Re: [nfsv4] Fw: Global namespace and multiple file access protocols

brent@eng.sun.com

Message-ID: <3FFC79E5.8070602@eng.sun.com>
From: Brent Callaghan <brent@eng.sun.com>
Subject: Re: [nfsv4] Fw: Global namespace and multiple file access protocols
Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 13:28:05 -0800

Carl Burnett wrote:
> Where I think the below model should be different from AFS, is that NFSv4 
> clients should consider the NFSv4 file server as their "VLDB". That is 
> they should go back to NFS servers to get the location data when they 
> receive NFS4ERR_MOVED as part of a lookup sequence that does not yield a 
> filehandle. The NFS servers are the constituents of the namespace 
> infrastructure (the NFS version of the VLDB). While the AFS/DFS model of 
> the clients going somewhere else for the location attributes worked very 
> well, it did add complication to the client implementation. It also 
> created additional points of failure as well as greater complication for 
> administration, deployment, and problem determination. Placing more of 
> this in the datacenter behind servers should be an improvement. It also 
> facilitates the ideas Jon H. has posted regarding server side traffic 
> management.

If I were a sysadmin, I'd have more confidence in a global namespace
if I could administer it using the same tools as I use for other
nameservice admin functions, in addition to using the same set of
replicated, synchronized, highly-available name servers with
consistent authentication and security.

Whether you force clients to go through the v4 server or not,
chances are that the namespace data is very likely to exist
in some kind of name service that's external to the v4 servers.

Hopefully we can think a bit outside the NFSv4 box and consider
market reality: multi-protocol NAS boxes.  It would be awfully
nice if multi-protocol data access could also apply to a
global filesystem namespace.

	Brent

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