Specifications

Deployment Planning
When planning your network, consider the protocols your network conguration
requires. For example, if your network consists of multiplatform computers, consider
using SMB and AFP services to permit access to both platforms.
Determining the Best Protocol for Your Needs
The le service protocols you use depend on your network conguration and what
platforms you are supporting.
Determining Hardware Requirements for Your Needs
If you’re sharing network resources with other networks over Ethernet, your rewall
must permit communication through all ports associated with your service.
Planning for Outages and Failovers
When planning for outages and failovers, consider eliminating as many single points of
failure on your network as possible. An example of a single point of failure is a single
computer with a single hard disk and a single power source.
If you have a single computer, you can eliminate single points of failure by:
Conguring your computer with more disk drives, using a redundant array of Â
independent disks (RAID). By conguring a RAID you can help prevent data loss. For
example, if the main disk fails, the system can still access data from other disk drives
in the RAID.
Connecting the power source of the computer to a backup power source. Â
Providing another computer with the same conguration to eliminate the computer Â
as the single point of failure. If you don’t have another computer, you can congure
your computer to reboot on power failure. This ensures your computer will reboot
as soon as power is restored.
You can also help diminish the possibility of failure by ensuring that your equipment
has proper operational conditions (for example, adequate temperature and humidity
levels).
A more advanced method of eliminating a single point of failure involves link
aggregation, load balancing, Open Directory replication, data backup, and using
Xserve and RAID devices.
For more information about these topics, see Xgrid Administration and High
Performance Computing.
16 Chapter 1 Understanding File Services