[OpenAFS] SAMBA as a CIFS <-> AFS gateway

[aeneous@speakeasy.org]

> I don't think so.  AFS stores special files in the file system.  I
> don't know if it would work with a Samba or NFS-mounted filesystem.
> I don't think anyone has actually tested that.  What you would need
> to do is something like:
> 
> 	mount NetApp onto Linux:/vicepX
> 	start AFS Server on Linux
> 
> This may or may not actually work.  YMMV. 

Even if you could make that work, you'd never be able to guarantee the 
semantics -- you'd have cache coherence failures all over the place.

> Ideally, we would want to
> build an AFS server for NetApp.  Or perhaps re-install the NetApps
> with another OS.

Don't get his hopes up.  It ain't happening. (1) NetApp have their own 
proprietary on-disk filesystem format, which anybody wanting to use their 
disks would have to reverse-engineer and then implement -- and that's even 
assuming that you could port your own OS to the box because (b) they scarcely 
run any OS there at all anyway, so a port of AFS would be highly non-trivial.

Thomas, I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think this is a good idea at the 
moment.

Out of curiosity, what is wrong with the existing NetApp solution?  I suppose 
this is off-topic, so you may as well respond to me privately.  Thanks.