[OpenAFS] General OpenAFS question

[Jason Edgecombe]

infoshare wrote:
> I am trying to figure out if OpenAFS is the solution to my problem (before
> testing)...
>
> I have about 6 different servers with multiple drives/volumes on each.
> Each of the drives have a very similar file directory layout.
> What I am trying to do is merge all of these locations into one location
> that can be both read and written to just like a network resource (windows -
> shares).
>
> My guess is that OpenAFS (installed on each server) would allow me to
> collectivly pool all of the free disk space available on all of the volumes
> and allow me to access this collective pool via a network share.
>
> Is openAfs for windows my solution?
>   
Hi,

I'm still not quite clear on what you want, but I can offer the following:

OpenAFS CANNOT replicate read-write data among multiple servers. It can 
only replicate read-only copies of the data with triggered updates of 
the read-only data.

OpenAFS CAN allow you to merge your different servers into a unified 
network drive where different directories are seamlessly hosted on 
different servers where you can easily move data between servers without 
needing to notify users.

FYI, you will need to move the data into AFS before it can be shared. 
OpenAFS cannot share a disk folder on the server; all data access must 
happen using the AFS client or some service on top of AFS, like samba.

I'm happy to answer any more questions that you may have.

Sincerely,
Jason