[comp.sys.novell] NFS performance

Wayne.Wilson@med.umich.edu (05/10/91)

With all the talk about which is the more cost effective NFS solution: 3.11  
with NFS NLM vs. various UN*X configurations, price alone is not sufficient.   
We also need to know performance, and then we can come up with a price  
performance chart.  Another issue is just absolute price, prehaps you cannot go  
above a certain limit, then a lower absolute cost, but higher price/performance  
is what you have to have.  My guess is that absolute price goes something like  
this, from lowest to highest:  SCO on a 386/486, Netware on a 386/486, Sun  
server.  And I suspect that that price/performance is different, maybe  
something like: Netware, SCO, Sun server.  But I havn't seen any numbers to  
base the latter on.  I have heard that Netware can outperform a Sun 470, but I  
don't know what kind of configurations we are talking about here.  Anyone have  
any hard data on this?
  We have a SUN 470 acting primarily as a NFS server, and we also have 3.11  
with NFS NLM due in any day now.  If someone can point me to a 386/486  
configuration that can outperform the SUN, then I will attempt to get such a  
configuration in on evaluation from the vendor and have our system  
adminstrators run tests and post the results here.

golds@fjc.GOV (Rich Goldschmidt) (05/28/91)

I posted a request here for info about two weeks ago with no response, so
I'll try again.  The original query was about how file server performance
was measured.  What do claims of "X" users supported really mean, and how are
those measurements made.  And how do NFS and Novell compare on the same 
hardware, like a 386 or 486 running either Novell 3.11 or Interactive with
NFS.  There must be people out there who know answers to at least some of
these questions!

And just to broaden the scope, what are peoples experiences out there with
Interactive's NFS.  I have observed that the documentation has errors and is
incomplete, and the authentication doesn't work the way it ought to.  What is
of greater concern is I am seeing slower NFS file service performance than I 
had expected, and getting what I think are a lot of NFS errors.



-- 
Rich Goldschmidt: uunet!fjcp60!golds or golds@fjc.gov
Commercialization of space is the best way to escape the zero-sum economy.
Disclaimer: I don't speak for the government, and it doesn't speak for me...