[Samba] smb.conf for around 2500 users

steve steve at steve-ss.com
Thu Jul 5 00:04:27 MDT 2012


On 04/07/12 20:12, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 1:53 PM, steve <steve at steve-ss.com> wrote:
>> On 04/07/12 18:12, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 11:11 AM, steve <steve at steve-ss.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 03/07/12 10:18, Jonathan Buzzard wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, 2012-07-02 at 18:20 +0200, steve wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>
>>> NFS and autofs buys you some very, very useful things. One is that it
>>> can support multiple upstream NFS servers, which might help distribute
>>> the load for 2500 users. Another is that by automounting a set of
>>> subdirectories, instead of one large master share, you can tune the
>>> settings of those mounted directories for security. Another is that
>>> you can mix NFSv3 and NFSv4 for environments that need TCP based
>>> access or Kerberized authentication for fileshares. Another is that
>>> unused material is not mounted and can be deleted or re-arranged on
>>> the fileserver, which is priceless when managing 2500 accounts with
>>> 2500 home directories.
>>>
>>> But with 2500 users, and hundreds at a time connected, it's maybe time
>>> to think about running the CIFS fileshares directly on the NFS
>>> *servers* and get the Samba clients out of the way Why introduce a
>>> layer of complexity with a Samba client on top of NFS if the
>>> fileserver can do it directly? And if it's too much for one
>>> fileserver, maybe it's time to think about splitting up fileservices
>>> anyway.
>>>
>>>
>> Hi Nico
>> Yeah, we have to stick with the automounter. Having 2500 home directories
>> held up for only 80 (max) users can't be a good idea. Without a cluster, I
>> can't see how we could deploy multiple NFS servers though.
>> L x
>>
>
> Autofs supports a list of NFS servers to be checked, in order, for NFS
> shares. I've found it very useful in migration situations. We could
> spend a lot of time going over approaches for that.

Hi Nico
That's exactly what we want until wen ca find some way of deploying a 
true cluetsred fileserver.

Is the list of fileservers to be checked in the automount map files?

e.g. if /home2/students/data contains symlinks to students home folders 
then:
/etc/auto.master
...
/home2/students/data /etc/auto.students
...
and /etc/auto.students
* -rw,sec=krb5,vers=3,no_subtree_check server1:/home2/students/data/&
* -rw,sec=krb5,vers=3,no_subtree_check server2:/home2/students/data/&

Could you confirm this syntax? TIA.
>
> I've also found it really useful to make "/homedir/{usernames}" a pool
> of symlinks to an NFS automount layout. That way, I can switch users
> from one NFS automoun to another by updating the symlinks in a
> deployed network. Very handy for switching and re-arranging upstream
> NFS or attached storage in a planned fashion. It ain't perfect, but
> lord, it's useful.
>

Very very useful indeed if my 2 server map will work.

The only inconvenience I found with symlinked NFS is that the actual 
data that the symlink points to has to be automounted too.

Cheers,
Steve


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