[lug] NFS cross-mounts

[dio2002 at indra.com]

> I'm working with a small cluster of Linux servers and desktop machines.
> Most of the machines export some of their local file systems to all the
> others via NFS.  The intent is that the disks on each machine are
> resources which should be shared with all the users.

the nature of file serving is going to require that you mount something
remotely to access it.  file servers can be good things.  but when the
data that is being served is not *organized* well, it makes for trouble.

my guess would be that your environment doesn't need each of these systems
exporting it's own data.  which usually means you might be able to migrate
all or most the *shared* data off of *each* individual server to one or
two consolidated file servers with different directories for each data
set.  then you can export each directory with a granular set of client and
file access perms back to all the other workstations / servers that need
it (including the one you migrated it from).

that's how most places do it.  they consolidate all shared data to one or
a few beefed up servers.  the benefits are that you only have to look in
one (or a few) places at most when mounts don't work and it also makes
backing up the data a lot easier from one or a few central locations than
all over the workstations on a network.

basically, if data is being shared, consolidate it to centralized file
servers.

my 2cents