[Bioclusters] More OSX + NFS (and AFP too)

[John H. Lee]

I'm currently rebuilding our 16-node Xserve cluster and have some  
filesystem decisions to make.  Our primary file server is an Xserve  
G5 along with an Xserve RAID 5.6TB.  This system will export home  
directories, shared data, and shared applications to all nodes.   
We're using Open Directory and all of the OS X Server built-ins to  
manage users and mounts.  Now, two specific questions:

1. Number of volumes
The Xserve RAID has two controllers, each with seven drives.  It  
seems reasonable to distribute the load across two volumes, each of  
which has a separate controller.  Does it make sense to further  
separate things into two volumes per controller (four total)?  Any  
performance gain here?

2. NFS vs. AFP
The usual OS X Server way of doing things is to have each user's home  
directory automounted on the nodes via AFP.  NFS *is* an option too,  
and I wonder if anyone has any experience comparing the two in this  
type of setup.

-J

--
John H. Lee
Berkeley Phylogenomics Group
http://phylogenomics.berkeley.edu