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CLI or GUI? Which do you prefer and why?
Recent discussion with other SAN Engineers, Admins and Architects (I'm on the Architectural level) there is a fierce debate on which application to use for day to day SAN administration and troubleshooting.
I personally prefer GUI simply because I am "visual" when trying to see what the infrastructure looks like and to get a visual path from host to switch to array (which is probably why I still, and always will, love ECC).
I also see the benefit of CLI, but I also think CLI leaves a lot of room for errors, such as "fat fingering" commands and breaking something. It's also understandable some people just like CLI. If "speed" is not an issue and for me, it shouldn't be how "fast" you do something, but how accurate you are, then please tell me why you prefer CLI over GUI and in what situations (other than having options GUI doesn't give you) for why you prefer CLI.
The context ogf CLI/GUI would be:
Switch
Array
Host
Aaaaaand....let the floodgates open!
dynamox
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April 1st, 2013 14:00
i like the CLI because of automation, change control requirements (we have to document provisioning steps, hard to document with screen shots, much easier with flat files that explicitly list the command that will be entered and how to roll back)
leif3
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April 18th, 2013 17:00
Big fan of both but having a Unix background I prefer CLI. I like the GUI for working one or two things but when I have to complete tasks for tens or hundred servers it has to be CLI. I do like the new look and feel of Unisphere for VMAX.. finally something "free" that is worth something!
loris_76
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May 6th, 2013 05:00
It depends: I mainly use CLI for provisioning and some queries at the array level and always's CLI in Linux/UNIX's hosts.
In the past I have worked in a tool to automate provisioning and to perform TimeFinder's operation: a mix of shell script, Perl and XML Parsing.
BTW if you are talk about reporting on the array or the switch, GUI is the preferred method IMHO.
Cheers,
Loris