1. What kind of performance impacts do you see in production environments?
With at 2 scanners per head, we've seen no impact. Whilst one scanner is busy with a big file, the 2nd will take up the slack. Now if they're all down, no files served depending on your timeout settings. Also, watch your extension list & adjust it accordingly. We scan more than the default extensions (we dumped this in the rc file < vscan extensions add PIF,VB?,WJS,WSF,ADP,EML,LNK,CHM,VBE >)
2. What type of network interconnects are you using? In particular, would a VLAN on top of gigabit Ethernet be OK?
We're using an isolated Gigabit Ethernet (Copper) network to connect all the scanners & heads. We considered VLAN, but it cost us more for ports on a Cisco 6513 vs. just buying a 3805 (I believe that is the model #) with fiber to copper transcievers. If you've got the ports for VLAN, it'll work great. You can also do cross-over cables, but it won't work if a cluster fails over.
3. Are there any recommendations about the vendors? We use Trend ScanMail for our Exchange servers and have been happy with that product. We also use NAV for our desktops.
In our eval of Carrier Scan, McAfee & Trend - Trend won hands down.
4. Are there any horror/satisfaction stories or questions I missed?
Nope, it's pretty straight forward once you're set up.
THANKS!
--- Pat Allen (pat@mbari.org) Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) 7700 Sandholdt Rd, Moss Landing, CA 95039 (voice) 831-775-1724; (fax) 831-775-1620