Anyone seen anything like this in the ports tree?

[Eric Schuele]

Kurt Buff wrote:
> All,
> 
> http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/080805-wafs.html
> 
> It's software-in-a-box to tone down the chattiness of CIFS/SMB and NFS,
> so that WAN links aren't so slow.
> 
> I'm working with offices in the US, UK and AU, and file sharing between
> them is horrendous, mostly because of how many hops between them.
> 
> 
> Kurt
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> 

I don't know if there is something in there or not. I'd very much like 
to know if there was.

I thought I'd chime in and mention some of the Avail product features 
(To save someone having to read the article).  We use it at the office 
to replicate data across a handful of continents.  I have no affiliation 
with Avail other than being a customer.

You have a server (or many), which holds one or more data volume(s). 
The server is a 'traffic cop' of sorts.  Many agents can mount the 
volume.  These go at your remote (and local) sites.  Each agent will 
create a share for end users to interact with.  When someone opens a 
file on any agent, it gets locked and all remote agents are made aware. 
  When they are done editing... a binary diff of the original and the 
final is made.  The diff is compressed and sent to the server.  The 
server will then slowly trickle (it has throttle values) the changes to 
remote agents.  Should someone at a remote site need that file "now"... 
it escalates its priority, and sends it down immediately.  This is 
noticeable by the end user as the file may take a bit to open.  All 
transfers are via HTTP.  You never work with the data on the server... 
just via the agents.

The important qualities (IMHO) are
  - consistent file locking across agents
  - the compressed binary diffs
  - Throttled transfers (unless needed escalation)
  - 'real-time' replication.  You always get the latest file.

-- 
Regards,
Eric