[OT] Re: [CentOS] Filers, filesystems, etc.

[Chris Mauritz]

Karanbir Singh wrote:

> Chris Mauritz wrote:
>
>>>> I have had some contact with the company.  Frankly, I thought they 
>>>> were rather expensive when you consider what's under the hood.  I 
>>>> also wasn't too thrilled with their idea of service...."uh, if your 
>>>> system fails you can ship it back to us in the UK and we'll ship 
>>>> you another one."   But maybe they've gotten better.
>>>>
>>>
>>> you seem to be confused... openfiler is an open source distro built 
>>> on CentOS. hardly the kind of thing you would need to 'ship to the UK'
>>>
>>
>> No, that was the result of an email exchange with Xinit which I found 
>> through the link section of the openfiler web site.  Sorry about the 
>> confusion.  I'll see if I can dig up the email.  It came from a 
>> fellow with an Indian name (I think), but I can't remember it off the 
>> top of my head.
>
>
> Someone told you to send the openfiler distro back to the UK for 
> fixing if you had a problem ? I'd love to see that email :)
>
> Anyway, OpenFiler is open source, you can download it and use it, the 
> support issues are exactly the same as any other open source project.
>
> Xinit provides other addon's  ( like iscsi-target support ) and 
> software support contracts, as a commercial service - using OpenFiler 
> in no way forces the user to either buy or use this commercial 
> service, but should you need it - its there.



No.  After reviewing the openfiler web site, I contacted Xinit and then 
emailed the sales contact about pricing and availability for an actual 
server.  I've looked for the mail and can't find it.  Perhaps one of 
your colleagues has a copy.  It was probably on or about the summer of 
2004.  My problem with using the Xinit solution was two-fold.  1.  I 
thought it was somewhat expensive compared to "rolling my own.".   2.  
When I inquired about service, I was told they didn't have anything 
available in North America and that I'd have to physically return the 
box to them and they'd send me a new one if I had a hardware failure.  
That didn't strike me as being terribly useful in an enterprise 
environment.  My "maybe they've gotten better" comment was in hopes that 
they've since found a way to more quickly service clients in North 
America that experience hardware problems with an integrated (by Xinit) 
server.

I hope that clears up any confusion.

Cheers,