are too difficult.
Likelihood to Recommend
NetApp, as far as the storage itself goes, is quite fine. It was very competitively priced when we looked at it, so it's probably good for medium to large businesses. Smaller businesses could probably get by with a much cheaper solution, possibly even just a NAS device. It would also be good for any offsite backup as well.
Return on Investment
  • It has been very problematic as far as the controllers go.
  • Support has been quite terrible, among the worst to be honest.
  • It hasn't completely died, so it's kept our servers online 99.9% of the time over the years.
Usability
8
It does have a really nice and easy to use web interface to do pretty much anything you need with it. It was very simple to configure our volumes and luns and connect them to our VMWare environment using the interface. It has options to rename, shrink, grow, and other things with our luns and volumes. It was nice and easy to read graphs to see where you stand on your storage usage at a glance.
Support Rating
2
Among the worst support we've ever had. The reason I say this is we had one of our 2 controller boards die completely. They sent a technician out, which was obviously a 3rd-party contracted person, and he didn't know much about NetApp, but was able to swap the board out. He contacted support and handed the phone over to me, and the technician walked me through reassigning disks to the new controller, but he had me assigning the wrong disks, which caused our whole SAN to go down, and we lost connectivity to all our 220+ servers for many hours. It was a complete nightmare. Then this past October out of the blue we get an alert that the controllers have lost high availability. Basically, they aren't communicating with each other. Also, keep in mind these controllers aren't connected to each other via a cable, they are both contained in the same chassis, so it must be a bug. I've been working with support still since then, almost going on 1 year! They constantly miss our calls, ignore my emails/calls, etc. It's very frustrating to deal with.
Alternatives Considered
Only other SAN we used before this was an EMC CX300 that was used for around 8 years. It was ok in that it didn't have major issues, just some bad drives here and there, but the interface and setup of it were horribly difficult.
Other Software Used
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