Changes/NFSGanesha

NFS Ganesha File Server

Summary

NFS Ganesha is a user mode file server that supports NFSv3, NFSv4, and NFSv4.1 including pNFS for distributed filesystems. It uses loadable filesystem driver modules to support its backend filesystems. It also integrates 9P.2000L file service

Owner

• Name: Jim Lieb
• Email: lieb@sea-troll.net
• Release notes owner:

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 21
• Last updated: 2014-03-04
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

NFS Ganesha is a user-mode file server for NFS (v3, v4.0 , v4.1 pNFS) and for 9P from the Plan9 UNIX O/S. It integrates with backend filesystems via its File System Abstraction Layer (FSAL) which is a set of loadable modules that implement the access to these filesystems. Using a FSAL is similar to FUSE in that the whole filesystem can be implemented in user space. This is especially advantagious for pNFS and distributed filesystems where storage is distributed across a network. The following backend (FSAL) modules can be supported:

File System	FSAL Module	Packaged?	Description
Local	VFS	Yes	Local storage. XFS only is a special option for old kernels
GlusterFS	GLUSTERFS	Yes	Uses the glusterfs libraries for pNFS access to the cluster filesystem
NVSv4 proxy	PROXY	Yes	Acts as an NFSv4 client to a remote server. The proxy appears as an export
Ceph FS	CEPH	Not yet	Uses Ceph libraries to export a Ceph distributed system.
Luster FS	LUSTRE	No	Exports Luster. Requires a Luster installation.
Sun's ZFS	ZFS	No	Exports ZFS by using the FUSE/ZFS libraries.
IBM's GPFS FS	GPFS	No	Exports a GPFS cluster. Requires a GPFS license from IBM

Those FSALs labeled as Yes are packaged for Fedora. Those labeled Not Yet require upstream packages that are not available yet. Those labeled No cannot be packaged with Fedore either due to licensing or availability.

NFS Ganesha supports pNFS as both a metadata server (MDS) and a data server (DS). It supports both files and object layouts for depending on what is supported by the underlying filesystem.

Benefit to Fedora

NFS Ganesha is the first pNFS capable file server available on Linux. The GLUSTERFS project is using NFS Ganesha as its file server offering.

Scope

This is a new package based on the new V2.0.0 upstream release. No other changes to the system are required.

• Proposal owners:

The upstream just released (DEC 2013) V2.0.0. Initial packaging is complete and accepted. The package will be updated during the development period to the latest stable release.

• Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

• Release engineering: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Upgrade/compatibility impact

This is a new package for Fedora. Users who have been using previous versions of NFS Ganesha have been building it themselves. This package will relieve them of that task.

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

How To Test

NFS Ganesha supports the same protocols as the kernel's knfsd. Both cannot run at the same time. Systems running NFS Ganesha would stop and disable the kernel NFS server. The portmapper must be running in order for NFS Ganesha to properly export NFSv3. The idmapper must also be configured and running for NFSv4+ to operate properly.

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

User Experience

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Dependencies

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Contingency Plan

This is a new package with no dependencies.

• Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change), Yes/No

Documentation

The documentation for NFS Ganesha is at the upstream site hosted on NFS Ganesha Wiki on Github.

N/A (not a System Wide Change)