Rick,

We have run into a couple of significant issues with CIFS that may, or may not, be relevant. NT uses a thing called oplocks (opportunistic locking) as a "performance enhancement". The filer supports this method of locking. In our environment, we do not have individual user shares - we have a number of NT servers running Microsoft's IIS. Thus our Internet servers (IIS) receive both PUT (file write) and GET (file read) requests through the internet that come in as anonymous users. IIS has several NT user accounts that it uses to make the corresponding access calls. In our case, those calls are to create directories and files which we put on a 740.

Well, it turns out that there is some "feature" in NT that causes IIS to hang if oplocks are on. Essentially, somewhere in the SMB traffic that is hitting a shared file from multiple "users", if the number of simultaneous requests is large, NT timeouts which hangs the user - in our case, an entire IIS server. Doing a CIFS TERMINATE on that server can free it, but this is a horrible practice. The workaround is to turnoff oplocks and control file access through application logic.

The second issue is a hardcoded limit in the filer that does not allow for more then slightly more then 65K of directories in one directory tree. Most folks wouldn't run into this, but we create an NT folder for every user who uses our site to build their own web pages. This limit is not documented (there is a limit of approx. 300,000 file sin one directory and a maxfiles limit that is dependent on number/capacity of disk drives that are documented).

The last issue is multi-homing on an NT domain environment. If you want more info on that, let me know - it doesn't sound like you would run into this.

Sam Schorr Homestead Technologies ph: (650) 549-3152 fax: (650) 364-7329 sschorr@homestead.com

Don't just build a home page...build a Homestead!! http://www.homestead.com

-----Original Message----- From: Berkenbush, Richard E. [mailto:BERKENBUSH@pcmail.systems.gec.com] Sent: Friday, November 20, 1998 7:05 AM To: 'toasters@mathworks.com' Subject: NetApp soon to be user

Hello all,

I am in the process of purchasing a 720 to be used for TDM storage for SDRC in a mixed UNIX and NT environment. We also would like to consider its use for PDM storage using Sherpa and Oracle. Our intentions are to pilot the 720 with SDRC and phase in the PDM data base for pilot purposes only. Should this be successful, we would then purchase a higher end model such as the 740 or 760. Also we have a need to consider an enterprise wide data storage solution which would involve UNIX and NT data up to 3500 G. Has anyone out there had any bad experience with the Network Appliance products that I should be aware of?

End

Thank you,

Rick Berkenbush Marconi Aerospace Systems Inc.