I know it sounds kludgy, cheap and amateurish, but...
I have a legacy app that millions of small, static image files.  The
app requires a mapped drive letter, so they all have to be on one
volume.  Problem is, it's getting to be too much to store on a sigle
volume.  Is there an inexpensive (or open source) software alternative
to a SAN?  I need a virtual f:\ drive, where some of the subfolders are
stored here, others there, etc.

(oh, and please forgive my ignorance on stoarge in general, I'm a
developer, not an architect).

Thanks for any pearls of wisdom.

-Keith

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Keith wrote:

> I know it sounds kludgy, cheap and amateurish, but...
> I have a legacy app that millions of small, static image files.  The
> app requires a mapped drive letter, so they all have to be on one
> volume.  Problem is, it's getting to be too much to store on a sigle
> volume.  Is there an inexpensive (or open source) software alternative
> to a SAN?  I need a virtual f:\ drive, where some of the subfolders are
> stored here, others there, etc.
>
> (oh, and please forgive my ignorance on stoarge in general, I'm a
> developer, not an architect).
>
> Thanks for any pearls of wisdom.
>
> -Keith
>

Hi Keith

Basicly it's nothing new for the Unix/Linux world. That's exactly the way ho
w partitions or shares are mounted into the
filesystem.
Under Windows 200x you can acheive now the same thing by using Distributed F
ile System (DFS). You can map partitions or
shares from other computers into subdirectories and then share the directory
 as one to others.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows200...sbp.as
p


--

Best regards

Roberto Giana


 ________________________________________
_____________


Giana Roberto Consulting - GiaRoCo
https://www.giaroco.ch/

 ________________________________________
_____________

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Thanks!  That looks like exactly what I need.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Keith wrote:

> I know it sounds kludgy, cheap and amateurish, but...
> I have a legacy app that millions of small, static image files.  The
> app requires a mapped drive letter, so they all have to be on one
> volume.  Problem is, it's getting to be too much to store on a sigle
> volume.  Is there an inexpensive (or open source) software alternative
> to a SAN?  I need a virtual f:\ drive, where some of the subfolders are
> stored here, others there, etc.

A Linux/Samba file server could probably do this - depending on your
volume size and required growth.

Also, google for 'junction points': "You can surpass the 26 drive letter
limitation by using NTFS junction points. By using junction points, you
can graft a target folder onto another NTFS folder or "mount" a volume
onto an NTFS junction point. Junction points are transparent to programs."

This allows you to 'mount' multiple local drives under a single drive
letter.


Thomas

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]