Best Practices for Clustered NAS File Serving Using ProLiant Storage Servers and the EVA4100

Regardless of size, companies require file-serving solutions that are both manageable and highly available. HP ProLiant storage servers combined with HP StorageWorks 4100 Enterprise Virtual Arrays (EVA4100s) offer a single, centralized platform to manage and protect data and provide high availability using cluster and snapshot technology. The HP Customer Focused Testing (CFT) group tested three storage and cluster configurations to determine the best practices for configuring, managing, and enhancing the performance of Network-Attached Storage (NAS) systems. The goal of this paper is to help system administrators deploy and operate a clustered, 1,500-user, file/print server environment that uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service, which is also known as Volume Snapshot Service or VSS.