[geeks] Via PC-1

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net>
>Date: 2008/02/29 Fri AM 09:20:59 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Via PC-1

<snip>

>I don't know how much it matters for raw FC LUN target usage, but I
>gather that 64bit is a really big deal for ZFS usage, making the LV2
>potentially a much smarter choice for a Solaris NAS.

That's an interesting idea - I may have to give that a try this weekend if/when I get the time to play with it. The problem becomes the attachment of the drives, since you only have two SATA ports you would either have to go with USB 2.0 drives and have the ability to add a Gigabit Ethernet card in the PCI slot *or* drop a PCI RAID card in the system and live with 100 Mb/Sec Ethernet. THat could be interesting though, to have a 3Ware 8 port PCI SATA RAID card hanging off the D201GLY2 board as a "ghetto" NAS/file server... But where to get a case with 8x hot swap trays for low money? (or for that matter, 8x SATA drives for a reasonable price, though 8x 400 Gig drives at $70/each is low, it is still too rich for just an experiment)

>Call me silly,

OK, You're silly. ;^)

>but I really want to stick with a Solaris NAS being SPARC
>hardware.   I really hope that a 2xUS III machine can keep up with
>gigabit. 

It really should be able to, but that is an emotional reaction, not a well thought-out conclusion based on facts. An UltraSPARC III platform would be an expensive platform for a NAS (IMHO), if not the acquisition cost then the on-going electrical/environmental bills...

Lionel