[K12OSN] OpenAFS
Angus Carr
acarr at saskforestcentre.ca
Fri Feb 27 14:19:04 UTC 2004
I was perusing an article about Linux kernel 2.6 and ran across the
integration of OpenAFS within the 2.6 kernel.
OpenAFS is a filesystem that provides a distributed server environment,
allowing for multiple servers on the filesystem. It has the ability to
allow failure of a file server to not bring down the file sevice. It
also allows detached computing for transient (laptop) users.
OpenAFS (and it's predecessors) bring the file server environment in
line with what Windows users get with "Make Available Offline", which we
use extensively in our shop. Files are transparently available and you
can use them freely wherever you are, connected or not.
I was thinking of setting up an OpenAFS server system here, and thought
that others in the K12LTSP community might think it was useful, too. I
guess I am looking for thoughts from the various members on the list
about what you think of a service like that. I know that I find the
Windows version of the same thing absolutely invaluable, as a user, and
as a sysadmin. The loss of a laptop to airport theives didn't mean we'd
lost the entire project document tree.
The other component of this is that a large installation with multiple
LTSP servers could use those servers for file service too, as a
transparent backup in the case of the loss of the central file server.
Any thoughts?
Angus Carr.
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