Re: Xsan with WebObjects

Hi Karl,

We're going to have an ever increasing number of images to store, so  
I thought an Xsan would be ideal because you can easily add new  
storage to the volumes without having to upgrade all your drives with  
higher capacity versions. Also, avoiding a single point of failure in  
my architecture is important. Xsan apparently handles that nicely  
with primary and secondary metadata controllers.

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 12, 2005, at 1:48 PM, Karl wrote:

> 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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