[Techtalk] Which Network File System?

[Carla Schroder]

On Wednesday 05 December 2007 9:28:31 pm Kathryn Andersen wrote:
> Worthy and knowledgable peoples,

And me!

> 
> I have a very small network at home (two desktops and one laptop)
> and up to now I've been syncing files with unison, rsync and scp.
> But now I'm wondering if setting up a network file system might be the
> way to go.  I can see three things that it would be useful for:
> 
> A. Comparing and updating files (for example, doing gvim -d on files
> in /etc from different machines)
> B. Serving files, such as music files, stored on one machine and used
> on another.
> C. Similar to B; being able to back up files (transparently) from
> multiple machines.
> 
> Another factor is whether the given file system will or will not support
> Extended Attributes.
> 
> 
> samba:
> Oriented towards sharing with MS-Windows, advisable not to bother
> if you're not dealing with MS-Windows.

This gets my vote, even on an all-Linux network. It's simple, robust, and 
secure-able. I use it over NFS all the time. You get both CLI and graphical 
clients, and client support is built-in to Konqueror and Nautilus. Supports 
ACLs and EAs at whatever level your kernel supports them. I'm sure you'll 
hear from the wizened NFS gurus, but NFS3 has zero security and has its 
little annoyances. NFS4 is supposed to add security and other useful 
features, but as far as I know it's still unfinished and not for production 
systems.

> 
> sshfs: (FUSE filesystem over SSH)
> Very easy to set up for a single user, no need for server setup,
> secure, not good for global sharing, *may* be slow

Awesome for single user. I heart sshfs. Not good for network.

> 
> Worthy people, can you give me guidance?
> 

They can, and so can I!  :D

Carla
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carla Schroder
check out the shiny new Linux Networking Cookbook!
Chock full o' step-by-step howtos for network admins!
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596102487/

many more Linux howtos at
http://tuxcomputing.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~