Comments on: NFS needs a replacement http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/ by Rainer "physos" Endres Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:57:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: jaykayess http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-107 jaykayess Mon, 03 Oct 2005 17:58:39 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-107 <p>I wish there were some easy way to casually share folders on Linux w/out any technical knowledge. NFS requires synchronized UIDs on both ends, and Samba is a nightmare to set up... I've frankly never gotten it quite right. Then there's the KDE file-sharing panel applet, which is just plain weird. Where's the user-friendly Linux analog to Samba?</p> I wish there were some easy way to casually share folders on Linux w/out any technical knowledge. NFS requires synchronized UIDs on both ends, and Samba is a nightmare to set up… I’ve frankly never gotten it quite right. Then there’s the KDE file-sharing panel applet, which is just plain weird. Where’s the user-friendly Linux analog to Samba?

]]> By: Kae Verens http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-106 Kae Verens Sun, 02 Oct 2005 16:47:19 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-106 <p>I've been getting some freeze problems too, recently. My home boxes are 2.6.13 and 2.6.12 kernels. I thought the problems were related to a new PCI-IDE card I'd installed, but since reading this post on PlanetKDE, I've realised that every time the freeze happens, I'm doing something with NFS.</p> <p>I'm looking into alternatives now...</p> I’ve been getting some freeze problems too, recently. My home boxes are 2.6.13 and 2.6.12 kernels. I thought the problems were related to a new PCI-IDE card I’d installed, but since reading this post on PlanetKDE, I’ve realised that every time the freeze happens, I’m doing something with NFS.

I’m looking into alternatives now…

]]> By: Vlad http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-105 Vlad Sun, 02 Oct 2005 16:25:47 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-105 <p>I think FUSE (http://fuse.sourceforge.net/) is an answer to such problems. Because FUSE allows userspace filesystems, ordinary users don't need root access to mount/unmount network shares, and the chances of a network failure crashing the whole system are lower.</p> <p>FUSE (in combination with KIO-FUSE http://kde.ground.cz/tiki-index.php?page=KIO+Fuse+Gateway) can give non-KDE apps access to network locations set up with KIO-slaves like fish:/, smb:/, ftp:/, and webdav:/. Unfortunately, some people have reported not being able to stream video and music over KIO-slaves, although I can't confirm that because KIO-FUSE fails to compile on my computer :-(</p> <p>Another option is to use FUSE with KDE-independent filesystems like SSHFS (http://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html), SMB for FUSE (http://hannibal.lr-s.tudelft.nl/fusesmb/), SMBNetFS (http://smbnetfs.airm.net/), and FuseDav (http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/fusedav/).</p> <p>What I think is much needed is a GUI for mounting/unmounting FUSE network shares, something that can probably be achieved by KDE with KNetAttach.</p> I think FUSE (http://fuse.sourceforge.net/) is an answer to such problems. Because FUSE allows userspace filesystems, ordinary users don’t need root access to mount/unmount network shares, and the chances of a network failure crashing the whole system are lower.

FUSE (in combination with KIO-FUSE http://kde.ground.cz/tiki-index.php?page=KIO+Fuse+Gateway) can give non-KDE apps access to network locations set up with KIO-slaves like fish:/, smb:/, ftp:/, and webdav:/. Unfortunately, some people have reported not being able to stream video and music over KIO-slaves, although I can’t confirm that because KIO-FUSE fails to compile on my computer :-(

Another option is to use FUSE with KDE-independent filesystems like SSHFS (http://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html), SMB for FUSE (http://hannibal.lr-s.tudelft.nl/fusesmb/), SMBNetFS (http://smbnetfs.airm.net/), and FuseDav (http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/fusedav/).

What I think is much needed is a GUI for mounting/unmounting FUSE network shares, something that can probably be achieved by KDE with KNetAttach.

]]> By: Ragica http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-104 Ragica Sun, 02 Oct 2005 15:42:03 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-104 <p>NFS is pretty gnarly (as in gnarled)... but I have to say that working on many platforms, the Linux implementation is the absolute worst... so maybe don't blame nfs so much as blame linux for its flaky implementation. I use NFS a lot of BSD for example, and while I frequently find it a headache, I didn't know the meaning of pain until I started using NFS on (gentoo) linux...</p> NFS is pretty gnarly (as in gnarled)… but I have to say that working on many platforms, the Linux implementation is the absolute worst… so maybe don’t blame nfs so much as blame linux for its flaky implementation. I use NFS a lot of BSD for example, and while I frequently find it a headache, I didn’t know the meaning of pain until I started using NFS on (gentoo) linux…

]]> By: gaga http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-103 gaga Sun, 02 Oct 2005 15:40:23 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-103 <p>SFS -- http://www.fs.net</p> <p>The only network fs I've found that actually gives you useful feedback and error-msgs. Also you don't have to mount individual shares and therefore circumvent the timeout problem</p> SFS — http://www.fs.net

The only network fs I’ve found that actually gives you useful feedback and error-msgs. Also you don’t have to mount individual shares and therefore circumvent the timeout problem

]]> By: - http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-102 - Sun, 02 Oct 2005 10:54:36 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-102 <p>NFS is horrid...but you're lucky, 2.4.14 will include FUSE <em>AND</em> v9fs support</p> <p>FUSE is a "filesystem in userspace" approach - there're already a "sshfs" which allows you to "mount" a remote filesystem in your filesystem namespace (no root needed)</p> <p>And there's v9fs, the port of Plan9's 9P protocol, which allows you to export things like devices (need to play music in a remote box? Skip all the arts/esd crap, just use v9fs and import the remote /dev or whatever)</p> NFS is horrid…but you’re lucky, 2.4.14 will include FUSE AND v9fs support

FUSE is a “filesystem in userspace” approach - there’re already a “sshfs” which allows you to “mount” a remote filesystem in your filesystem namespace (no root needed)

And there’s v9fs, the port of Plan9’s 9P protocol, which allows you to export things like devices (need to play music in a remote box? Skip all the arts/esd crap, just use v9fs and import the remote /dev or whatever)

]]> By: physos http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-101 physos Sun, 02 Oct 2005 09:41:06 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-101 <p>M G Berberich: </p> <p>I totaly forgot that one. Thanks for the reminder. </p> <p>Avuton Olrich:</p> <p>NFS is much faster than SCP here. I knew how to get out of it after knowing whats going on, I just wondered why it takes forever to realize the server is gone.</p> <p>Well, NFS4 will have a hard time to convince me :}</p> M G Berberich:

I totaly forgot that one. Thanks for the reminder.

Avuton Olrich:

NFS is much faster than SCP here. I knew how to get out of it after knowing whats going on, I just wondered why it takes forever to realize the server is gone.

Well, NFS4 will have a hard time to convince me :}

]]> By: Avuton Olrich http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-100 Avuton Olrich Sun, 02 Oct 2005 09:13:56 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-100 <p>I couldn't agree more. NFS is the absolute worst, for almost everything but caching, at least as far as I can tell. Doing a simple scp over my lan nets me 18M/sec, with same files over NFSv3 or v4 is ~1M/sec. NFS has so many issues I couldn't even get into them all.</p> <p>BTW- in case you don't already know, if you're using linux 'umount -l' is your friend in this case.</p> I couldn’t agree more. NFS is the absolute worst, for almost everything but caching, at least as far as I can tell. Doing a simple scp over my lan nets me 18M/sec, with same files over NFSv3 or v4 is ~1M/sec. NFS has so many issues I couldn’t even get into them all.

BTW- in case you don’t already know, if you’re using linux ‘umount -l’ is your friend in this case.

]]> By: M G Berberich http://physos.org/2005/10/02/nfs-needs-a-replacement/#comment-99 M G Berberich Sun, 02 Oct 2005 09:05:14 +0000 http://physos.org/?p=81#comment-99 <p>man mount</p> <p>soft This option allows the kernel to time out if the nfs server is not responding for some time. The time can be specified with timeo=time. This option might be useful if your nfs server sometimes doesn't respond or will be rebooted while some process tries to get a file from the server. Usually</p> man mount

soft This option allows the kernel to time out if the nfs server is not responding for some time. The time can be specified with timeo=time. This option might be useful if your nfs server sometimes doesn’t respond or will be rebooted while some process tries to get a file from the server. Usually

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