Advice wanted on fileservers and net-loading

[Henry B.J. Krempel]

What I would do is split the network into 2 subnets.  This insures
conclusively that the network traffic is divided,  without relying on
"smartness" of bridges.  It also makes solving network problems easier to
track down.

I would buy another system, like the 4/260 you mentioned,  or I might
favor a 4/280S with a cartidge drive (it's cheaper) and for backups you
might use a 2GB video cartridge,  like the one Perfect Byte sells.  The
new system should have 2 ethernet interfaces,  to serve as a gateway for
the new subnet you are creating. Then you can do one of the following:

Campus Ethernet
--------|-----------------------------------------------|
	|						|
	server1: 3/180S					new server
		|						|
		|						|
		5 - 3/50's					5 - 3/50s
		Sun-3 diskless machines				Sun 4 diskless

OR:
Campus Ethernet
--------|--------------------------------------------
	|						
	server1: 3/180S					
		|		
		|		
		5 - 3/50's	
		Sun-3 diskless machines
		new server
			|
			|
			5 - 3/50s
			Sun 4 diskless


It depends on how much you like heirarchy, also, if you are doing backups
for the new server using the 3/180S' tape drive, the second option might
be better.

Then, you can set it up with either fstab or automounter so that users get
their home directories wherever they are, putting peoples directories on
networks where they do most of their work. Also, set up mail so all of
this appears as one host, with the mail directory being NFS mounted.

This has a few advantages:

Server1 is a homogenous server, a sun-3 serving sun-3's, easier to
maintain, and there have been performance problems seen in earlier issues
with Sun 3's serving Sun-4's.

The 4MB 50's are spread across two different networks, drastically
reducing network load.  I run a network with 6-3/50's on it and a bunch of
8MB systems, and the network load is fine.

You are backing up 2 systems,  instead of one for each workstation.

Henry B. J. Krempel	<krempel at pacrat.npac.syr.edu>
Syracuse University
250 Machinery Hall
Syracuse,  N.Y. 13244