Network Filesystems

NFS

The UNIX filesystem does not have to be present on the local hard drive. UNIX supports filesystems that are present over the network, called Network Filesystems (NFS), so that you can mount a directory from another computer and traverse it just as if it were a normal directory on your local computer.

Our Luria cluster uses this technology to mount our many storage servers, which run NFS servers. Every storage server is mounted at /net.

tree -L 1 / command, showing the different storage servers mounted at /net:

[asoberan@luria]$ tree -L 1 /net
/net
├── bmc-lab1
├── bmc-lab2
├── bmc-lab2.mit.edu
├── bmc-lab3
├── bmc-lab4
├── BMC-LAB4
├── bmc-lab5
├── bmc-lab6
├── BMC-LAB6
├── bmc-lab7
├── bmc-lab8
├── bmc-pub10
├── bmc-pub14
├── bmc-pub15
├── bmc-pub16
├── bmc-pub17
├── bmc-pub9
├── gelbart
├── ostrom
└── rowley

21 directories, 0 files

From our perspective, these look like any other directory on Luria, but they're present on completely different computers.

SMB

Another protocol for sharing filesystems over the network is SMB, which is supported on UNIX systems through Samba. In addition to NFS, our storage servers run Samba servers, which allow you to mount them on your local laptop or PC. For instructions on doing so, refer to the page linked below:

Active Data Storage