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List:       infrastructures
Subject:    Re: [Infrastructures] AFS in an infrastructure
From:       Jim Rowan <jmr () computing ! com>
Date:       2005-03-29 7:21:54
Message-ID: 66f0a3b3fbad87dd5be520bed617c45c () computing ! com
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On Mar 19, 2005, at 5:05 PM, Kyle Moore wrote:
>
> If AFS is so great, which it sounds to be, why is it not very popular? 
> It sounds like it has a lot to offer but this list is the first place 
> I have heard of it.
>

Steve gave one answer to this -- I'll give another slant to it.

AFS isn't very interesting to small shops (where small means "the total 
client population can be adequately served by a small number of 
fileservers")  The reasons:

A small place doesn't need it; just like they don't need formal 
"infrastructure" approaches to system management.  Brute force works at 
this scale.

It's a vendor (now free, but still external) product.  You have to go 
out of your way to get it.

It isn't native to any OS -- you have to do something (used to be the 
"something" was fairly complex) to make it work.  None of the native 
tools to manipulate filesystems work seamlessly.  It only works with a 
subset of the OS's available in any particular era.  If you have 
significant numbers of machines on which it doesn't work, it's a 
non-starter.

The same characteristics that allow it huge scalability mean that in 
the very small context, there is apparent extra "baggage"  ("why do I 
have to create a volume?").



It also isn't very interesting if there isn't a fairly widespread buyin 
across your organization.  "my stuff is at /afs/mysite.org/somehwere.  
Just go fetch it" ...  "I don't have afs.  Can you send it to me?"      
The benefits aren't readily apparent to non-players.  This means that 
it doesn't organically grow in all organizations, because it depends on 
certain organizational conditions.


Thus, there are enough "impediments" that it doesn't flourish in a fair 
number of situations.  [for a OS-flame-war analogy:  How many people 
will answer "openbsd" when asked which OS is most secure?  Lots of 
people have never even heard of it.]

That said --- I'm a huge fan of AFS.  For 15 years it has been one of a 
very few contenders able to build a global filesystem.  (Many would say 
"only contender") There are a number of other "only one" capabilities.  
Many of these contribute directly to building solid infrastructures.

Jim Rowan

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