Starting with version 3.5 it is possible to explicitly manage the IP addresses that a fileserver broadcasts. We have been quite happily using IP address management to prevent use of virtual IP's that we don't want broadcast for the past year. In planning upgrades over the next several months I am now considering a switch to force the fileservers (and database servers, but that's another story) to use virtual IP's. If we use virtual IP's, there is apparently nothing to prevent moving disks and service IP's between systems to decrease potential downtime. Clearly, it's necessary to track vice partition mapping and a given system can only provide fileservice on one such fileserver IP at a time, but otherwise this seems quite straightforward. This scheme should be particularly useful with drives accessible to two systems. We use two systems to provide termination on some diff-SCSI chains which allow fairly long cable runs. As a result, we can attach (mount) a drive on either system without recabling. So far, the only penalty is that it's been necessary to stop all activity from either machine prior to recabling when a system needs to be physically removed from the rack. Has anyone tried anything similar or know of any issues? Charles Ball Information Technology Boston University
