[BBLISA] 10+ TB RAID experiences?

[Arthur Gaer]

Let me add my own strong second to Tony's NetApp recommendation, for  
pretty much all the reasons Tony listed.

My favorite pieces of server-ish equipment ever.  Incredibly  
reliable, excellent tech support, relatively easy to configure.  Once  
configured the way you need it just works forever with practically no  
SysAdmin intervention needed, so you can spend your limited time  
dealing with more interesting topics than continuously reliable file  
storage.

Snapshots are definitely a huge win--I've only ever had to retrieve  
files from tape three times in the seven years I've had NetApps.   
Every other time someone lost a file or needed an earlier version it  
was already sitting on the NetApp in a snapshot directory, available  
for the user's own retrieval.

Arthur Gaer
gaer at math.harvard.edu

Senior Systems Manager, Department of Mathematics
Harvard University, 617-495-1610, FAX: 617-495-5132


On Aug 22, 2007, at 10:07 AM, Rudie, Tony wrote:

> We love NetApp.  Some of what we love might not interest you:  HA  
> clustering and remote replication.  Other stuff probably does:   
> simple administration and maintenance, very knowledgeable tech  
> support.  And I'll tell you, having snapshots for user homedirs is  
> a HUGE win.  We almost never have to restore user files for them.   
> They go get them themselves, from the snapshots.
>
> A NetApp would allow you to do NFS or CIFS export directly from the  
> NetApp box, and also do iSCSI or FC attach for the big server for  
> database stuff.  Might be a good fit.
>
>
>  - Tony Rudié