[OpenAFS] Sinvle vice partition VS multi vice partitions

[Garance A Drosehn]

On 23 Mar 2017, at 10:31, ProbaNet SRLS wrote:

> Hello!
>     We're creating a new openafs fileserver (it's a VM), using an iSCSI
> target as storage device. Do you think it's better to use a single 1TB
> LUN for a single /vicepa or maybe to create 4 LUNs (250 GB each) in the
> iSCSI target in order to have /vicepa /vicepb /vicepc and /vicepd?

How many file servers do you already have?  If you're already set up
with several file servers, then you might want to split the 1-TB into
multiple VM's, with a single /vicepa per VM.  An advantage of this is
you have more AFS servers to choose from when you want to create
replicated volumes (assuming you *do* want to create replicated
volumes).  Also that means there is less data on any one file server
when it comes times to do upgrades, or if there is a problem on
one server.  (This hit us recently at RPI, where we had some file-
system corruption on one file server after multiple hardware crashes).

The disadvantage is that you have more servers to keep track of, and
with more servers you have more chances for something to go wrong!

Another factor which might influence your choice is how large is the
average AFS volume which you create?  If you're creating 10-gig AFS
volumes then you might be happier with more file servers, but if
you're creating 100-gig AFS volumes then you'd probably want fewer
'vice' partitions, with a larger size per partition.

-- 
Garance Alistair Drosehn                =     drosih@rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer               or   gad@FreeBSD.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;             Troy, NY;  USA