Performance Rampage rip with Xserve

[JBVeenstra]

We have at this moment a Sun Enterprise 450 box as fileserver, with 15 Mac OS tiger workstations. Xinet Fullpres server software on the Sun. 2 Rampage rips and 1 shooter on win2003. Pagelist average 9-12K. Output: Luxel 9000 CTP, HP5500ps and HP1500ps plotters, Oce CPS900 and Varioprint2090.
Whe're thinking about replacing the sun box with a Xserve.

Does anyone have experiences with Xserve? How's performance when rips are getting a lot of data of the fileserver?

Edited by: JBVeenstra on Sep 11, 2007 9:47 AM

Edited by: JBVeenstra on Sep 11, 2007 9:47 AM

[mwc]

I have had and Xserve G4 and Xserve Raid for my file server and rampage RamVol for years.
Once setup, it purrs along just swell.
I'd talk to your RamPage rep first though, there was somthing about OSX server above 10.4.8 that was causing some problems...
(My OSX server is at 10.3.9)

And then you'll also need special AFP client software on all your Rampage PCs to connect to it (OSX server) properly (same with Unix)....about $250 per box...

[macphenom]

Why would you replace a SUN box with a Mac? I currently run a V480 with two Rorke Galaxy 60's and am also using Xinets software. (FullPress, WebNative Venture and FlashNet). I have used an xServe in a pre-press enviroment and let me tell you that there is a slowdown when throwing large compressed files from Rampage at it. The Mac is less expensive I will grant you that but we have 12 Rampage Boxes sending data back and forth from the server and the the xServe I tested ground to a slow crawl. That was a while back when I tested the xServe maybe they have sped up the performance but if I was changing out my server at this moment it would be for a SUN V445 with a 10gig network card for the fastest network I could get. If your network is slow Rampage boxes do not like to wait for data they will error with a generic "AWK" error. So what ever you do make sure the network can do 7 to 10 mbps at the minimum. You can test the network speed using Rampages network test utility. My network averages 25 to 40 mbps and I still get the occasional error caused by slow data transfer.

[JBVeenstra]

> {quote:title=macphenom wrote:}{quote}
> Why would you replace a SUN box with a Mac?

The Enterprise 450 has reached his end of service and diskspace is too few. We will get about 25 mac workstations extra of another department which is using a central program on the server. This program is only running on Mac ( or Win). So at this moment we're exploring the possibillities.
We like to have the extra managing tools and scripting possibillities you have when running an OS X Server with OS X clients. But we also have our production of plates, which have to stay at the same speed or better.
I'll run the Rampage network test today.

> {quote:title=macphenom wrote:}{quote}
> That was a while back when I tested the xServe...

What type of Xserve are you talking about and which OS X version?

[macphenom]

One of the originals. Dual 1 GHz w/2GB Ram and Jag 10.2