On Dec 28, 2005, at 2:37 PM, Paul Robins wrote:
I'll reply in one if that's ok (sorry for the topposting)
No problem ... :-)

I would expect a disk to be the thing to go to be honest but regardless, i want some system where there is parity data stored on other nodes in this group of machines. Basically RAID5 but networked would be perfect, as that would give me ~ 400 gig of space whilst being able to handle a machine vanishing from the network (the whole machine dies when the disk does, cheap whiteboxes don't you know)

:-)

I understand the way AFS works with regards to clients seeing /afs, and i did see read only replication, and then running a command to change a read only node(?) into a read write node (i'm sorry if i'm talking crap, i'd read the wiki if i could). This is why i figured perhaps it could be implimented with some sort of networked RAID5, giving me a lot more storage than just RO mirroring one server to the other 3, but whilst still being redundant.

You're not talking nonsense at all. It's exactly the kind of statement I was provoking.
(Just the term 'node' is from cluster terminology not AFS, but OK.
AFS doesn't care about nodes, there are only volumes on fileservers) :-)

I don't really recommend that conversion of RO volumes to RWs for backups. If you search the archives for that topic you'll find some of my old statements regarding that. IIRC I said something like: use that only if your disk is gone, like in 'the dog eat your harddisk'. (I didn't look it up ... ;-) )

Well, reading your idea, I think I have to repeat myself.
It's doable, especially with something like ENBD, but you have to 'pay' for that with some performance, as far as I can oversee that design. You'll have one fileserver then (or maybe 2) and transfer a lot of data over the network to those fileserver(s), just to transfer that from there to your AFS clients, in the worst case over the same network.

It _could_ work, even if it's not really what the designers of AFS had in mind when they built the system. ;-)

Horst
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