1. NFSv4 Namespace & Migration Charles Fan Rainfinity

2. Three Global Namespaces Cluster Namespace –Called “global namespace” vs. “local node namespace” –Many vendor solutions exist Enterprise Namespace –Global multi-site deployment –Fit for protocol standards work World-Wide Namespace –One namespace to rule them all

3. Requirements Location Independent –Logical view into file storage, independent of physical locations Uniform Namespace –Clients possess views into the same global namespace Transparent to Change –When the mapping between the namespace and physical location changes, the namespace presentation stays constant and clients are not affected Secure –At least the same level of security is maintained as without the namespace

4. Considerations Granularity –File system? Directory? File? Hierarchical Mapping –Map /a/b to one link and /a/b/c to another? Variable Support –Map /tools to f1:/tools_solaris for Solaris clients and f2:/tools_linux for Linux clients? Manageability Multi-protocol interoperability Cycle Prevention

5. Based on Clients or Servers? Purely client-based –Automounter + LDAP –Transparency concerns when namespace is changed Purely server-based –Always in-band –Scalability concerns for distributed enterprises Protocol-based –Both server and clients comply with protocol –Opportunity for highest level of transparency, scalability and interoperability.

6. Migration Issues Server-server protocol –During migration –Third party vendor solution possible Client-server protocol –Namespace update after migration –Protocol spec crucial File Handle Refresh –Clients cache file names to look up again in new file system –How to take care of the rename case?

7. Work Items Problem statement Schema for global namespace Client-server interaction for both referral case and migration case –Clarification of RFC 3530 –Reference implementation of clients, servers and namespace server –Possible minor version extensions Best Practice documents

8. Rainfinity Motivation Rainfinity relies on widely-adopted out-of-band global namespace solution for our Network File Virtualization architecture –Currently work with MS Dfs, Automounters, etc –Expect NFSv4 will enhance our functionality Rainfinity RainStorage provides transparent server- server migration and temporary client redirection. –We hope that client-server interactions are built into clients and servers to handle permanent global namespace and dynamic change of data location Rainfinity is ready to commit resource to work with other companies to move fast on standards work related to global namespace and migrations

9. Thank You!