We're evaluating an F540 and I'm wondering how many of you compared them against the Suns. Specifically we currently run 2 Ultra 170's plus arrays which both see about 1200-1400 nfs ops/sec average with frequent peaks of 2000 on one. The one box holds common areas, the other builds. I'm considering upgrading these to 2 Ultra 2's with dual 300Mhz chips (for performance and arrays), or one F630 (200GB).
From what I can see of the LADDIS numbers, the NetApps respond faster
than the Ultra 2 range and its not until you get to the Ultra 3000 that the response times are comparable, even though the Ultra 2's would sustain higher nfs ops. Is this something people have seen in practice?
I'm initially considering one F630 for price reasons and since the one box sees higher nfs/ops but the other box is the one needing the extra storage. The 'limit' of 4500 nfs/ops on the F630 concerns me in that combining the current nfs ops can easily put use near the upper limit of the box. What I don't have a feel for is how many nfs ops the current workload would actually put on a filer. If it responds faster to clients, then I'd actually expect the nfs ops to be even higher, putting me even nearer the limit or above it (although I know its not limited to 4500 nfs/ops, I assume its response would drop significantly). Have people found this to be the case?
Two F540's are a possibility, but we seem to be approaching their upper limit and if we go over there isn't room for expandability, whereas we could (eventually) add a second 630 and split the serving again if we choose to go this route. What kind of loading are people seeing on their netapps, e.g. 500nfs ops, 2000 nfs ops, any over the limit of the F540?
Dave