RE: SAME, WAFL and RAID

WAFL and SAME are not the same. WAFL stands for Write Anywhere File Layout. It is a Network Appliance proprietary system and they've trade marked
"WAFL." Coincidentally it's a RAID 4 NFS implementation. See:
http://www.netapp.com/tech_library/3002.html#I3

Beware the marketing droids...

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 10:40 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Bill:

  I believe that WAFL and SAME are variations on the technology implemented for RAID. WAFL and SAME are new technologies adopted by smaller disk manufacturers as a way to complete against the RAID implementers like EMC, Network Appliance, etc.

  In my humble opinion, I would not bet the house on technology that you have not test-driven. I would suggest testing this stuff out and then asking them for references. As far as Gaja's paper, I have worked with Gaja for at least 6 years and believe his paper to apply quite nicely. It's not the type of disk implemented, its how you implement it.

Thank You

Stephen P. Karniotis
Technical Alliance Manager
Compuware Corporation
Direct: (248) 865-4350
Mobile: (248) 408-2918
Email: Stephen.Karniotis_at_Compuware.com
Web: www.compuware.com

 -----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 11:49 AM

To:     Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
Subject:        SAME, WAFL and RAID

Hello,

I am looking for any pointers to white papers, etc. that discuss the differences/similarities among WAFL, SAME and RAID (shake, rattle and roll? - sorry) file systems. We have some systems people pushing a vendor (Procom) and their WAFL filesystem as a platform for an Oracle data warehouse; showing them parts of Gaja's paper
"Implementing Raid on Oracle Systems"

resulted in the response of "WAFL is different from Raid - this paper doesn't apply". I found a white paper "Optimal Storage Configuration Made Easy" on Technet, which advocates the SAME methodology, and am wondering about the differences among these configurations.

Are WAFL and SAME the same(sic)?
Are WAFL and/or SAME just other variants of Raid, or are the differences greater than the similarities?

As always, any advice/comments are appreciated.

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