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 -- +--------------------------------------------------------------+ If you never see anything that offends you, you aren't living in a free society Kim Campbell - Former Canadian Prime Minister
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