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Netapp and VMware - high availability/redundancy

Hello experts - I'm looking for some opinions on how to go about making my infrastructure more resilient. I'm going to be upgrading my SAN next month from a Netapp FAS 2020 to the new 2240. In addition I'll be replacing an older Dell SAN at my DR site with a 2240 as well. My primary site is currently running vSphere 5.1 Enterprise licensed for the 3 physical hosts used there while the DR site is running vSphere 5.1 Essentials.

I'm looking for the best way to improve the availability of my infrastructure using the new SANs. I also have funds allocated for additional VMware licensing if called for but I am unsure about what direction to take. The Netapp will include replication software (SnapRestore, SnapMirror, SnapValut, FlexClone, SnapManager) but I'm not clear on how it compares to VMware's offerings. I know Site Recovery Manager is a popular choice but don't really know how it integrates with the SAN and exactly what role it plays. I believe I also may have the option of adding the hardware at my DR site to my existing enterprise license then using VMware's fault tolerance feature but I'm not sure how well that would work over a WAN with approximately 15ms average latency.

I'd very much appreciate opinions or suggestions on ways to approach this project, thanks!

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

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ASKER

Perfect, thank you Andrew. I was allocated a budget for SRM and VMware licensing at the DR site and I really like the idea of using it to do option 3.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

I would highly recommend spending the budget on SRM and new licensing, talk to your account manager and see if they will do you a deal "upgrading essentials"