* Dr. Internet columnist Steve Blass offers advice on selecting the best RAID system for a small office * Help Desk columnist Ron Nutter offers advice on using VLANs on a small network
* Selecting the best RAID system for a small office
By Steve Blass
Q: We would like a RAID system to provide data protection in a small office. Can you say whether a hardware or a software RAID system is a better option? Also, is RAID 1 or RAID 5 the more reliable system for protecting our data?
A: The specialized equipment means hardware RAID controllers are usually faster and more expensive than software RAID systems. I prefer to use a hardware RAID controller when possible because of the performance improvement.
To read Steve’s response in its entirety, click here.
* Using VLANs on a small network
By Ron Nutter
Q: I manage four Novell servers – two NW6.5sp2 and two NW5.0sp6a. These servers provide services to 5 buildings. These 5 buildings are part of a much larger campus encompassing approximately 40 buildings but I don’t service those other buildings. The network folks want to implement a VLAN on every floor of our buildings. We currently use Allied Telesyn Rapier 48 port 10/100 switches (AT-RP48) in all the buildings. In one building the first floor has 15 users and the 2nd has 50 users. In another building we have 40 users on one floor and another 40 in another. All other buildings have basically the same amount of users per floor. We really don’t have a large number of users per floor. Won’t implementing a VLAN per floor increase server latency?
A: Even though your user count isn’t really high per floor, I like the idea of using one VLAN per floor. I wouldn’t expect much overhead from VLAN implementation – and the benefits you’ll get would far outweight any modest (if any) increases in latency.
To read Ron’s response in its entirety, click here.
