[clug] Need read-only NFS with local disk based caching, CODA?

[Michael.James at csiro.au]

On a cluster of 66 nodes,
 our bioinformatic database files are outgrowing
 the nodes capacity to store them,  (~24Gig).

Note, we call them databases, but to an operating system
 they are just a bunch of big (~2Gig) files
 that need to be read at the beginning of each job.

Plenty of space on the fileserver but we find
 that cluster throughput levels off at about 10 nodes
 when the databases are provided through NFS
 as the single NFS server becomes a bottleneck.

We need something that provides a network file system
 but with local caching.   24 Gig will be heaps of space
 to keep a good selection of the popular databases locally.

When someone asks for something esoteric or after an update
 we have a short pause while the information is re-distributed
 and we are humming again.

I thought to use CODA
 but find a wheird mix of doco dating from 1900s
 and somone contributing modules for current kernels.

Anyone got any experience with Coda as a cluster filesystem?

Anyone got any experience with Coda at all?

And if you don't like it, what are the alternatives?

TIA,
michaelj

-- 
Michael James				michael.james at csiro.au
System Administrator			voice:	02 6246 5040
CSIRO Bioinformatics Facility	fax:		02 6246 5166