On Thu, 2006-06-01 at 06:51, Mukund wrote:
> > Thanks, but that makes it a problem to justify any extra cost. I
> > don't think my company cares whether I have to work a little
> > harder or not, and in fact I'd rather edit a few config
> > files than deal with the paperwork every year to get
> > approvals for an extra expense. And since I maintain other
> > stock Centos boxes it is probably easier to clone them
> > and be able to move services around than to have something
> > different with different update repositories.
> >
>
> Actually there are things which can be done using Openfiler which cannot
> be done using a CentOS box. This includes per-share network ACLs for
> example.. there are source code patches for this type of stuff which
> we've written.
I think it would help sell the product if you could add
a detailed list of the specific features you've added.
And this being open source and all, I'd hope that the
patches you are doing are made available to be added to
the upstream product if anyone wants them.
> To replicate a full-blown Openfiler configuration successfully on a
> CentOS box would a futile experience. There are several things a system
> administrator would have to know firstly which even many top-of-the-line
> storage-trained sysadmins wouldn't. And even if they did, they'd have to
> spend a considerable amount of time doing non-trivial configuration
> work, testing issues and maintaining the configuration.
Yes, but this is offset by being able to run the same
configuration on all of your boxes, being able to point
yum at any 3rd party repository to pick up and maintain
any application there, and running the same well-tested code
as a zillion other people. If you look at it as Linux for
people who don't like Linux you might have a point, though.
> Companies
> usually do like things which are configurable easily.. many system
> administrators would agree that they have better things to do with their
> time, like try and talk to the company secretary ;)
I've found highly customized code to be a two-edged sword.
It's great if the author did exactly what you need and
the need never changes. It's not so nice if you need
additional customization, your needs change or the
company supporting it goes away or lags behind new
developments. I'd really rather see this as an
optional package that could drop into a stock Centos
install without breaking anything else, but that's
just me...
--
Les Mikesell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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