1. LINUX has a 2TB file system limit. Solaris has a 1TB limit. NetApp has something like a 6TB limit. 96Tbytes is the most number of disk shelves (24) that can be hooked into that filer. I would much rather have 16 file systems with NetApp than 48 file systems with LINUX. ReiserFS has a 16TB size limit on the filesystem itself and some very nice features. See the FAQ at http://www.namesys.com/ http://www.namesys.com/ Ok, but I still don't understand - the 96TB @ 24 shelves is based on a certain size disk drive - if disk drives double in size, does that mean you can do 192TB @ 24 shelves, or is there some restriction in the filer code that does not let you exceed the published maximum ? Joe: I can't say for sure (probably have to be a NetApp employee to do that) but there are benchmarks on this list with the 144GB drives. My R200 has the 300GB Maxtor drives whittled down to about 250GB each. The R200 requires 6.5.x so you might be onto something with the filer code, but I'm sure there's also a hardware dependency on that too. Well, I am all for making my own FreeBSD based NAS system, but again, I really want (need ?) the nice features like snapmirror and snapshot copies, and unmounting the volume every time I want to take a snapshot seems unreasonable. On the other hand, I do not have enough money to buy a fully loaded R200, even if it does bring the cost per megabyte down to .006. I think I am going to need to look at competing, smaller hungrier companies that make IDE NAS devices that can do things like snapmirror and snapshot copies. I guess NetApp is just not for me (or my budget). FreeBSD reports 64T-1 on their FAQ. Here's a summary of the links mentioned recently on the list:
http://www.snapappliance.com/ http://www.rsnapshot.org/ http://www.openfiler.org/ http://www.namesys.com http://www.namesys.com/ (reiserFS) http://www.freebsd.org/ http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2003-April/001444.htm l
It looks like the open source community has an appetite for producing something emulating a subset of filer features for cheap or free....looks like Joe Schmoe might be able to do some nice spiffy stuff at home like disk-to-disk backup and the like...
JKB