Comment My advice... (Score 1) 149
For the last 3 years I have been working in Large (40,000 sq.ft.) data centers, doing hardware research and integration/architecture for large high-availability service platforms of various types.
First, get a quote from Hitachi Data Systems for their 7700e open systems platform. You will be amazed at it's price, redundancy, and scalability. It supports up to 16GB of cache, and scales to 6.5 TB. I saw a quote for one of these that included support and the management software for about $250K (Not including much disk). It has a large initial footprint, but scales by adding disk cabinets, so it isn't THAT big for the top end of scaling.
Second, NT and Linux are both bad ideas for this kind of large file, massive network connectivity environment. (I love Linux, but 31bits of addressing is very limiting on large servers.)
NT is bad because:
If you find that your hands are bound with using NT, then look for alternative FileSystems. Veritas might be a good place to start looking. I don't know if they have NT FS, but one of their account executives could point you to someone who does.
You could use HP/SGI/SUN/DG. I know that HP is expensive, but it's management tools are nicer than SUN's. SUN has nice/easy hardware, but if you don't have in depth UNIX SA experience, you will have problems making the box admin friendly. I haven't worked with SGI and DG enough to comment, but I know that they would meet the requirements.
Lastly, you might be much better off looking into the client server communication protocols involved and seeing if it might be possible to use many hosts behind a CISCO Director or a BIG-IP box, (load balancing, redundancy through the IP layer).
First, get a quote from Hitachi Data Systems for their 7700e open systems platform. You will be amazed at it's price, redundancy, and scalability. It supports up to 16GB of cache, and scales to 6.5 TB. I saw a quote for one of these that included support and the management software for about $250K (Not including much disk). It has a large initial footprint, but scales by adding disk cabinets, so it isn't THAT big for the top end of scaling.
Second, NT and Linux are both bad ideas for this kind of large file, massive network connectivity environment. (I love Linux, but 31bits of addressing is very limiting on large servers.)
NT is bad because:
1. It doesn't scale well above 2 CPU's
2. It is HORRIBLY UNPREDICTABLY UNRELIABLE!!!
3. It is very hard to remotely manage, so every time you have a problem you might have to run to the data center to even do troubleshooting, then you find that you need that diskette in your office..., then you need to make a phone call, but the data center phone is 20ft away from the console (I HATE NT IF FOR THIS REASON ONLY!).
If you find that your hands are bound with using NT, then look for alternative FileSystems. Veritas might be a good place to start looking. I don't know if they have NT FS, but one of their account executives could point you to someone who does.
You could use HP/SGI/SUN/DG. I know that HP is expensive, but it's management tools are nicer than SUN's. SUN has nice/easy hardware, but if you don't have in depth UNIX SA experience, you will have problems making the box admin friendly. I haven't worked with SGI and DG enough to comment, but I know that they would meet the requirements.
Lastly, you might be much better off looking into the client server communication protocols involved and seeing if it might be possible to use many hosts behind a CISCO Director or a BIG-IP box, (load balancing, redundancy through the IP layer).
