[OpenAFS] Optimizing AFS for low bandwidth connections

[Aaron Stanley]

Over the last few days I've been noticing a bunch of slow transfer and
latency issues with my AFS servers and have come to the conclusion that a
lot of the problems stem from having servers scattered across low bandwidth
connections.

I'm wondering if anybody has any advice for optimizing AFS access for
servers that are placed across T1 links.  An example:

Tonight I tried transferring a 200MB file from my desktop to a volume on the
server on my local (1GB) network.  It took over an hour.  As soon as I
shutdown the slowest server (across a T1 with 150ms pings) the same transfer
took about 45 seconds.

It seems like the client is ranking the slowest server as the lowest VLDB
server, which appears to be wrong according to the algorithm it should use
to choose which server is ranked lowest.  What is the best way for me to
provide the fastest local file service to all of my locations?

Should I only run VLDB services out of one location (instead of on four
servers in three locations)?

Are there client configuration settings that might help the local clients
speed up access to their local servers at all?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 - AB


-- 
Aaron Stanley
Director, Information Technology
Stroz Friedberg, LLC
15 Maiden Lane, Suite 1208
New York, NY  10038
212/981.6534[o] | 917/859.1503[c] | 212/981.6545[f]


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