On Thu, 05 Aug, 2010 at 19:37:42 +1000, Andrew Rich wrote:
Jon,
Thank you for your help
What is the different file sharing systems ?
wikipedia should be worth a visit ;)
I note you mention smb , I have samba set up - is this made to be compatible with windows ?
In broad terms: samba (smb) is the opensource implementation of the microsoft file protocol. Nowadays (I think) largely superceded by 'cifs'. Use when you have a mixed environment with both linux and windows hosts. I don't have windows systems and (almost) never had, so I rarely use this.
What is NFS and what is the difference, when would I use it ?
Network File System: traditional *nix file protocol. Differs vastly frm smb/cifs. I use this with the QNAP, but generally I tend to use (key-authenticted) scp/sshfs between various other systems.
What is iSCSI ?
A way to present block-device type storage over the network. With other protocols you access (part of) a filesystem residing on the remote system. With iSCSI the remote system instead presents you with a block-device - which appears as 'any other local disk' on the local system - that you can then format and create a filesystem on. While iSCSI may outperform 'file protocols' on real, actual iSCSI hardware, my general impression is that it performs worse in the case of consumer grade NAS boxes. (see sig.) Also it's a more involved setup on the client side. I wouldn't recommend it in your situation.
I am familair with ftp, but not atp ?
That's 'afp': Apple File Protocol Used in mac-land.
Sorry I am good at network generally just a tad confused about file sharing protocols.
No need to be sorry, but check out wikipedia. I think there are some ok not-too-technical articles on the subject(s) - to get you started. /jon -- YMMV -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org