1) You could just create a network share (file sharing). You can then access
to this location using the UNC notation \\server\sharename in your web
application (assuming of course you granted the apppropriate rights).
The benefit is those files are not at location that is accessible from
Internet. Users wi'll have to pass through a page to download files...
2) It could. Factors to weight :
- the LAN is generally fast (you could have a 100 Mb), faster anyway than
sending documents to web clients
- what is the expected traffic (frequency of downloads, size of documents)
- your application could "cache" locally some documents
I'm not an expert but AFAIK :
- DFS allows to distribute files accross servers, this way you could
statistically win the document is on the current server but still be in the
same situation when the document is stored at a distant location (even
though you don't have explictely to take care of this).
- Replication would be IMO a bit more problematic. AFAIK you have a master
server on which you must put all documents. They are then replicated at
various other location. I'm a bit wondering also about what happens if you
store a document and want to download it before the replication occured.
On the whole, I just wanted to stress that there is multiple solutions
depending on various factors. I just wanted to say that IMO the "store at a
single location" would be likely the simplest and the first to consider. If
you can configure the location for files, the app won't care it it's a
single server or a local location where files are replicated. it could be
quite easy to use a simple solution first and move as there is an
indentified need for a more sophisticated solution.
Patrice
--
"Samuel" <pr********@asppg.net> a écrit dans le message de
news:4F**********************************@microsof t.com...
Hi Patrice,
While I find Tom's solution should fill the bill, your suggestion is very
interesting to me also.
I am just wondering the following:
1) I understand how virtual directory works, but not too sure about
shares... can you fill me in with a bit more details?
2) Doesn't storing files in a central location stress the LAN because
files would have to travel on the LAN before being sent out to the client?
Thanks!
"Patrice" wrote:
What is the overall goal ?
For now I would just consider this as "data" and would do the same than
for the DB i.e. storing those documents at a single location...
You can easily create virtual directories that would point to this
single location. You could also use a share outside of your web site making the
documents only available through dynamic pages...
Patrice
--
"Samuel" <pr********@asppg.net> a écrit dans le message de
news:C3**********************************@microsof t.com... I am building an web application that will be hosted on load balanced
servers (multiple front and one backen db). The application will have to allow
users to upload files onto the server. For performance reasons, I do not
want to store binary files in the db (cuz there will be frequently retrieved
and stored and many will be within the range of 10 MB - powerpoint slides
and pdf files) so uploaded files will have to stay on the front end web
server. The problem with this approach is that there will have to be some
mechanism that replicates the files automatically among the front end servers. Can
someone shed some light on what the best apporach is to my problem? I am
wondering whether Windows 2000 has such service available to do file replication
(if so, how?)
Thanks in advance for your help. Any comment is greatly appreicated.
Samuel
