remote directory/partition

[Yedidyah Bar-David]

On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 11:03:49PM +0200, Hetz Ben Hamo wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Here is a theoretical question:
> 
> Lets say I have a Linux server in Israel, and I have a block of storage
> (lets say iSCSI partition for this example) in USA, and I want to mount it
> on my server in Israel.
> iSCSI over such a long distance and with big latency (thanks to our ISP's)

Not sure it's mainly the ISPs, BTW. You do also depend on the physics of
speed of light.

> is a big no no, it's too slow. NFS is also not a good idea (here's
> why<http://goo.gl/vn4GM>
> ).
> 
> I can take this storage, format it and export it from my server in USA, but
> which protocol would give me:
> 
>    1. All (or almost all) functionality of a local mounted device

Do you need it read/write on both sides? If so, you are going to have
big problems if the link is cut.

>    2. Can work with long distance latencies
>    3. won't "kill" the machine if the remote directory is disconnected /
>    "disappeared"
>    4. If possible - supported (either directly or using 3rd party driver) on
>    Windows 2008 (Linux is the main concern, Windows is optional)

I used drbd on a LAN, and know that it can theoretically work rather well
on larger distance when used as read-write on one side only. They also
have a pay-for tool to do this asyncronously called drbd proxy. This
implies using a local copy and have drbd sync it. You can choose between
three what they call "Protocols" to affect the perceived local latency.
-- 
Didi