[OpenAFS] OpenAFS with RAID

[Horst Birthelmer]

On Dec 28, 2005, at 3:17 PM, Paul Robins wrote:
>> You're not talking nonsense at all. It's exactly the kind of   
>> statement I was provoking.
>> (Just the term 'node' is from cluster terminology not AFS, but OK.
>> AFS doesn't care about nodes, there are only volumes on  
>> fileservers) :-)
> Sorry yes, i originally approached this from a clustering  
> perspective, looking at GFS etc.
>
>> I don't really recommend that conversion of RO volumes to RWs for   
>> backups. If you search the archives for that topic you'll find  
>> some  of my old statements regarding that.
>> IIRC I said something like: use that only if your disk is gone,  
>> like  in 'the dog eat your harddisk'. (I didn't look it up ... ;-) )
> Well it's more about redundancy, in a pinch I can deal without  
> having to do any sort of RAID5 network rubbish because 180 gig is  
> more than sufficient. Backups are done offsite anyway and  
> performance isn't a major issue. This is used to support a 24/7  
> callcentre, and the most important thing is that if a disk were to  
> fail and take a machine down, we could bring up a replacement with  
> as close to identical data as is possible.
>
>> and transfer a lot of  data over the network to those fileserver(s),
> This isn't a major issue, the machines were originally specced to  
> have a second (gigabit) network card connected to their own gigabit  
> switch / VLAN.
>
> I suppose I should have just stated my requirements originally and  
> dispensed with all my 'smart ideas' :)

I'm still not sure, I could clarify ...

If you have just one fileserver, AFS IMHO doesn't really make sense.
Make an NFS server of this single fileserver or a samba server if you  
have windows boxes to talk to.

There is no 'distribution' with one fileserver, right?

Horst