der.hans wrote:
>>How about OpenAFS? Unified directory space, transparent data migration,
>>multiple server support, expandable, LDAP/Kerberos authentication - the
>>only two things I would like to see is a Network based RAID and
>>disconnected operation ala Coda.
>
> Look at the enhanced network block device.
>
> ...
>
> It allows you to export a partition or file to another system. On the other
> system you can use it like a local disk. An example is that you could setup
> an enbd as the second device for a mirror and have a backup on another box.
I've looked at that in the past, but it's not quite what I'm looking
for. What I'm envisioning is a hybrid of AFS, ENDB, RAID and Bittorrent.
Nearly every workstation shipping today has a harddrive so big that most
of it will never be used in the normal course of business. This space
usually ranges from 2GB to 30GB. In a medium size business this can
amount to well over a half TB of unused storage.
What I would like to see is a daemon similar to ENBD to aggregate this
diskspace into a network logical volume with multiple redundancy. Some
of the required features:
* Client workstations should transfer data directly to and from each
other. A central server should only handle authentication and data
transfer requests. This eliminates the server network interface as a
bottleneck similar to bittorrent.
* The central servers should be peered to allow scalability and
redundancy. If a single server fails, other servers should pick up the
slack. Multiple servers will reduce the user load in very large
installations.
* Client workstations should be grouped into redundancy cells, where
data is replicated to other workstations in a particular area to
increase throughput, and allow the filesystem to work even if x% of the
workstations are offline.
Anyone want to discuss this idea further? Let me know, and I'll start
organizing a meeting.
--
Chris Lewis
shadow@digitalnirvana.com
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If it compiles, it is good, if it boots up it is perfect.
- Linus Torvalds
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