NFS alternatives?

I'm trying to figure out a solution for a personal network file
server. So far I've got a setup involving two servers with heartbeat,
DRBD, and NFS. My key restrictions/requirements are: Windows clients,
Linux servers, redundant, transparent fail-over, cheap. Out of all of
this, I'm not really satisfied with NFS. Anybody know of other
solutions that fit these requirements?

Ouroborus777 wrote:
> I'm trying to figure out a solution for a personal network file
> server. So far I've got a setup involving two servers with heartbeat,
> DRBD, and NFS. My key restrictions/requirements are: Windows clients,
> Linux servers, redundant, transparent fail-over, cheap. Out of all of
> this, I'm not really satisfied with NFS. Anybody know of other
> solutions that fit these requirements?
>

Personally I went away from having a dedicated file server, it's just
too inefficient a solution considering I was the only user. I'm thinking
here about the power usage and that the server was idle 95% of the time.

So instead I started using an external USB drive to share data between
my machines. The only drawback is that you can't access the drive from
multiple machines at the same time. But since I almost never have the
need for that these days, this simple and cost effective solution works
well for me.

--
Dawid Michalczyk
http://www.scifi-art.info _Sci-Fi art directory_

On Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:45:17 -0000, Ouroborus777
<deadchicken@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> I'm trying to figure out a solution for a personal network file
> server. So far I've got a setup involving two servers with heartbeat,
> DRBD, and NFS. My key restrictions/requirements are: Windows clients,
> Linux servers, redundant, transparent fail-over, cheap. Out of all of
> this, I'm not really satisfied with NFS. Anybody know of other
> solutions that fit these requirements?
>
If the clients run Windows, why not use samba?


--
BOFH excuse #46:
waste water tank overflowed onto computer

On Sep 2, 5:04 am, Bill Marcum <marcumb...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:45:17 -0000, Ouroborus777 <deadchic...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm trying to figure out a solution for a personal network file
> > server. So far I've got a setup involving two servers with heartbeat,
> > DRBD, and NFS. My key restrictions/requirements are: Windows clients,
> > Linux servers, redundant, transparent fail-over, cheap. Out of all of
> > this, I'm not really satisfied with NFS. Anybody know of other
> > solutions that fit these requirements?
>
> If the clients run Windows, why not use samba?
>
> --
> BOFH excuse #46:
> waste water tank overflowed onto computer

AFAIK, samba doesn't support transparent fail-over.

Ouroborus777 <deadchicken@gmail.com> wrote:

> AFAIK, samba doesn't support transparent fail-over.

Isn't the windows machine the weak point in the chain here? I wouldn't worry
too much about the transparent fail-over, because the windows machine will
probably have been rebooted several times before a fail-over occurs anyway, so
I would just accept a swap and reboot scenario in the event of a server down.

You can install a raid system on the server side, and protect the machines
with a UPS.

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com

http://markhobley.yi.org/

Ouroborus777 wrote:
> On Sep 2, 5:04 am, Bill Marcum <marcumb...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>> On Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:45:17 -0000, Ouroborus777 <deadchic...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm trying to figure out a solution for a personal network file
>>> server. So far I've got a setup involving two servers with heartbeat,
>>> DRBD, and NFS. My key restrictions/requirements are: Windows clients,
>>> Linux servers, redundant, transparent fail-over, cheap. Out of all of
>>> this, I'm not really satisfied with NFS. Anybody know of other
>>> solutions that fit these requirements?
>> If the clients run Windows, why not use samba?
>>
>> --
>> BOFH excuse #46:
>> waste water tank overflowed onto computer
>
> AFAIK, samba doesn't support transparent fail-over.
>
And last time I looked NFS didn;t support much else at all ;-)

Mind you it was a time ago.