Return-Path: linux-nfs-owner@vger.kernel.org Received: from mail-wg0-f44.google.com ([74.125.82.44]:57828 "EHLO mail-wg0-f44.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756516Ab2ECWbw (ORCPT ); Thu, 3 May 2012 18:31:52 -0400 Received: by wgbdr13 with SMTP id dr13so2175835wgb.1 for ; Thu, 03 May 2012 15:31:51 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 From: Marek Stopka Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 23:31:30 +0100 Message-ID: Subject: MultiPath NFS (Oracle DirectNFS) To: linux-nfs@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-nfs-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Hi, as you might already know, Oracle 11g have its own implementation of NFS called DirectNFS, it works pretty with very same NFSv3 protocol as everyone else, except it implements some advanced features on a client side, such as MultiPath. Currently if you want to have multiple physical paths to storage in Linux environment, you need to configure Ethernet bonding, which might be a pain over multiple physical switches, especially when you consider adding capacity as well as redundancy. With Direct NFS you configure each path to a storage as separate L1/L2/L3 domain with no support from Ethernet whatsoever and Oracle NFS client "knows" these multiple IP addresses you provided leads to same storage with same data and it automatically distributes your requests over these three paths. Have you ever considered implementing same functionality in kernel NFS client? It have some advantages over bonding/etherchannel scenario, such as you are protected against L2 netwokr errors, whatever happends in one path L2 domain, will not affect others paths L2 domains. It will remove all complexity of bonding ethernet interfaces, which does not always work with all Ethernet drivers for all Ethernet cards,... While at a same time, you can implement redundancy and increased performance with multiple paths to the storage even without advanced switches (Nexus with vPC, Catalyst with VSS,..) because you don't need any link aggregation protocols to work over multiple physical switches... http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/directnfsclient-11gr1-twp-129785.pdf - Direct NFS whitepaper -- S pozdravem / Best regards Marek Stopka Kontakty / Contacts Mobil/Cell phone:+420 608 149 955 WEB: www.stopkaconsulting.eu