[OpenAFS] AFS Cache on Parallel File system

[Spenser Gilliland]

Hello,

Can the AFS cache be placed on a parallel file system (IE: ceph or gluster)?

If the cache can be placed on a parallel file system,
When data is read into or written to the cache will all of the other
nodes in the cluster have access to this cached data for both reading
and writing?  And will every write block until it is written to the
AFS cell (IE: is it write back or write-through)?

FYI: I'm going to give this a go here in a couple weeks and wanted to
know if anyone has tried it.

The idea is to have an AFS Cell at home (very slow especially upload)
and a cluster at School which accesses this AFS Cell but only
downloads a file once for all of the servers in the cluster thereby
saving time and bandwidth.  Additionally, because the file is now on
the parallel file system all nodes can access the data concurrently.
When the program is finished the results will be available in the same
directory as the program.

I'm thinking this could be immensely valuable for grid computing; if it works.

Let me know if there is anything I should be looking out for along the way.

Thanks,
Spenser


-- 
Spenser Gilliland
Computer Engineer
Illinois Institute of Technology