recommendations for/against SAN classes?

[Michael T. Halligan]

>>> Work wants me to take a class, and I'd like to learn more about SANS,
>>> can anybody recommend classes to take or ones to avoid?
>>
>>
>> Do you mean SANs (Storage Area Networks) or the SANS Institute?
>
>
> I forgot about SANS Institute, meant Storage Area Networks
>
>
> currently we use 3par, EMC, redhat's GFS and  different iSCSI subsystems
>
>>

Dave,

With this information, I'll tell you that the redhat "architect" 
training classes are actually
a pretty good executive overview and might give you some of the 
information you want. Probably
the only good part about redhat is their training staff. RH436 should at 
least give you a good
idea as to the "RedHat" way of managing storage.. RH401 also goes into 
"clustering" (heartbeat failover)
multipathed storage, but to be honest, read the man pages for piranha, 
and you'll save 3 grand.

In all, though, I've been happy with the RH "architect" classes I took, 
and they were worth the money.. Well,
except for 401. 401 was a really good basic overview class, but it's 
main function was giving me time to catch up
on work. My main problem with most Vendor classes is that they try to 
balance "useful" technical information
with product line information. The higher-end classes, I think, should 
have a very strong focus on best practices
and process development with those technologies.. In the end, they are 
usually vehicles to just try to sell
more expensive products.