Networker

Re: [Networker] recommendations for networker server upgrade

2008-04-28 23:23:37
Subject: Re: [Networker] recommendations for networker server upgrade
From: Peter Viertel <Peter.Viertel AT MACQUARIE DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:18:28 +1000
Who says ufs only goes to 2TB?   Nobody told my 5TB one it can't exist.
;-)

For the record - ufs on a vxvm volume can only go to 2TB.   Ufs on a
metadisk can be considerably larger - up to around 16TB if you're crazy
enough to try it.   Performance is almost comparable to zfs when you
treat it carefully - eg you keep the filecount down, you tune to
maxcontig to match raid strip widths on the storage, and you only delete
data in large tranches..

Zfs gives you more chances to use your hardware to its best potential -
but you can still make it go really slow if you don't treat it well.
Try running it at 98% full for a while with lots of random file adds and
deletes..

This isn't meant to criticise zfs or ufs, or say that vxfs or qfs are
'better', but the reality is that you can make any of them work well
with care, and you can make all of them perform dreadfully with a little
effort also.

Overall IMHO - zfs and qfs are better positioned for the future of
storage than the other filesystem types, and both should be considered
if you're looking to deploy an adv_file solaris system. 


Sun came out with a little whitepaper this month on using EBS on a
thumper here;
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/sundocs/articles/sfx4500_ebs_storagenode.pdf


It doesn't spend any time at all going into zfs performance though...





> -----Original Message-----
> From: EMC NetWorker discussion 
> [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On Behalf Of Yaron Zabary
> Sent: Tuesday, 29 April 2008 11:21 AM
> To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: [Networker] recommendations for networker server upgrade

>    ZFS seems attractive for adv_file devices. It supports 
> multi-TB file 
> systems (UFS is limited to 2Tb). Performance seems OK, 
> although I hoped 
> for better results. When I was running at Solaris 9, I had to use UFS 
> which had miserable performance.
> 

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