[OpenAFS] New "B" question: Samba versus AFS.

[Tino Schwarze]

On Sat, Nov 30, 2002 at 09:40:31AM -0500, Mauricio wrote:

> >>  Should we use Samba or invest some some time into OpenAFS.
> >
> >Use OpenAFS! Here at Chemnitz, we have AFS running in at least two
> >schools - one is bigger and one is smaller than your's. We've only had
> >good experiences using OpenAFS and no real problems.
> >
> >One setup has two Linux servers (one of them is "the AFS server") and
> >only Win98 clients which access files via Samba. The other setup does
> >not use a Samba translator but only native clients on Linux and Win2k.
> 
> 	So, which problems did you have with either of them.  Or, 
> where did samba crashed but afs shined?

Well, Samba is not really a solution... We just use it because we have
only crappy Win98 boxes which are not really suited for a multi-user
environment. As others have pointed out, we have to use plaintext
passwords to get AFS access right.

Why we use AFS at all? It has important benefits: ACLs, Quota and easy
management (and it's rock-solid); security would also be an advantage if
there wasn't the Samba translator involved. Having a de-facto world-wide
FS is a plus too - we're going to establish a secure VPN across schools
(currently our cells are isolated).

Getting ACLs and Quota using a Linux server is a pain in the back -
you have to use all sorts of weird utils and probably kernel patches -
not good for a production environment.

Or have a look at the bigger cell: 4 file servers, 1.2TB disk space. How
would you manage such a setup using Samba? Hardcode server names on
every client? Blerg. When using AFSDB you only need to install the AFS
client and tell it which cell it belongs to - the rest of the config
will reside on your servers. You can actually (not only in theory!)
remove/replace/add a central AFS server without anybody noticing. That's
one of the strengths of AFS. When you need to add/remove/replace servers
using Samba or NFS you are basically lost and need to reconfigure clients
and expect some outage.

HTH! Tino.

-- 
             * LINUX - Where do you want to be tomorrow? *
                  http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/linux/tag/