Hello List,

At the moment I am researching possible alternatives to NFS for file serving.
In most basic form, I just want global name space. I don't want replication
and I don't have disconnected client needs.

I've been researching OpenAFS, Coda, Intermezzo, GFS, GPFS, Luster and such.
I'm sure most of you have already heard this story. I've also been reading the
Coda mailing list quite thoroughly trying to determine if Coda is right for me
but I just haven't been able to find out a few things and ultimately, if it is
right for me.

Question #1: Is it advisable to use Coda if all I really want is global name
space and the physical location of data to by hidden from the user?

I know that volume size is a hot topic on this list. This is also a major
concern of mine. We current have two file server and are getting a third very
soon. The two current file servers have 1.3TB in RAID5 and 2TB in RAID5
respectively. The new file server will have 4TB in RAID5.

Question #2: Will Coda play nice with such large RAID devices?

I don't understand RVM very well so please ignore or correct any stupidity on
my part. Our largest user current has a 187GB home directory and many other
users follow closely behind in the size department. Size isn't the only
concern, it's also the number of files. The user with 187GB has approximately
58,000 files.

Question(s) #3: Is it even possible for Coda to support such massive volumes
with tens of thousands of files effectively? If so, how can growing data sizes
and file numbers be dealt with? What if this users "out grows" their current
Volume size? Will the max suggested RVM size handle all this or am I just
dreaming?

Question #4: If users need to work with 10GB or greater files, will the client
cache manager be able to deal with that or will everything just come crashing
down when they try?

--

I know I'm asking a lot, but all I really want to know is if I should bother
to continue educating myself in Coda or if Coda just isn't the right solution
for me.

Thanks to everyone,

-- 
Ryan Thomson, Systems Administrator
University Of Calgary, Biocomputing
Phone: (403) 220-2264
Email: thomsonr_at_ucalgary.ca