We need to add to or replace our NetApp
filers (rather old).  I've been looking
at a variety of vendors.  So far I've shied
away from trying to just build it in house
(there's one of me, 50+ users and 200+
systems), as I just need something that
works with very little help from me.

But I'm hearing more and more of people
rolling their own.  Is anyone here doing
that?  If so, and if it's working out well
and easy to build and maintain, what are
you using?

If you think this is nuts and just want
to recommend a vendor that's fine, but
that should probably be via private email
(unless Troy or Connie says otherwise).

Prime considerations are uptime, ease of
management, scalability and snapshot
capabilities as close to those of NetApp
as we can get.  In fact, snapshots are one
of the things that have kept me from
looking at Linux-based solutions, and
have killed several vendor's chances.
With NetApp, if a user deletes a file,
it's instantly avalable in the snaps.

The other killer is the possibility of
having to do an fsck or anything like it.
That's completely unacceptable for us in
the filers.

I know I've seen references to parts of
this, but I don't recall seeing anything
about actual solutions.

Thanks,
Miles