[OpenAFS] Windows cache problem revisited...

[Rodney M Dyer]

All,

I've been thinking a bit more about the problem I'm having with OpenAFS on 
Windows 2k/XP.  When transfering large files to and from AFS the Windows OS 
performance can slow down considerably, all most to the point of 
non-usability.  To alleviate this problem I've been told not to use a large 
AFS cache because the client service opens a real memory buffer that is the 
same size as the cache file.  On closer examination I find this to be 
ridiculous and intolerable.  The point of the AFS cache is to eliminate 
multiple network reads for files that haven't changed on the network by 
grabbing them off the local disk cache.  We should be able to, and most 
people do, use very large caches.  I'm familiar with people using gig sized 
caches these days.  Granted, depending on what your are doing, there will 
be a point of diminishing returns with larger and larger cache sizes.  But 
that is for me to decide!

I want to know why the AFS client service uses a real memory buffer in the 
first place?  I want to know why you can't turn this 'feature' off?  Who 
decided that the in-memory buffer would be a good idea?  Can we get this 
changed?

Thanks ahead for any feedback (sorry for the rant),

Rodney

Rodney M. Dyer
Windows Systems Programmer
Mosaic Computing Group
William States Lee College of Engineering
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Email: rmdyer@uncc.edu
Web: http://www.coe.uncc.edu/~rmdyer
Phone (704)687-3518
Help Desk Line (704)687-3150
FAX (704)687-2352
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