Mac OS X Server as File Server for 50/50 Mac & PC Workgroup

hello all.

title suggest, i'm thinking using mac os x server file server 50/50 split mac , pc workgroup.

background :
can't take performance hit comes having os x clients use smb. target used time machine.
extremez-ip extremelast-resort because of cost.
os x (lion) server on site.
entire windows infrastructure virtualized, , because of way esxi handles max size of virtual disks, have have 4 separate volumes per 1 tb of data, not preferable.

proposed solution: os x lion server hosts home directories , giant community directory. file protocols enabled on server. performance problems os x implementation of smb (which understand has changed)?

commentaries great.

 

hi,

there's earlier post contributed has possibly useful details on server platforms in mixed environments: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13042520&highlight=#post13042520

i'd agree there's quite performance hit macs using smb, i've found smb bit slower afp , faster nfs. having said that, our macs faster accessing files on smb shared on windows 7 , windows 2008 servers accessing files shared on other macs or older windows versions or our freenas server, in fact found windows 7/windows 2008 fastest filesharing option available macs.

understand old samba stack has been replaced in lion cifs2 implementation apparently lot faster, though i've not tried myself. i'm hoping improves filesharing performance of out macs pretty slow when accessing files on network, tough guess our old g5 has run out of road.

you'll see post above us, windows server 2008 (in instance it's whs 2011, it's still server 2008 underneath) fastest macs , pc clients, chose use freenas slower , easier manage being free. can't tested os x server, can filesharing mac desktops, on both smb , afp slow (i'd hope lion improves new cifs stack).

i'm not 1 minute claiming exhaustive , thorough benchmark, it's observed in own testing, broadly:
windows 7 pc -> windows server 2008 (cifs/smb) 100mb/s read 70mb/s
mac os x -> windows server (cifs/smb) 60mb/s read 30mb/s write
windows 7 pc -> freenas (cifs/smb) 80mb/s read 60mb/s write
mac os x -> freenas (cifs/smb) 20mb read 10mb/s write
mac os x -> freenas (afp) 30mb/s read , write
mac os x -> freenas (nfs) 10mb/s read 2(yes 2)mb/s write
mac os x -> mac os x (afp, client version not server) 20mb/s read , write

regard esx issue, believe vsphere 5 has maximum guest virtual disk size of 2tb, upgrading you'd able have 1 virtual disk per 2tb rather , 1 per 256gb.

having said that, can't see reason why couldn't aggregate virtual disks single volume under windows server present several vhds single windows volume, long underlying infrastructure has suitable resilience should ok.

alternatively, believe esx supports iscsi, mount external iscsi luns in windows vms , can use 256tb volumes think.

 

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