Re: Xsan with WebObjects

Hi Brendan,

There is virtually no latency at all with Xsan.  It is more like  
having local storage.

Why is it that you don't simply want to use a network share?  The  
latency there would only be a few milliseconds.

Karl

On 12-Aug-05, at 3:40 PM, Brendan Duddridge wrote:

> Hi Karl,
>
> Thanks for your response. My major concerns are with latency. I  
> just don't know how much latency there will be. If someone fetches  
> a page with say, 20 images, will it take an extra 0.5 seconds to  
> fetch each image due to having to communicate with the MDC? Or will  
> it be virtually instantaneous?
>
> Thanks,
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Brendan Duddridge | CTO | 403-277-5591 x24 |  [email protected]
>
> ClickSpace Interactive Inc.
> Suite L100, 239 - 10th Ave. SE
> Calgary, AB  T2G 0V9
>
> http://www.clickspace.com
>
> On Aug 11, 2005, at 1:56 PM, Karl wrote:
>
>
>> Hi Brendan,
>>
>> I have played with Xsan but never in a production environment.  I  
>> see no reason why you should face any issues with what you are  
>> trying to do.
>>
>> Remember that Xsan imposes the overhead of needing Metadata  
>> Controllers to co-ordinate activity between clients.  And you  
>> finish up with two networks.  One a conventional IP network  
>> running and the other a Fibre Channel Network.  Unless you adopt  
>> the Infiniband products but then it gets even more expensive.
>>
>> It seems to me that most of what you are trying to achieve could  
>> be handled by simply using a network share to place the shared  
>> files that the Apps Servers need to see.  That way, you only have  
>> a single network to deal with.  And servers can be mirrored or  
>> failover - two can share the same Xserve RAID for example.
>>
>> Given that the files are very small (1Mb is nothing today) any  
>> latency benefits for serving them in a web environment are  
>> virtually insignificant.
>>
>> Karl
>>
>> On 11-Aug-05, at 3:50 PM, Brendan Duddridge wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Has anyone here ever tried using Apple's Xsan technology to serve  
>>> images from a web server?
>>>
>>> I will soon be putting together an environment with multiple web  
>>> servers and multiple WebObjects application servers. All Xserves.  
>>> Our application allows us to upload images and have them  
>>> available to the web server for displaying to the web browser.  
>>> These are typical web files anywhere between 500 bytes to 1 MB in  
>>> size. There will be LOTS of them. Millions actually. I was hoping  
>>> that I could use Xsan so my application servers can write the  
>>> files and the web servers can read the files all from the same  
>>> location. This would be an Xserve RAID.
>>>
>>> I've seen a lot of talk on using Xsan with video footage (very  
>>> large files --> few requests) and no talk about using Xsan with  
>>> many small files and many many requests.
>>>
>>> Is Xsan an appropriate solution to this problem? Or should I be  
>>> looking at a different solution? If so, what would that be? I  
>>> want a fully redundant environment so if something goes down, our  
>>> web site is still up and running just as before. I also want the  
>>> ability to upgrade the OS on various machines over time without  
>>> having to take down the site.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Brendan
>>>
>>>
>>> ____________________________________________________________________
>>> Brendan Duddridge | CTO | 403-277-5591 x24 |  [email protected]
>>>
>>> ClickSpace Interactive Inc.
>>> Suite L100, 239 - 10th Ave. SE
>>> Calgary, AB  T2G 0V9
>>>
>>> http://www.clickspace.com
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> WebObjects-admin mailing list
>>> [email protected]
>>> http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/webobjects-admin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

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