NetApp Communities (I found an out! :))

So, I’ve talked before about wanting to discuss the communities but not wanting to reveal information which isn’t exactly public.. Well, I’ve found a way to discuss this without an issue!

It’s called sadly.. Not logging in :) Yes, it is lame, but it works for me! So on to the communities!

At the high level it looks like this:

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Which if you look around you’ll find a communities section with breakouts, Recent Content, NetApp TV and the top 5 discussions, documents and the latest poll!

Down a bit further (out of this section) you find Top participants, tags, recent blog posts and…. twitter!

 

So drilling down a bit we find this kind of stuff

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This is a pretty straight-forward area, which provides indepth information for you to ask questions where you’ll get responses from both NetApp folks as well as other customers in the field with your same problem, questions or even solutions of their own!    We’re fortunate to have a number of followers (Internal/External) who monitor and moderate certain forums in order to provide their input into the types of things you’ll encounter out there!  The number of subjects is numerous and you’re always game to discuss any topic under the sun and get some good participation!

 

Occasionally, you’ll see new and updated Polls! Like this one:

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It’s through polls like this where the user community can speak out about their configurations or situations to get a feel for what others happen to be doing.  In this particular poll it shows of the 15 respondants, 40% of them have NFS connectivity to VMware, which is certainly great for those considering NFS and were not sure who else was out there doing it.

 

And occasionally in the Recent area, you can get an exposure to just some of the types of questions being interactively asked – And who knows, I might even respond ;)

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So be sure to check out those communities, check me out while out there as well! I’ll see all of the posts even if I’m not actively watching the site and my contact information is scattered there as well as the rest of the internets as a whole ;)

Take care getting your NetApp on and soon I will tell you how to do even more faster and easier with my other really cool planned things :)

NetApp Communities and Solar Panels?!

So, I was logged in to the NetApp Communities this weekend (That’s right, I never stop working, or sleep…)

To tell you the truth, I’ve been rather inactive for some time, ever since I made it to “Master” level, was in the Top 5 (Was 2nd place, but have dropped in to 3rd place!) Oh, and one of my other projects kicked off consuming my time.

So, I was surprised to see THIS!

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I’m not sure how long the NetApp TV link/videos have been out there, but I certainly saw it there!

This, and a few of the other ones are certainly interesting little marketing stories, but what isn’t a marketing story is the Communities themselves :)

Albeit I’ve been inactive for some time, I still receive every single comment, post or otherwise bit of information that goes out there (I’m so glad we have so many active employees and customers out there, so I don’t have to go through and answer every question myself! sadly I know that I would if I let myself :))

 

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I actually wrote a nice post profiling all of the details of the NetApp communities back many months ago, and then squelched myself because I felt I was releasing too much information that might get my hands slapped, so I didn’t post it.  But nonetheless, this doesn’t seem like anyone will spank me over it!

You ought to check it out, because honestly I do check it out rather regularly, even if I’m not actively posting or commenting… I do read the few thousand emails from the communities which appear in my inbox weekly :)

Filers ONTAP! (An Owners Manual for your Filer)

You long-time and short-time admins out there, you ever ask the question "Wow, I wish I had an owners manual for my filer".   I hear it time and time again about the sheer volume of information available to support the filer, but nothing short, simple and sweet to cover it.

Well, look no further than the excellent collateral Rusty Walther and John Laino’s organization brought us!

Available now! with minimal effort on your part (NOW Login Required) You can download an Owners Manual for your filer!

Available in:

  • English A4
  • English 8.5×11
  • Chinese
  • French
  • German
  • Hebrew
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Spanish

This particular guide is intended to cover Support Best Practices.  This is first in a line of many tools which enable you to do more with your own environment and unique needs while taking advantage of the benefits of the many within our install base.

So, be sure to check this out if you have a filer (or work with filers) and keep an eye on Rusty Walther’s  blog (and guest blogger John Laino) for additional information like this in the future!

New NetApp beta exam! (NS1-060) Accredited Support Engineer

Welcome to another beta exam released in STEALTH!

Yes, this exam, NS1-060, will eventually be launched as NS0-060, and will be for an "Accredited Support Engineer".   So what does that mean? Hard to say, it seems like it may build upon the experience of the NS1-050 exam (which should be just dropping out of beta shortly)

And speaking of the timing, this particular exam will be available (Free $0.00) as a beta until November 7th!!!   Wow!

As usual, I will take the exam and provide a prospective post-mortem following the taking of it.

Be on the look out for other exams, and as I find out more details about it, I’ll be sure to share!

Good luck out there!

A blog to remember

I’ve posted about some NetApp blogs before – Wait, I’m doing it again!

While there are the best of breed blogs which you can easily find here:

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There are also some additional ones in our Communities.

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So, I encourage you to check out the Community Blogs as well as the community as a whole.  It’s a great resource to ask questions, answer questions and find out all-round general incite into what is going on here, there, and everywhere!

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Oh, and don’t forget about that Accelerate conference! :)

Registration is key!

:)