From: johnn@eskimo.celestial.com (John Navitsky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware,comp.sys.sun.admin
Subject: Re: File server questions
Keywords: 3rd party disks, SPARCstation 10
Date: 23 Jul 92 16:59:07 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: =>ESKIMO NORTH (206) 367-3837 SEATTLE, WA.<=

In article <1992Jul22.064851.16283@u.washington.edu> kint@rio.engr.washington.edu (Rick Kint) writes:
>	We're going to be setting up a departmental file server to provide
>user file service to about 60 UNIX hosts and 10 PCs.  It will not be serving
>applications or diskless hosts and will not be used for computation.  The
>server will be hooked up to one Ethernet as will most of the clients.
>
>	We're probably going to go with a SPARC{station, server} 2 upgrading
>to a 10 when the Viking chips ship.  The 600s just don't seem worth it for

It would probably be worth while to go to a SS10 vs the SS2 if at all possible.

>our application, it seems likely that the single Ethernet port will be the
>bottleneck.  First question: am I missing something obvious?  I've read the

Sun does have an Sbus version of it's NFS accelerator (can't remember what
they call it.)  Which takes uses hardware to do some of the NFS packet
bundling and unbundling.  Of course we have to live with the 10MB/sec limit
of ethernet which isn't likly to change unless you can distriute over several
nets or go to something faster like FDDI.  (the systems will support either)

>Sun literature and the "670 vs. SS 10/52" thread and seen nothing so far.

The main difference with the 6xx series is the internal storage.  They do have
the VME bus, but it seems Sun is moving towards Sbus.  (VME is rated around
10MB/sec vs Sbus @ 100MB/sec)  FYI Sun has _just_ announced a Sbus expansion
box.  But back to your comment - you are correct - they 6xx and SS10 use the
same CPU modules and are rated the same.  So their should be no performance
differences at the moment.  I say moment because Sun is hinting that their
are going to be some nifty stuff for the 6xx series.  I think I read in one
of the rags that their is a possiblity of adding Xbus which would 
allow for many, many cpu modules.  One other advantage of the 6xx series is
the ability to run IPI disks.  I know SCSI is 'in' now, but I'd really rather
the big 8" disks with fast sustained xfer rates.  :-)

>
>	Second question: does anyone have any comments on 3rd party disks for
>this?  We're looking for the best intersection of price/performance/reliability.
>Since we're spending Real Money on this, price is a real consideration.  The
>current front-runner is the Fujitsu 1.3 GB disk, but I'm concerned about the
>noise and heat.  Love that warranty though.  Some 2 GB drives look interesting.

I don't really have any _disk_ suggestions, but I would suggest that you go
with adding a couple of other SCSI controllers.  You should note that the
built in controller on the SS2 is rated at 5MB/sec and the one on the SS10 is
10MB/sec.  In either case I would suggest you add additional conrollers and
spread your disks over them.  A nice configuration might be adding two fast
controllers and putting 2 1.3GB disks on each of them, and maybe a high capacity
tape on the internal controller.  Also, if you go with
a SS2 or smaller SS10 (400MB disks), it might be worth while not to use the 
internal drives for your OS.  Put your swap on a different disk or disks.

>
>	I have (gratefully) read the last couple of weeks of traffic on these
>groups, so there is no need to duplicate recent postings.  I will certainly
>post a summary of e-mail responses if warranted.
>
>-- 
>Rick Kint				UNIX Geek, College of Engineering
>kint@engr.washington.edu		University of Washington, Seattle

Sorry if I've rambled.  Good luck!

 -john
-- 
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  John Navitsky                        e-mail   johnn@eskimo.celestial.com
                                               johnn@locke.hs.washington.ed
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