is samba LinuxVirtualServer-able?

[Christopher R. Hertel]

>  
> > Pre-Windows2000, Microsoft SMB filesharing uses a naming system based on
> > an outdated network API called NetBIOS.  To access a service, you need to
> > translate the NetBIOS name into an IP address.  Only *one* node may claim
> > name at a time, thus causing a few problems if all of the servers are
> > offering the same service.
> 
> OK the clients connection with a file (filehandle?) is an IP address. I assume
> the IP address is on the server and this means that you can only have a number
> of files open that you have spare IPs available on the network. Do I have this
> right? Can you point me to somewhere for me to learn more?

Nope.  That's not it.

See http://www.ubiqx.org/cifs/  --that's a work-in-progress but if you 
want to know how the NetBIOS layer works its the best I can do.

> > On the back end there are two approaches.  One is to somehow distribute
> > the same filesystem to all of the servers. 
> 
> can handle that.
> 
> > The other way is to break the filesystem into pieces and give each piece
> > to a separate server.  You would then use DFS (SMB Distributed File
> > System) to distribute access to the various parts of the filesystem. 
> 
> Unless I learn something else, I'd rather not do this as part of the 
> LVS is to be able to allow servers to be shutdown (for planned maintenance
> mostly), so would like to have the same files available on all servers.

Understood.

> I'm still interested in finding out if the client can reconnect again
> seamlessly to another server after client or server failure.

There's nothing in the architecture that makes this easy.  The client is
going to make a TCP connection and, if that connection is lost, the client
will barf rodents just as you'd expect.  I suppose you could create a
stateful proxy, but that still means a single point of failure and a
single bottleneck.

Even if another server could 'spoof' the connection, SMB is a stateful 
protocol and the second server would need to replicate the server-side of 
that state.

Chris -)-----

-- 
Christopher R. Hertel -)-----                   University of Minnesota
crh at nts.umn.edu              Networking and Telecommunications Services

    Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them
    with your hands...you choose them as your guides, and following
    them you will reach your destiny.  --Carl Schultz