Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!news
From: Wayne.Wilson@med.umich.edu
Subject: NFS performance
Message-ID: <1991May10.121435.16297@engin.umich.edu>
Sender: news@engin.umich.edu (CAEN Netnews)
Organization: The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Date: Fri, 10 May 1991 12:14:35 GMT

With all the talk about which is the more cost effective NFS solution: 3.11  
with NFS NLM vs. various UN*X configurations, price alone is not sufficient.   
We also need to know performance, and then we can come up with a price  
performance chart.  Another issue is just absolute price, prehaps you cannot go  
above a certain limit, then a lower absolute cost, but higher price/performance  
is what you have to have.  My guess is that absolute price goes something like  
this, from lowest to highest:  SCO on a 386/486, Netware on a 386/486, Sun  
server.  And I suspect that that price/performance is different, maybe  
something like: Netware, SCO, Sun server.  But I havn't seen any numbers to  
base the latter on.  I have heard that Netware can outperform a Sun 470, but I  
don't know what kind of configurations we are talking about here.  Anyone have  
any hard data on this?
  We have a SUN 470 acting primarily as a NFS server, and we also have 3.11  
with NFS NLM due in any day now.  If someone can point me to a 386/486  
configuration that can outperform the SUN, then I will attempt to get such a  
configuration in on evaluation from the vendor and have our system  
adminstrators run tests and post the results here.