[8626] in Info-AFS_Redistribution
Re: AFS on SAN?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Charles Ball)
Thu Apr 12 08:16:00 2001
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 08:04:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Ball <cball@bu.edu>
To: Sarah Stockwell <sarahs@qualcomm.com>
cc: info-afs@transarc.com
In-Reply-To: <200104112120.OAA09612@quartz.qualcomm.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.4.10.10104120744360.17814-100000@it>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
On Wed, 11 Apr 2001, Sarah Stockwell wrote:
> Our management is contemplating incorporating AFS into an
> enterprise-wide move to SAN instead of locally attached
> disk. This would obviously remove the replication
> advantage of AFS, but has anyone had any experience
> implementing this, or comments on it?
The backup volumes are still quite handy for immediate access to a
shapshot after a mistake. This isn't as good as the support for multiple
shapshots in NAS systems, but one has been sufficient to avoid many
restores for us.
Read-only aspect of AFS clones is a feature in some scenarios. Examples
include off-line configuration of software packages prior to release and
added layer of assurance (beyond ACL's) that a web server won't allow
someone to modify files.
Geographical distribution using multiple-location storage is possible for
either, but seems likely to be less costly with AFS.
I've often wondered if the memory-speed completion of synchronous writes
offered by a SAN would have a significant impact on AFS performance.
Charles Ball
Information Technology
Boston University
