I'm new to Sun
katz at rpal.com
katz at rpal.com
Wed Dec 5 13:00:00 AEST 1990
In article <460 at brchh104.bnr.ca> rutan at pcrl.sps.mot.com (Deborah Rutan) writes:
> One BIG question I have is whether or not having a dedicated file server
> (such as the SPARCserved 490) would benefit us.
>
> Our applications require very large files (10-20MB). Having to get these
> over the network (which is what having a file server would do) does not
> sound like a very good idea to me.
There was a day when getting files over the network was faster than
getting them from the local disk because the fileserver disks were so much
faster than the local disks. I would guess that this is no longer the
case; however, we find that accessing files locally on our 4/60's takes
roughly the same amount of time as accessing the data on NFS mounted file
systems to our 4/490. Furthermore, I believe that Sun has made an
informal commitment to having remote access be no slower than 75% of the
performance to the local disk.
I believe that the decision on whether to buy a 4/490 as a fileserver
should really be made based on the following criteria amongst others:
1) How much disk space do you need? How much is it going to cost you per
bit?
2) Do you need the reliability which comes from having a machine with ECC
memory?
3) How are you going to do backups? Are you going to want an 8mm or 1/2
tape drive?
4) Is there a soon to be announced fileserver which will look like a 4/490
but have the Sparc 2 processor performance?
Morry Katz
Rockwell Science Center
administrator at rpal.com (machine administration issues)
katz at rpal.com (other)
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