NetApp ONTAP on own hardware

[Bjorn Smith]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone here knows if its possible to install the NetApp ONTAP software on my own hardware?

I know you can buy a NetApp DS and hook it up to anything via SAS, but I would like to try out the ONTAP solution to see how it works/performs compared to e.g. FreeNAS, which is a mixed bag of pleasure.

I mean I like FreeNAS, but I think its too much of a consumer product to my taste, since i mostly use my "nas" for VM storage and backup - I don't use any of the other features FreeNAS offers and I would like to sample a "real" SAS/NAS system with nothing of the consumer stuff that FreeNAS has.

I would like to try a good ISCSi implementation and NFS 4.1 - and NFS 4.1 is not yet in FreeNAS as far as I know - and the ISCSi I haven't had that great experience with.

I know NetApp provides a VSA, but its a different beast than ONTAP.

Thanks

 

[psannz]

Your only chance is ONTAP Select. There's a 90 day trial available.
What’s new in ONTAP Select 9.7

Be sure to get the new 9.7 line running.

 

[Bjorn Smith]

Your only chance is ONTAP Select

Thats what I don't want - since that is a VSA - I was the real thing on my hardware - not a virtual machine.
But if you are saying its not possible, then that is a good answer, but sad one.

 

[psannz]

Thats what I don't want - since that is a VSA - I was the real thing on my hardware - not a virtual machine.
But if you are saying its not possible, then that is a good answer, but sad one.

If you have access to the regular ONTAP downloads, you could try installing it natively, I guess. But i fear it won't even install, let alone run.