[TriLUG] NAS box

[Kevin Flanagan]

On Sun, 2004-05-02 at 23:36, Brian McCullough wrote:
Brian,

You are running into the classic Triple Constraint: Good, Fast, Cheap,
you have to balance these, you don't get all 3 in full measure.   

> On Sun, May 02, 2004 at 10:58:33AM -0400, Kevin Flanagan wrote:

> 
> Hundreds of GB.
> 

Not a lot really, you can get 250GB disks for under $200, but that won't
do a lot for performance.  

> 
> 
> > 	- More info about the environment
> > 		- How many windows systems, and how many are Win9x, how many W2K or
> > up?
> 
> I'm not sure that I understand the difference, for the purposes of this
> discussion, but there are three W2K, one XP Home that is due to become
> W2K and four, if I remember correctly, of lesser grade.

If all systems are Windows 2000 pro, or XP pro, the NT domain model can
be a bit more secure, but with SAMBA, it's not a lot more so.  If you
can get rid of the Windows 9x systems, then you at least have computer
accounts for all, behaves a bit better for some things.

> 
> 
> > 		- Is there a centralized logon facility, NIS, NT Domain, Active
> > Directory?
> 
> Samba is in control of that.
> 
> ( NT Domain )
> 
> 
> > 		- Lots of small files, big files, many transfers of small files, etc.
> 
> 
> A mix.  In terms of bulk, the 370 MB and 1+ GB images are the heavy
> hitters, the CAD and related files and < 1 MB are much the higher number
> of files.
> 

It sounds like with several >300MB and >1GB files you will need lots of
cache, that means a lot of RAM in the computer that serves up the files,
no matter what it is.  When I say a lot, I mean about a Gig, not a huge
cost.

> 
> 
> > 		- Backups?  Do you need to back this up?  
> 
> 
> Yes.  ( Do they -- No! )
> 

That's where I was heading on the use issue, if you set up 2 volumes, or
at least 2 directory structures you could have the transient and new
stuff get backed up every night, but the "archive" backed up weekly, or
upon change.

> 
> 
> > 		- Amount of change, daily, weekly, monthly.
> 
> 
> The images don't change.  They are converted from TIFF format and stored
> on the network drive for use during the project.  There are three or
> four projects ( possibly a few more ) in progress at once, consisting of
> between a few images to over 200, with the CAD files changing
> continuously.  I don't think that I mentioned before, but this is an
> Aerial Photography -> Mapping shop.
> 
> 
> > 		- Does this need to be one volume?  IE: Could you have 2 volumes, one
> > for new data, one for the archive?
> 
> 
> Physically, I don't have it on one volume at present.  Logically, it
> seems to need to be on one "drive letter."
> 
> 
> > 	- Budget?
> 
> 
> Nil, right?
> 
> 
> > 	- Other server class systems in the shop?  
> 
> 
> None.
> 
> 
> 
> > I don't believe that workstation class systems should be used to do
> > commercial server work.  
> 
> In fact, the heavy-duty workstations are the ones that are built on
> server-class platforms.
> 

When I say server-class systems, I mean redundant power supplies,
Hardware RAID, etc.  If you have that, good for you, that will do fairly
well.

> 
> 
> > If this
> > customer will go belly up if they loose this data, then it's worth the
> > investment to protect it with Hardware RAID, and a real server or
> > appliance system.  If the data is all transient, or exists elsewhere
> > then you could look at the cheapest option and expect to replace it of
> > you have a failure or outgrow it.
> 
> 
> Unfortunately, in a way, this customer is on the verge of belly up at
> all times ( small start-up ), and tries to run the equipment with no
> scheduled maintenance windows, until it _must_ be taken down, at which
> point they complain about its unreliability.

Remind them, Good, Fast, Cheap, it's a balancing act!


HP has some decent entry level servers, but they would cost $2-3K well
equipped.  Something like a SNAP server will be easy, but not redundant,
and backups have to take place over the network to a device that you
don't have now.  


If you can get them to understand the value of the data, then you may
get them to invest in a "real server", performance, and reliability will
be much better, but not price.  Back to Good, Fast, Cheap.  ;')



Good luck!



Kevin

> 
> 
> 
> > I believe that it's very likely that you can do what you need with a
> > Linux solution, having the background makes it even more likely.  But
> > this doesn't sound like something that you just want to hang off a
> > workstation and forget it.....
> 
> 
> 
> > Just my $.02
> 
> And very appreciated.
> 
> 
> 
> >   Kevin
> 
> 
> Brian
-- 

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