Booting from the SAN provides several advantages:
- Disaster Recovery - Boot images stored on disk arrays can be easily replicated to remote sites where standby servers of the same HW type can boot quickly, minimizing the negative effect a disaster can have to the business.
- Snapshots - Boot images in shapshots can be quickly reverted back to a point-in-time, saving time and money in rebuilding a server from scratch.
- Quick deployment of Servers - Master Boot images stored on disk arrays can be easily cloned using Netapp's FlexClone capabilities providing rapid deployment of additional physical servers.
- Centralized Management - Because the Master image is located in the SAN, upgrades and patches are managed centrally and are installed only on the master boot image which can be then cloned and mapped to the various servers. No more multiple upgrades or patch installs.
- Greater Storage consolidation - Because the boot image resides in the SAN, there is no need to purchase internal drives.
- Greater Protection - Disk arrays provide greater data protection, availability and resiliency features than servers. For example, Netapp's RAID-DP functionality provides additional protection in the event of a Dual drive failure. RAID-DP with SyncMirror, also protects against disk drive enclosure failure, Loop failure, cable failure, back-end HBA failure or any 4 concurrent drive failures
Having mentioned the advantages, it's only fair that we also mention the disadvantages which even though are being outnumbered they still exist:
- Complexity - SAN Booting is a more complex process than booting from an internal drive. In certain cases, the troubleshooting process may be a bit more difficult especially if a coredump file can not be obtained.
- Variable Requirements - The requirements and support from array vendor to array vendor will vary and specific configurations may not even be supported. The requirements will also vary based on the type of OS that is being loaded. Always consult with the disk array vendor before you decide to boot from the fabric.
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http://storagefoo.blogspot.com/2006/09/vmware-esx-300-san-booting.html
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