how is a NAS generally setup...

[gman10]

Hi all-

I've got a rather large network. A 4506 Cisco core, 4 3524 switches, afew 3640 routers and many win2k servers.. Would the NAS appliance essentially plug into the Core ? Or one of the switches and then have the server plug into that... I'm just trying to get a general idea for a visio diagram I need to put together.. Any thoughts??

Thanks in advance

GT

 

[comtec17]

Depends on how heavy users will be hitting the Appliance. I would generally place it on one of my switches for the first few weeks and if users start complaining about slowness then move it off to the core. Just think of it as another fileserver.

 

[gman10]

Thanks ! Do you have any preferences as far as product brand names? I was looking into the SnapServer 120000, what do you think, I checked out the specs, $15,000 approx but not a bad switch.. Hey lets say the NAS is connected to the Core, (I know this will sound silly but) where do my hosts(servers) connect directly? To the core switch or can they essentially connect right to the NAS via use of HBA's etc..

Thanks for your help!!

GT

 

[clonny2]

gman10, Both the SNAPServer12000 anf 14000 are excellent products. I would be happy to try to answer any questions you have regarding any of the SnapServer products.

One question I do have, "What type of client environment are you going to be using?" IE, Active Directory Domain, NT Domain, Mac, or Unix environment, etc?

>---------------------------------------Lawrence Feldman
SR. QA. Engineer SNAP Appliance
lfeldman@snapappliance.com

 

[gman10]

Definately... thanks for the feedback.

IE, Active Directory on afew Win2K Domain Controllers, A Linux box and assorted data folders... The run Avayz PBX which is on a different switch but thats pretty much it.. Yeahm any details for the NAS setups/configs based on what I just gave you would be great...

GMAN10

 

[clonny2]

If you are going to use Active Dir, and you want authentication, it will be better to use the SNAP14000. It is a higher-end os with Snapshot capabilites, integrated backup or you can install any of the following backup agents: Veritas Backup Exec, Veritas NetBackup, Legato Networker, CA.
If you just need data storage then either will suffice.

If performance is an issue then go with the SNAP 14000. You will get better performance. the Snap 14000 has P3 1.2 with 1GB of ram, dual Intel GB nics, so you can have server-side bonding and load-balance as well. Defintely upgrade to the latest 2.4 Os. Should be released to the web fairly shortly.
Is there anything else I can answer for you?

>---------------------------------------Lawrence Feldman
SR. QA. Engineer SNAP Appliance
lfeldman@snapappliance.com

 

[clonny2]

Also, I just found out the 12000 should be about 9k not 15k. Go to Insight.com or another large var distrib. They are on sale right now.

One more thing, the 12000 has 12 drives, but the largest raid can only have 8 drives. the 14000 can have a raid that utilizes all drives, and has bigger hard drive capacity.

>---------------------------------------Lawrence Feldman
SR. QA. Engineer SNAP Appliance
lfeldman@snapappliance.com

 

[pctekk]

clonny2,


how do you setup/configure dual nics one for
the public network and one for private(like 192.168.x.x)
for running a centralized backup on a gig backbone.
were going to use a snap for user data also

thanks

 

[clonny2]

If you are using any of the SnapServer Guardian Products, they all have 2 10/100/1000MB NICS. You can configure either for static or dhcp. You are not able to forward through the SNAPSERVER like a router, but you can be multi-homed.

From the TCP/IP configuration page you set Ethernet 1 to be your main ip on your public network. And for Ethernet 2 you configure on your private network.

Your public clients will not be able to talk to the private network through the SnapServer. However, all of your Shares will be accessible to both networks. You can not say that SHARE1 is only accessable to the Public network. You can setup share security so that only users on the public network access certain shares.

For your private bakbone for backup. If you are using a unix agent on a supported backup package you should be good to go. I would possibly look for a configuration like this.

You create a raid and volume (unless you keep the default) and have a share for that whole volume. Tighten the security on that share so that it is read-only or write access to a very few select individuals. I would then create a public share or shares in the volume that users do have access to. This way, when you backup the SNAP you only need to backup the root of the volume share, which would be share 1.

The directory would look like this

BACKUP_SHARE
|
Public Share
| | |
User shares


So you would only need to backup the backup share because the public shares are all inside of the backup share.

If you have any more questions, feel free to contact me.

>---------------------------------------Lawrence Feldman
SR. QA. Engineer SNAP Appliance
lfeldman@snapappliance.com

 

[pctekk]

Lawrence,
do you have any basic visio's of how to setup a basic NAS
for basic storage and use like veritas backup exec to backup ??

were really new to this and have an external DLT we hooked up to the NAS directly but dont know where to go from there.

thanks for any help