Re: Netserver SMB V1 and recommendations against ransomware

As much as I'd like to either immediately ignore or argue with Nathan on
this issue since I often get the impression that he asks questions not to
get an answer but to change your opinion, I'll pause.

Actually, in many ways Nathan is right on this. Not to the point of an
absolute though. IBM i isn't really the best system for straight file
serving. We used to do quite a bit of it on IBM i (and it's predecessors
such as OS/400). Users complained about the slow response time. We tried
integrated PC servers running on the same hardware (FSIOP, IXS, etc). They
were much faster. We came to the conclusion that IBM i just wasn't coded
right for file serving. We had a system with 9 IXS cards in it. All gone
now. IBM has made some improvements in file serving performance but it
doesn't rank yet with other platforms.
Most shops will have at least one Windows server on site. Like many shops
we have a plethora. Most shops are heterogeneous shops with multiple
operating systems. Use the strengths of each.

Now there are times when file serving off of the IBM i may make sense.
Cases in point include file import and export. Sure, you could send stuff
out as email. Or serve it up as a ftp site or web site. I feel the ftp
site and web site are onerous work arounds that add work to the end users
versus just a file share for simple data exchange. In a heterogenous shop
would you end all file serving on those other platforms and replace them
with FTP sites or web sites? Probably not.

But, in general, with IBM's intransigence regarding SMB2 I feel it is best
to move file serving off of IBM i. But I can see why some shops would
like to leave their data exchange file serving there for now.

Rob Berendt