Do you have any good or bad experiences to share running SQL Server OLTP Systems on NetApp appliances? I have been working with a small, relatively low-volume cluster with a lower-end NetApp device, and I have found the environment to be generally unstable, at least compared to my experiences with other SANs, iSCSI arrays, and DAS setups. I struggle to believe that RAID DP and WAFL are more than fairy-dust technologies. A solution has been proposed to me that I just need a bigger, better NetApp, with PAM cards and other cool technology I've not heard of, and I feel like I would be better off spending a quarter of that on good direct-attached drives and a beefy server. At the same time, I feel that an Enterprise-class SAN should be something I can count on to be consistently a more stable, better performer than the less expensive solution I might propose. Are you a SQL Server DBA in an OLTP environment and love your NetApp? If you don't like them, why not?
