what sort of options are there for a setup where systems
write to a single CIFS hostname\share but it actually goes
to two separate storage repositories?  i don't want
replication, but actual independent writes, and i'm
wondering if there is some sort of hardware box that would
handle that?

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> what sort of options are there for a setup where systems
> write to a single CIFS hostname\share but it actually goes
> to two separate storage repositories?

Microsoft DFS is such I think.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
maxim@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

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>
> Microsoft DFS is such I think.

thanks, i've looked into DFS a bit, but it doesn't really
do what i want.

it's actually replicating changes, which is what i don't
want... i want the two writes to be independent so if one
file system has issues, i don't have to worry about that..
I figure it has to be hardware-based, but not necessarily
SAN, since i want the storage separate as well -- no
connections between the two storage devices.

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On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 13:07:55 -0400, "anon" <anon@asdf.dee.com> wrote:

>what sort of options are there for a setup where systems
>write to a single CIFS hostname\share but it actually goes
>to two separate storage repositories?  i don't want
>replication, but actual independent writes, and i'm
>wondering if there is some sort of hardware box that would
>handle that?
>
>
>
Check out a company called vicom.  They have exactly what you
describe.

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if you do not want to implement storage level replication but still
want to maintain multiple copies, you can use host level replication
options.

simple implementation could be made by assigning similar sized luns
from multiple storages to a single host. now using host level mirroring
options (lvms, dynamic disks) you can combine the luns from two or more
storage systems into single logical volume/disk.

after this, reads/writes would be directed by operating system on all
the storage systems involved.should one storage go down, data will be
still available from others.

in this case, overhead of replication will be shifted to the host
operating system. most storage level replication offerings are costly
in terms of replication software licenses, replication link hardware
(router, fabric) etc. in those situations, such host level replication
can be utilised.

Kiran Ghag
http://www.kiranghag.com

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