[geeks] Fwd: ONTAP Simulator available on NOW

[Bertrand HUTIN]

For those who like Netapps but can't afford the hardware.
I have downloaded it, I plan to test it.
 --- Dave Hitz <hitz at netapp.com> a icrit : > Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003
11:15:01 +0200
> @: bhutin at yahoo.fr
> De: Dave Hitz <hitz at netapp.com> (by way of bertrand_hutin at amdahl.com)
> Objet: ONTAP Simulator available on NOW
> 
> Some of you may know that NetApp Engineering uses an ONTAP Simulator
> as
> part of our development process.  (The simulator runs all of ONTAP as
> a
> process under Linux. At a very low level, we spoof the disk drivers,
> so
> that disks are simulated by local files. We spoof the network drivers
> by putting the Linux Ethernet card into promiscuous mode and creating
> a
> fake MAC address associated with the simulator.)
> 
> Enough technical details.
> 
> The point of this message is that we are now making the simulator
> available to customers so that they can experiment with ONTAP
> features
> and commands without putting production systems at risk. I have had
> many customers tell me that they wished they had a way to play with
> new
> releases and new features, but they didn't have a safe place to do
> it.
> 
> Just to be clear:  This is not production software.  It's ONTAP
> running
> on top of Linux, so don't use it for performance testing. We have no
> formal support program. Don't call NetApp support. This is an "as is"
> tool.  (Some restrictions may apply. :-)
> 
> On the other hand, I think you will find the simulator to be very
> useful for experimenting with ONTAP. Hundreds of NetApp engineers use
> it every day, and we have been using the simulator for over a year in
> NetApp training classes. Not only can you experiment with the
> features
> of a single filer, but you can run multiple simulators and experiment
> with features like SnapMirror, SnapVault, and Cluster Fail Over.  It
> doesn't support Fibre Channel, because that would take more hardware,
> but it does support iSCSI and all of the other TCP/IP protocols,
> including NFS, CIFS, HTTP and FTP, as well as network management
> protocols like SNMP and NDMP.
> 
> Here are some details:
> 
>     You can download the simulator from NOW at
>     <http://now.netapp.com/NOW/cgi-bin/simulator>.
> 
>     We have created a category in the NOW community forums called
>     "ONTAP Simulator" that can be accessed at
>     <http://forums.netapp.com/showcategory.asp?cid=172>.
> 
>     And finally, we have created a majordomo mailing list that people
>     can join at xdl-simulator at netapp.com.  (You know the drill.  To
>     join send to majordomo at netapp.com, not to the simulator list
>     itself.)
> 
>     And of course, feel free to talk about it here on toasters.
> 
> As I said above, the simulator is NOT formally supported, but some
> volunteers at NetApp have agreed to informally answer questions to
> the
> xdl-simulator mailing list.
> 
> Have fun!
> 
> Dave Hitz 
> Founder and EVP Engineering, Network Appliance