Jeff Yana wrote:
> [posted to rush.general]
>
>
> Dear List-
>
> I am looking to get feedback from anyone with first hand, field experience
> using currently shipping products from the following vendors: Isilon,
> Blue Arc..
Jeff, I know you omitted NetApp from your list because you're already
familiar with their hardware, and have weighed in on it before:
http://seriss.com/cgi-bin/rush/newsgroup-threaded.cgi?-view+743
http://seriss.com/cgi-bin/rush/newsgroup-threaded.cgi?-view+746
I know Net Apps have saved many companies in the past,
though now I hear BlueArc and IsoLan mentioned a lot more these days.
I think Saker has stories to tell about IsoLan that you missed
at one of the last Sysadmin Bash meetings at the Cat & Fiddle.
And I think Rob Minsk is quite familiar now with BlueArc.
Anyone else, feel free to chime in.
> Sun, SGI, Agami and OnStor.
SGI? Are they still around? ;)
I wouldn't usually advise investing in hardware companies that
have filed for bankruptcy.
That said, back in 2001 I helped setup a render farm config at ICT
which involved a used rack mount R10K 2 proc 225MHz SGI Origin 200
from GET.COM for ($6750), and two 450G ADTX raid5 systems (for $6000 each)
from RFX.COM hanging off it.
At the time I knew of several CG companies using ADTX raids with the
SGI, and had gone through failure modes with them, and they worked
quite well. And of course RFX support had always been great, so we liked
that aspect. Within a few weeks one of the two raids had a bad drive,
the raid went into "degraded" mode but continued file serving.
I hot-swapped in a new drive while a 16 proc Onyx was rendering
a heavy job on the raid, and the new drive configured itself and
jumped online.
For switching, the network admin at ICT wanted to go with an
Alied Telesys switch with dual fiber uplinks to the Origin.
I think Rob Groome later inherited that whole setup after I finished
my contract work for them, so if he's still tuned into the group,
he can maybe weigh in on how all that carried for the years after,
or if it all had to be thrown out of a window onto Lincoln Blvd.
It'd be fun to know if that setup is still in place.
--
Greg Ercolano, erco@(email surpressed)
Rush Render Queue, http://seriss.com/rush/
Tel: (Tel# suppressed)
Fax: (Tel# suppressed)
Cel: (Tel# suppressed)
|