Using a RAID 1 NAS As A Cluster

[Jay]

Ok

I have a set of servers that i user Termainal Services on

Now to balance the load I have different branches use different servers. The problem is that they all need to access data from each site

Now I started to use shares between the different servers to allow people logged onto Server A to access info From server B etc but its simply so messy and with the servers already doing the work for the clients the poor disks are simply reading and writing data all the time.

Now i have looked at adding a RAID 1 NAS system to hold this info, i hope it should take some of the load off the servers and keep it in one easy place that I simply backup. It also means that when we upgrade the servers in the future (next 6 months) I don't need to start copying data from the old servers as this has already been done by the fact that the data is stored away from the servers anyway. Oh and bulding a file server is out as the server room (where i spend most of my days) is so bloody noisy already I just do not want to start adding more CPU coolers etc etc. NAS boxes just seem so quiet and compact.

I intend to put a share on the Nas with individual folders for each user (permissions will keep it safe). Each users "My Documents" folder (about 40 users) will point to their share. Roaming profiles copying data over the network is simply not fast enough so if they delete a file I will just get it from the backup of the day before.

Is this a decent plan? i understand the eggs in one basket theory but as its RAID1, backed up and I will have 2 spare hard drives at any one time I am guessing that if it did go totally wrong it would be easier to sort than taking the TS server off line, removing the HDD etc etc.

Good or Bad?

[Moby-Dick]

1st thing...dont use roaming profiles

do some research on flex profiles - terminal server users shouldn't need to roam that much.

nothing wrong with a central file server per se - use a combination of shadow copies and tape backups to ensure data integrity.

even saved you a google search - invoice is in the post

http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?ID=315

[Jay]

1st thing...dont use roaming profiles

do some research on flex profiles - terminal server users shouldn't need to roam that much.

nothing wrong with a central file server per se - use a combination of shadow copies and tape backups to ensure data integrity.

even saved you a google search - invoice is in the post

http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?ID=315

once again.... thanks

sorry I i didn't mean the TS clients have roaming profiles.... forgot to add that a lot of the users are on the local domain, in the same building as me... and they all like to complain.

[Moby-Dick]

what apps do they connect to via a TS session ?

flex profiles can take care of most of this and as long as you map local users to the same file share then it'll be as 'roaming' as they need ?

[Jay]

just office (word, outlook, excel and thats it)

[Moby-Dick]

you should be able to use flex profiles to configure outlook ( assuming you use exchange ) - everything else is down to choice of mapped drives

[Jay]

so i'm good to go on this one then?

[Moby-Dick]

you'll only know when you try