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I know nothing about Netapps other than what I could find on their site and wikipedia.<br />
<br />
Are they only hardware boxes with software built into them, or if I already have like an EMC san, does Netapps sell software to integrate with that or what?<br />
<br />
I have 2 needs:<br />
#1 File server for 500 users, 2.5TB of storage, that integrates with acive directory.<br />
#2 My VMWare VM's are on a SAN, about 4TB worth.<br />
<br />
So my questions:<br />
How can netapps help in each of thee cases and how does it work? Thank you, google hasn't been much help in this arena as I need the idea explained. =/
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I know nothing about Netapps other than what I could find on their site and wikipedia.

Are they only hardware boxes with software built into them, or if I already have like an EMC san, does Netapps sell software to integrate with that or what?

I have 2 needs:
#1 File server for 500 users, 2.5TB of storage, that integrates with acive directory.
#2 My VMWare VM's are on a SAN, about 4TB worth.

So my questions:
How can netapps help in each of thee cases and how does it work? Thank you, google hasn't been much help in this arena as I need the idea explained. =/

Newbie question on netapps, file server, active directory

A server is a computer program or a machine that waits for requests from other machines or software (clients) and responds to them. This architecture is called the client–server model. The clients may run on the same computer or may connect to the server over a network. The purpose of a server is to share data or hardware and software resources among clients. Typical computing servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers.

Server Software

Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft brand for identity-related capabilities. In the on-premises world, Windows Server AD provides a set of identity capabilities and services, and is hugely popular (88% of Fortune 1000 and 95% of enterprises use AD). This topic includes all things Active Directory including DNS, Group Policy, DFS, troubleshooting, ADFS, and all other topics under the Microsoft AD and identity umbrella.

Active Directory

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.