Delll screws up Michigan State U email system

Post #109,554 by lincoln 7/14/03 9:41:29 AM Reply	Delll screws up Michigan State U email system [link\|http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/07/11/27OPcringely_1.html\|Cringely column] Meanwhile, Dell's storage subsystems are causing some major headaches at Michigan State University, one mole reported, even though the systems are brand spankin' new. The two recently purchased and installed storage machines keep failing, and the most recent downtime lasted approximately 26 hours. That's with upwards of 30,000 users transitioned to the new mail platform. Unfortunately, there is no way to downgrade to the old RS/6000 mail cluster system -- so when the storage system goes down, so do the mail transfer agents. Ouch. lincoln "Four score and seven years ago, I had a better sig" [link\|http://users3.ev1.net/~bconnors/resume.htm\|VB/SQL resume] [link\|http://users3.ev1.net/~bconnors/tandem_resume.htm\|Tandem resume] [link\|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net\|contact me]
Post #109,564 by deSitter 7/14/03 10:14:10 AM Reply	Re: Delll screws up Michigan State U email system Why do people buy Dell? They are cack. I have no idea how they acquired their reputation. -drl
Post #109,570 by inthane-chan 7/14/03 10:46:38 AM Reply	I don't know about their server components... ...as we don't touch them here at work. Their desktop units are a joy to work with. Simple access to the case internals, easy removal of everything with extra mounting brackets, etc. I wouldn't use one as a home machine (sucky hardware for Real Men) but for an office space? The standardization of equipment is great. We've also had excellent reliability AND service from them - we say jump, they ask how high on the way down. I also don't know how much that's costing us, though... And though you hold the keys to ruin of everything I see/With every prison blown to dust, my enemies walk free/Though all the kingdoms turn to sand and fall into the sea/ I'm mad about you I'm mad about you
Post #109,571 by Andrew Grygus 7/14/03 11:00:18 AM Reply	Is it really Dell's fault? Well, ultimately yes, because they chose to base their NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices on the appliance version of Windows 2000 rather than on Linux. Maxtor did that too, and is consequently out of the NAS business. Neither performance nor reliability were acceptable and customers were pissed. IBM has announced it is discontinuing all Windows based storage. Another problem with Windows based NAS is it can only handle Windows filenames, not Unix and Macintosh filenames. One company that bought a high end Dell NAS for its Oracle data found it totally unusable for that purpose. When it comes to NAS, insist on Linux. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #109,573 by deSitter 7/14/03 11:29:20 AM Reply	Gawd Of all the Windows fuckups recorded over the years, this has to be near the top. Damn POS can't even handle simple storage issues. I can see the clueless PHBs signing off on the project plan with glee, then grimacing at the unexpected results. -drl

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