Filesystem available to both windows and linux

[tid]

Hi,

Where I'm currently working, the storage environment has *ahem* 'grown
organically' and there are a couple
of infortrend iSCSI NAS boxes serving up storage to 2 linux servers,
which then export these filesystems
as samba shares to a mixture of linux and windows servers. Yes, you
read that right. Linux to linux samba
shares. I'm looking for a better solution, and given that the windows
servers will eventually go away, am
wondering what my options are. I could just go for straight NFS
mounts, but will be serving small amounts
of video so am wondering if there is a better solution ...

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Tid
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[Tim Hughes]

Hi Tid,

This depends on the use case. What are the Linux and windows servers
currently used for and what are the infortrend machines capable of. If they
only do iscsi and each mount needs to be accessed by multiple servers then
NFS is a reasonable choice for its ease of use. Another option which ups
the complexity a bit but removes the need for the intermediate Linux server
to change the protocol would be to use a cluster filesystem. There are
several out there to choose from such as ocfs2 or gfs2.

Tim Hughes

Post by tid
Hi,
Where I'm currently working, the storage environment has *ahem* 'grown
organically' and there are a couple
of infortrend iSCSI NAS boxes serving up storage to 2 linux servers,
which then export these filesystems
as samba shares to a mixture of linux and windows servers. Yes, you
read that right. Linux to linux samba
shares. I'm looking for a better solution, and given that the windows
servers will eventually go away, am
wondering what my options are. I could just go for straight NFS
mounts, but will be serving small amounts
of video so am wondering if there is a better solution ...
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Tid
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[tid]

Hi Tim,

The Windows and Linux machines are used for a mixture of web frontends
(apache ) and transcoding - ffmpeg for linux and some antiquated
commercial software on windows. They pass information between
themselves about file paths on the Infortrend. I'm keen to move away
from a single iSCSI target but nervous about drbd, due to a previous
finger-burning exercise, but will look into ocfs2 & gfs2 - Any ideas
on likely costs? I notice I have to talk nicely to RedHat for gfs2...

Anyone else using these in anger?

Tid

Post by Tim Hughes
Hi Tid,
This depends on the use case. What are the Linux and windows servers
currently used for and what are the infortrend machines capable of. If they
only do iscsi and each mount needs to be accessed by multiple servers then
NFS is a reasonable choice for its ease of use. Another option which ups the
complexity a bit but removes the need for the intermediate Linux server to
change the protocol would be to use a cluster filesystem. There are several
out there to choose from such as ocfs2 or gfs2.
Tim Hughes

Post by tid
Hi,
Where I'm currently working, the storage environment has *ahem* 'grown
organically' and there are a couple
of infortrend iSCSI NAS boxes serving up storage to 2 linux servers,
which then export these filesystems
as samba shares to a mixture of linux and windows servers. Yes, you
read that right. Linux to linux samba
shares. I'm looking for a better solution, and given that the windows
servers will eventually go away, am
wondering what my options are. I could just go for straight NFS
mounts, but will be serving small amounts
of video so am wondering if there is a better solution ...
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Tid
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[d***@gmail.com]

Do your file stores need to be mounted as file systems, or would it be workable to access your files via http? If you can, you can use one of the many object store systems that are appearing. My work uses MogileFS to dump vast amounts of audio in to. It mostly works well.

Dave
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-----Original Message-----
From: tid <***@bloogaloo.co.uk>
Sender: gllug-***@gllug.org.uk
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:34:44
To: Greater London Linux User Group<***@gllug.org.uk>
Reply-To: Greater London Linux User Group <***@gllug.org.uk>
Subject: [Gllug] Filesystem available to both windows and linux

Hi,

Where I'm currently working, the storage environment has *ahem* 'grown
organically' and there are a couple
of infortrend iSCSI NAS boxes serving up storage to 2 linux servers,
which then export these filesystems
as samba shares to a mixture of linux and windows servers. Yes, you
read that right. Linux to linux samba
shares. I'm looking for a better solution, and given that the windows
servers will eventually go away, am
wondering what my options are. I could just go for straight NFS
mounts, but will be serving small amounts
of video so am wondering if there is a better solution ...

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Tid
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[tid]

Post by d***@gmail.com
Do your file stores need to be mounted as file systems, or would it be workable to access your files via http? If you can, you can use one of the many object store systems that are appearing. My work uses MogileFS to dump vast amounts of audio in to. It mostly works well.
Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your suggestion. I like the look of MobileFS - I suspect it
will require some development effort to make the application cope so
will look into it.

Tid
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[John Hearns]

Post by tid
Hi,

Post by tid
wondering what my options are. I could just go for straight NFS

mounts, but will be serving small amounts
of video so am wondering if there is a better solution ...

What's wrong with NFS mounts?
There is a native NFS client in Windows 7.

The answer depends on your environment - you mention video. Do you
work in post-production?

If you're looking at high performance alternatives, look at Panasas
http://www.panasas.com

Or Lustre http://wiki.lustre.org/index.php/Main_Page
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[James Roberts]

Post by John Hearns

Hi,

Post by tid
wondering what my options are

What's wrong with NFS mounts?
There is a native NFS client in Windows 7.

I have not checked my comment thoroughly, but *believe* (after some
minor research earlier this year) that the native client is only
available in Windows 7 Ultimate edition (32/64).

I would be delighted to be corrected if I am wrong.

MeJ
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[John Hearns]

Post by James Roberts
I have not checked my comment thoroughly, but *believe* (after some
minor research earlier this year) that the native client is only
available in Windows 7 Ultimate edition (32/64).

I think you are right - the 'consumer grade' editions won;t have it.
My laptop runs Windows 7 Enterprise, and it has the NFS client.

There. Now my secret is out. I hang my head in shame.
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[tid]

Alas, the windows machines are a mixture of 2003 and 2008.

The environment is not post-production, but there is a lot of video & audio.

Tid

Post by John Hearns

Post by tid
Hi,

Post by tid
wondering what my options are. I could just go for straight NFS

mounts, but will be serving small amounts
of video so am wondering if there is a better solution ...

What's wrong with NFS mounts?
There is a native NFS client in Windows 7.
The answer depends on your environment - you mention video. Do you
work in post-production?
If you're looking at high performance alternatives, look at Panasas
http://www.panasas.com
Or Lustre http://wiki.lustre.org/index.php/Main_Page
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[James Courtier-Dutton]

Post by tid
Hi,
Where I'm currently working, the storage environment has *ahem* 'grown
organically' and there are a couple
of infortrend iSCSI NAS boxes serving up storage to 2 linux servers,
which then export these filesystems
as samba shares to a mixture of linux and windows servers. Yes, you
read that right. Linux to linux samba
shares. I'm looking for a better solution, and given that the windows
servers will eventually go away, am
wondering what my options are. I could just go for straight NFS
mounts, but will be serving small amounts
of video so am wondering if there is a better solution ...

What do you see as being wrong with your current solution?
What are you trying to fix?
Samba is quite good as a networking file share protocol.

I quite like "sshfs".
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