WAN Admins..

[GrammatonJP]

So Location A - NY
Location B - UK or any where thats NOT US..

When you share a file out of server in NY, this stuff is slow.. bandwidth issues, etc..

Besides replication or DFS.. how can you speed up file sharing ?

I know of Cisco File Engine http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2004/eKi...eAreaF_1102961479_kxZISi62YgK9JWDm.pdf

but are there other type of solution ?

I have dealt with this using replication to remote server and local user access their own server.. but its klunky...

Just curious on how you guys deal with file sharing

 

[drag]

I donno.

Just rsync the servers. That way only the changes get transfered over the WAN link. Update the stuff every few minutes or so.

That's for windows.

If it's Linux stuff I'd use OpenAFS. They would be able to directly access the files over the wan link, or even the internet in a secure manner. They keep a local cache of files and changes are tracked and such. It's quite usable over slow and unreliable links and it's possible to edit and access the files directly over the mount. People even have military sites you can access the publicly read-only portions anonymously over the internet.

Of course OpenAFS support sucks for Windows, even though it's more ancient then dirt.

Doesn't DFS operate in a similar manner?

 

[GrammatonJP]

A lot of the software doesn't protect well against bi-direction sync.. unidirection works well but if someone needs to write.. one side is no writable.. i checked into some solutions.. doing to see some demos..

can't just resync a 200 gb file server if you need things in real time.. i'll let you know if i find some cooler solution...

 

[drag]

Well I don't think your going to find a solution to make things 'bisyncal'. If you have two people edit the file at the same time how is a program going to figure out how to merge the differences?

Your not going to be able to reliably know what has changed in a file until it has been written and mirrored. Until then you need to have a lock on it, basicly.

That's what you mean by 'bi-directional sync' right?

If I wanted to get slick myself I'd write a python script using gamin file alternation notification daemon to sync files once they've been written and only those files. But I wouldn't know how to work around multiple users editing the files at the same time.

For that you'd have to have some sort of revision control system. There are oddball things for that in Linux, but I doubt there are anything realy usefull.

Or am I mistaken of what you want?

I am curious as to why you can't use DFS. Not that I am a expert at this stuff, I just like to play around with file systems and such.

 

[nweaver]

you could try a wan accelerator appliance, Riverbed, Orbital Data, and several others offer them. They do actually work, but I wouldn't trust their numbers.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Originally posted by: drag
Well I don't think your going to find a solution to make things 'bisyncal'. If you have two people edit the file at the same time how is a program going to figure out how to merge the differences?

Your not going to be able to reliably know what has changed in a file until it has been written and mirrored. Until then you need to have a lock on it, basicly.

That's what you mean by 'bi-directional sync' right?

You're right, thats why replication doesn't fit... my current place doesn't need to share the same files across WAN.. so no one cares... but its always something i want to learn and solve..

Say you're sharing Excel sheet A in NY, someone in UK or CA wants to use the same sheet same time. You can with great speed in a LAN where you goto Tools -> Share..
Everyone on lan can get it fast.. but over wan, it'll be slow.. sometimes we have 30 meg excel sheets.. it would take minutes to load a sheet over wan.. with replication, you can open the same file but not write to it since you're opening it on a local server.

DFS is dangerous because I think last save wins.. meaning if 2 people are using the same file.. someone is bound to lose data..

It looks like these wan accelerator are the type of things I'm looking for.. I found F5 Wanjet last night, they're all similar to the other mentioned by mweaver

I'll have to do more research.. i'm sure people out there are using it.. I just dont know how well it really works...

 

[nweaver]

I know the Wanjets are craptastic

the Orbitals seem to work pretty decently, from my short experience. The Riverbed stuff is supposed to be the best, but I don't remember how the chips fell at the end.

 

[spikespiegal]

Just curious on how you guys deal with file sharing

I don't. If it's a specific application or database or file in question, I never punish it by trying to run it a across a WAN. I use a Terminal Server session instead, which on a low latency pipe is often indistinguishable from running the app/data local.

Or, hire a developer to write a web based front end. Anything to keep the data local.

The 'accelerators' you talk about can be dangerous because they typically do a lot of buffering, and this can lead to data corruption.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: spikespiegal

Just curious on how you guys deal with file sharing

I don't. If it's a specific application or database or file in question, I never punish it by trying to run it a across a WAN. I use a Terminal Server session instead, which on a low latency pipe is often indistinguishable from running the app/data local.

Or, hire a developer to write a web based front end. Anything to keep the data local.

The 'accelerators' you talk about can be dangerous because they typically do a lot of buffering, and this can lead to data corruption.

We have done some testing for a few of these companies, including one long term (2+ years, 4 products) and not seen issues as you approach release. Some of the crappier ones do just cache and only transfer changes, but those are the crappy ones.

 

[spyordie007]

Just curious on how you guys deal with file sharing

Depending on the needs DFS, Offline Files and (very soon here) Cisco WAFS (which we're getting ready to start deploying in the not too distant future).

Of course there is also the option of getting a bigger pipe

 

[GrammatonJP]

Originally posted by: nweaver
I know the Wanjets are craptastic

good to know.. hahaha..

 

[GrammatonJP]

Originally posted by: spyordie007

Just curious on how you guys deal with file sharing

Depending on the needs DFS, Offline Files and (very soon here) Cisco WAFS (which we're getting ready to start deploying in the not too distant future).

Of course there is also the option of getting a bigger pipe

I have a 100 meg metro wan from my place to dr site.. its fast but sometimes you can feel it's not a lan... even though its 100 megs..

 

[spyordie007]

Yeah latency is probably the biggest killer across that pipe.