[WinMac] Re: Larger Network

Daniel L. Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Mon, 04 Oct 1999 12:19:10 -0400

        I would like to comment on several issues, inline:

At 10:58 AM 10/4/99 -0400, my colleague John Welch wrote:

>I have to weigh in on the sole source point. It's a non-issue. If you run
>NT, you have a sole-source for your OS.

        Quite true. And/But as what just happened with Compaq dropping AlphaNT
support after build 2074 (W2kb3RC1), you CAN rest somewhat assured that
Micros~1 will be sticking with their flagship NOS.

>If you use Solaris, same deal. If
>you have an AS/400, both hardware and software come from IBM. Please. Dan
>does have some valid points about the server hardware from Apple, although
>the machines the have on the web site, (although not yet available), have
>dual power supplies, so that's a good thing. (as with all my servers, the
>P/S go first.)

        Here, I gently disagree with you; and this goes *directly* to my point:
Usually, I've found disk drives to go first, and *not* (well-designed)
server power supplies. And this reveals a fatal flaw for PCI PowerPC Macs:
No PCI option card RAID controllers. And even *if* there were hardware PCI
RAID controllers, then that would use up one valuable slot.

>As far as the slot issue goes, for a file server, again, if you really need
>more than 2 dual - channel SCSI cards and a gigabit or ATM card, then I
>*seriously* recommend you leave both the NT and Mac toys alone, and get
>yourself a fat Sun Enterprise server or a nice 12 - processor AS/400,
>because you are needing BIG iron.

        Here again, I gently disagree with you: For small LAN's for graphics,
prepress, & multimedia - Ethernet bandwidth and lots of RAID-protected
storage are the norm, and not so much CPU horsepower.

>As far as NetWare goes, I wouldn't recommend migrating TO it, but if you
>have a nice stable NetWare 5 setup, and it's running well, there is NO need
>to just throw it away. Prosoft makes a nice client, and NetWare is loads
>better than NT.

        I don't like to load additional components (such as the MacIPX stack) on a
Mac because it's just one more thing to go wrong and cause crashes. Been
there, done her...

        QUESTION (for anyone): Is there a NetWare 5 add-on that provides AFP/IP
support, like MacServer IP and ExtremeZ-IP provides to NT4? If indeed there
is, then this *might* cause me to dislike NetWare a little less...

>Breathe deeply, plan, stay calm, plan, buy the tools YOU need, plan, and
>party on.
>
>john
>
>> Len makes some good points; but with ASIP 6.2 you're stuck with only one
>> hardware vendor... And unfortunately Apple's wares are only desktop quality
>> - Not server quality. Plus, they're not overly expandable with only two
>> free PCI slots after you drop in a SCSI controller.
>>
>> Two issues that are often overlooked are scalability and (especially)
>> reliability. Apple took a stab at the reliability with their nice Network
>> Server 500 and 700 machines; but with only about 100 machines per month
>> being sold...
>>
>> Fortunately, your 220 node school LAN does not need 24/7 reliability, so
>> you may very well "get away" with a converted desktop machine acting as a
>> server. BUT, desktop machines are designed not for 24/365 dependability,
>> maintainability; and I/O throughput. Instead, they (desktop boxes) are
>> designed for fast 3D display, high Spec95FP numbers, and low cost. [If you
>> don't believe me, then why are there no 2 or 4-way Athlon systems?!]
>>
>> I certainly DO agree with my pal Len on steering clear of NetWare: It's
>> butt-ugly and uses wacky HAM disk drivers.

        [balance cut]

        Yours truly,
        Daniel L. Schwartz,
        Electrical Engineer.

        Dan's MacOS Consulting
        239 Great Road
        Maple Shade, NJ 08052-3044

        Voice: 856-642-7666 <-- Note new area code (was 609)
        Fax: 413-451-4391

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