NFS storage for DBSpaces?

I recall (from a couple of years ago) that Informix DBSpaces cannot exist on NFS mounted filesystems. But I cannot remember the details and I am also not sure if that is for the special case of RAW file systems only. I hope someone can fill in more of the details for me. Can Informix use DBSpaces on NFS mounted file systems in certain circumstances (ie, if UNIX I/O is used versus RAW.) I ask because we are considering buying some Snap Servers to provide cheap RAID storage. High performance isn't what we're aiming for but we do need reliability (of the DB and also the disk storage.) The platform for all of this is Informix 7.3 or 9.x on HP-UX or RH Linux. Thanks for any insights! Brian

Brian McEntire wrote in message <3A41F9BB.1EE18F9@fsg1.nws.noaa.gov>... >I recall (from a couple of years ago) that Informix DBSpaces cannot >exist on NFS mounted filesystems. But I cannot remember the details and >I am also not sure if that is for the special case of RAW file systems >only. I hope someone can fill in more of the details for me. Can >Informix use DBSpaces on NFS mounted file systems in certain >circumstances (ie, if UNIX I/O is used versus RAW.) > >I ask because we are considering buying some Snap Servers to provide >cheap RAID storage. High performance isn't what we're aiming for but we >do need reliability (of the DB and also the disk storage.) > >The platform for all of this is Informix 7.3 or 9.x on HP-UX or >RH Linux. > Forget use of NFS. If one of the boxes goes offline you risk the entire engine crapping out. If you are willing to spend money on a few pieces of hardware, then simply get a box with a good bunch of controllers and disks. Forget about using RAID with Informix. If you are talking about Hardware RAID 0, 1, or 1+0 or 0+1 then there is some legitimate argument for using this, but forget COMPLETELY about RAID 5 or anything exotic. RAID 5 is known to mask disk failures to the point that when you replace a dud disk, the RAID pack cannot recover the so-called protected data. It's a complete hoax as far as Informix is concerned. Not only that, but it generally slows down a lot of activity. Summary: Get a decent single box with a decent motherboard and bus, decent number of controllers, decent set of disks and away you go. Add extra CPU's in the future if you do end up caring about more and more performance. It's unneccessarily complicated to be thinking in terms of Snap Servers and NFS when it comes to database. That may be OK for file serving, but it's a hard lesson to learn that database engines live in a different world and your average hardware/software salesman or marketing has no chance of understanding the situation. They'll just keep on flogging their boxes using the same rote-learned lines no matter how inappropriate they may be.