Hello David,

On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 10:40:24AM -0400, Zetas wrote:
> A friend pointed me to coda and i started reading guides and how-to's and began
> setting it up on test boxes. As of now i have it "kinda" setup with clients able
> to connect and authenticate, add files, remove files, etc. BUT i think i have
> something setup wrong somewhere, when i delete a file on one system, it doesnt
> get deleted it other places even after waiting, sometimes files added dont show

It may depend on the inability of the clients to contact all the
servers involved at the same time (which is necessary for proper
reintegration / update propagation).

> 3 servers: 1 thats the primary SCM and does nothing but house the files and
> config, 1 in USA thats a client node and 1 in Europe thats also a client node.

It looks like you have placed your servers geographically distantly from
each other. This is actually "unsupported" as the design premises
for Coda were that the servers have fast/reliable connections to
each other.

> My main question beyond the weird problems i'm having is, is my situation a good
> fit for coda?

It depends on the expected usage pattern. Simultaneous access to a home
directory from different client computers will most probably lead to
reintegration conflicts and frustration and dissatisfaction as the result.

> Does coda work well in a production environment where there is no
> "lan" available?

This depends on your definition of "well" and on the environment and the
usage pattern.

It is a special experience, having one's home directory on a file system
with optimistic replication, especially if the user may happen to run
processes on different client hosts at the same time. Many popular
applications (like "bash", "less" or "mozilla") do not properly handle
this in their default configuration or at all. The user needs to do some
tricks and also be prepared to solve reintegration conflicts.

I guess AFS may be a better fit as a general purpose file system
for you. YMMV.

I am routinely using a home directory on Coda and enjoy it but I would
not recommend this to unprepared users. Advanced and experienced Coda
users may consider such setup, with caution. Home directory makes one's
logins highly vulnerable to problems with the underlying file system.

Regards,
Rune