Doug Mildram wrote:

...

...

i know i can buy a linux PC, and slap in 11 or more 500 GB disks and do

this RAID5.

doug> Hate to disrespect our beloved wlug-favorite-OS, but, Linux for NFS server may be a bad choice....a bad implementation, I say from 2.4-kernel experience and I dont THINK it improved in 2.6. (have you used linux NFS server in demanding/loaded situations? ...the linux load avg goes to 20 as it becomes useless.) I have setup a few servers with 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB doing NFS, mainly for video streaming and at most 15-20 NFS clients. Using kernel 2.6.15.7 for a while now with no performance complaints. I have seen 15 NFS clients streaming DVD quality mpeg2 video (9mbps) work nicely.

Getting over 2TB, tho starts to be a lot of disks and there are heat problems, also problems finding enough drive bays. -- Karl Hiramoto http://karl.hiramoto.org/