File Sharing in a Mixed Environment

[iceman575]

I was curious how everyone was tackling File Sharing in a mixed environment and what the best practices would be. I have an Active Directory Master with an Open Directory Master bound to it. I am wondering specifically what the best method for adding storage is without creating a bottleneck through one Gigabit port (recognizing we dont have the budget to implement Fibre).

I have explored every possibility from the traditional "buy a Mac Pro and load server software to share the raid array w/ permissions" to the crafty "build a cheap linux box and use something like Netatalk to share the array as AFP".

Also, how do you handle hardware/software failures for file sharing on a budget?

Much obliged to those who have gone before me.

 

[DustinT]

A critical question is what your environment is. How many users, what type of access patterns you expect, what network applications you use and anything else you think is relevant.

Without that info, its just a 'well, I like...' conversation. And I don't get the impression thats what you are looking for.

 

[iceman575]

I appreciate the clarifying question. Aside from home folders and a mail server (I think we currently host a web service locally, but that is likely getting moved to the cloud), we dont really provide any network applications. So this will simply be for networked file storage of (mostly) .doc files. We do have a communications/av department that has higher end needs of 1080p raw video, but we can provide one solution for the rest of the school and and another for the higher end users.

I currently have a 10.6 Server managing an Open Directory Master controlling permissions to an internal RAID 5 array of a total of roughly 6 TB, and this server has about 10 clients on the communications/av team. It has been storing the raw HD easily and streams it effectively to Final Cut Studio, but if the server ever freezes then everything comes unglued.

The rest of the school receives services (directory, dns, mail, file storage, etc) from Windows servers.

I am exploring the virtualization of servers and am wanting to split off the file storage from a physical server. There have to be cheaper solutions out there than Drobo or ActiveSan. Any direction would be appreciated, and if I need to clarify any more just let me know. Thanks!

Mike