This document is aimed at all organizations that are looking at new SAN’s as part of a VMware implementation. This document is to make sure that the common mistakes in choosing the SAN are eliminated and to provide a check list before you are committed to a SAN that will have hidden costs in the future.

When people are investigating the deployment of SAN storage, it is critical to examine the costs, features and performance that will be required for the entire life of the SAN, not just the short term.

Our engagement model at Taupo dictates that we advise our customers in the long term and make sure that any infrastructure deployed, will fit into the customers long term vision.

When we are involved with specifying SAN hardware requirements, we believe it is critical to ask the following questions to the storage vendor:

• Do I really need Fiber Channel?
• What are the additional costs involved if I choose to replicate my SAN at a later date?
• Does the SAN have a VMware Site Recovery Manager plugin?
• Does the SAN support heterogeneous replication?
• How do I replicate my Fiber Channel SAN? Can I replicate it in a WAN environment using standard Internet Protocols?
• Can I use CIFS, NFS or iSCSI protocols to address my SAN? Are there any licensing costs?
• Does the SAN support snapshots, and if so, what is the performance penalty? Is this verified by
• Is there a snapshot coordinator available for VMware to quiesce virtual machines?
• Is the NDMP protocol supported for direct backup of the SAN?

Only once the long term vision and costs are clear, is it correct to proceed with any san purchase.

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