Don't you know if you're using an EMC box, you're only supposed to run home directories on a NAS box? I mean, if you want to run Oracle or Exchange, obviously you need a Symmetrix. Or at the bare minimum, the SAN half of the IP4700. Remember, EMC folks think everyone who runs a database on NAS is insane.

But it would be interesting to see the results nevertheless.

MD

-----Original Message----- From: grey jolly [mailto:greyjolly@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2001 8:01 PM To: Bruce Sterling Woodcock; sg; Chris Thompson Cc: emcnas@mathworks.com; toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Re: NAS Wars

I think the article brings out a good point. Why can't we get a simple one to one test of the two boxes withthe same amount of useable storage, and as similar a configuration overall as possible? That way we can really see the price and performance of each. Up to now all we have is hearsay and Marketing BS. I don't think we're comparing apples to apples yet. For example, I suggest we test five real world applications. 1) Test both in a home directory configuration 2) Test both running a common Oracle application 3) Test both running a Lotus Notes application 4) Test both running exchange 5) Test both simulating recovery form an Oracle outage and an Exchange outage and how long it takes to recover.

Let the best box win : ).