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Symmetrical Technologies' SPANStor-Mag adds up to 27 GB of storage to your NetWare or NFS network in less than 15 minutes. You don't even have to touch your server. The unit we tested consisted of only a single 2-GB drive, but other configurations can include drive capacities of up to 27 GB of magnetic disk storage, as well as CD-ROM, RAID, WORM and jukebox systems.
We found SPANStor easy to install and administer, and it is a reliable file server with adequate performance. Its unobtrusive flexibility let us add storage to our mixed NetWare and Unix NFS LAN, and made it available to both environments via native access methods (IPX and NFS). It can be an economical lifesaver for those who need additional storage in a hurry. In the standard magnetic configuration, the cost of adding small amounts of storage may be a little pricey, but the per-gigabyte price decreases in the larger units. The fact that you get an additional server is another potential bonus.
The SPANStor is, by default, an NFS server, and will exist quite happily in that environment without ever enabling the NetWare emulation. The current configuration will work only if a NetWare 3.12 (or earlier) server is on the net, although it coexisted with our mixture of 3.x and 4.x servers.
Installation and Setup Initial setup of SPANStor was straightforward. We attached a terminal to the serial port and got a short menu of options. We selected "Enable NetWare support," assigned the Ethernet frame type, the network ID and the server name, and exited the menu.
We got the feeling that the base product began its life as a Unix server and the NetWare components were added later. Symmetrical Technologies says that the...