[BBLISA] Fwd: Re: Fileserver opinion

[Robert Keyes]

On Thu, 26 Aug 2010, Ian Stokes-Rees wrote:

> On 8/25/10 10:05 PM, Dean Anderson wrote:
>
>> But avoid linux as a NFS server platfom.  There is a funded project
>> to improve the client at RedHat, but not the server. Sigh.
>
> With no significant experience administering NFS servers on anything
> other than Linux, does it really make sense to consider OpenSolaris, or
> a *BSD variant?  I.e. will the performance/reliability gains outweigh the
> pain/overhead of a new OS?

I'd examine your needs: reliability vs. performance vs. capacity vs. cost, 
taking into the account the administration cost. I might add an entire 
mirroring server, or backup server (connected by dedicated gig-ethernet 
to the main server). Get a UPS and air conditioner. Use quality 
components and ECC ram. A fileserver is not a computation server; 
reliability is more important that gigaflops. Make 
sure you have a hefty power supply of good quality and make sure 
everything is adequately cooled, with alerting and orderly, automatic 
shutdown if temperature rises into the critical range.

I have noticed that users tend to think all of their data is 'critical', 
even source trees of code that hasn't changed in a year. They need to be 
schooled on what is 'critical' and what is not.

But regarding the cost of dedicated NAS, perhaps you should buy and older, 
used unit. There's a NetApp F85, less drives, which will take you to 3 TB, 
buy-it-now on ebay for $75 + $26 shipping. ALso NetApp DS14s for $84 each 
plus $85 shipping (6 available from same seller). This might be the cheap 
& easy way to solve your problem. Of course, you still have to source the 
drives...