How we tested the Stratus ftServer 5700.
We placed the Stratus ftServer 5700 on a Gigabit Ethernet (nonblocking and switched) network with a number of hosts, ranging from other Active Directory (on an HP DL140) systems to Solaris (on a SunServer), Linux (on an HP DL140) and OS X server (on an Apple Xserver) systems.
We measured transfer speed and found it capped at about 9Mbps – slower than we see in other systems, although we expected perhaps eight times that speed.
The longest resynchronization time (about 10 minutes) occurred after we started a disk defragmentation using Microsoft’s Disk Utility. We pulled the plug several minutes into the defragmentation, then pulled the plug on one of the systems. Although the system continued to run, synchronization took a high percentage of CPU and kept the disk drives busy during the rebuild/resynchronization cycle.
We also copied files and ran messages through the Exchange message transfer agent, while mercilessly killing one unit or the other. Except for very quick pauses, the ftServer 5700 continued to work and respond at the operating system and application level. Rebuilds were uniformly fast except when large disk operations occurred. Slowdowns during such major disk repairs had only a slight impact on performance.
The ftServer could not be halted, only slowed.
