My original question:
We are considering using Net Appliance fileservers(www.netapp.com)
with either ds20s or es40s along with some older alphas.
Anyone have any experience/thoughts with this particular hardware with
DU?
From: IN%"Richard_Parkinson_at_csx.com" "Parkinson, Richard"
I have used Network Appliance in several different environments. In each we
were rather unhappy
with the results and service we received. I have found that using EMC,
Hitachi, Auspex or even
a newer company like Network Storage Solutions are more reliable, much
easier to configure
and manage and outperform the NetApp.
I have also found that NetApp sales reps make promises they are not always
able to keep, especially
when it comes to service and performance.
Just my two-cents. On the other hand, I have friends who love NetApp. I
would hands down buy an
Auspex and spend the extra money before even considering NetApp. Or look at
Network Storage Solutions
who was founded by individuals who left Auspex to develop a cheaper more
flexible product.
From: IN%"pas_at_unh.edu" "Paul A Sand"
We have a NetApp F220 (soon, I hope, upgrading to an F720) serving
mainly DU boxes (a venerable 4000/610, a 2100, a 1000, and 2 4100s). This
works fine for us. Generally, it's great to have user files on a box
with ultra-low downtime. We also like the snapshot capability.
We use NFS only off the Netapp and use Samba
and Netatalk (from a Linux box) to serve Macs and PCs. We've found
the Netapp to be extremely reliable (more reliable than our power
supply, which is as much as you can ask, I guess--our largest downtimes
have been 8-hour stretches in January that our UPS couldn't tide us over.)
We have a spare parts kit that pretty much gathers dust underneath the
disk shelf. We had one disk die in the almost-three years we've had
the F220; no downtime, the hot spare takes over automatically. The next
day I swapped the bad disk with the spare from the kit (also no
downtime); the Netapp guys sent us a new spare later in the week.
(Automatically--the filer sent them mail.)
So we're pretty happy with it. If you have any questions, please feel
free to ask.
From: IN%"brian_at_netins.net" "Brian Hostetter"
I have a f740 hooked into 5 1200's. There have really been very little
problems with this setup. We have an issue with lockd dying on 4.0b but
our 4.0e machines seem to be fine. The performance on the whole thing is
incredible. We have the netapp hooked into a 3com gigabit switch and then
alphas running full duplex 100M. If you have any specific questions let
me know. I am getting to be pretty good with netapp hardware and Alpha's.
___________________________________________________________________
Karen Y. Byrd C511 Richards Bldg.
Systems Manager 3700 Hamilton Wlk.
Tech Sup. Philadelphia, PA 19104-6062
Info. Ser. Div. Voice: 215/898-6865
UofP Health System Fax: 215/573-7645
byrd_at_mscf.med.upenn.edu
karen_at_mail.med.upenn.edu
Received on Fri Jun 04 1999 - 10:28:16 NZST