how to cache nfs file in local disk

[Robert Watson]

On Wed, 3 Sep 2008, Rick Macklem wrote:

> On Tue, 2 Sep 2008, ProAce wrote:
>
>> The question I posted on freebsd-question last week, maybe I post wrong 
>> mailing list. I describe the question here again.  :)
>> 
>> In order to reduce the throughput and ops for nas server, I just want to 
>> cache file from nfs to nfs client's local disk. And the cache system can 
>> controller the total size of cache file automatically ( the capacity of nas 
>> is more more more larger than local disk ).
>> 
>> There are the cachefs on Solaris and FS-Cache on RedHat can cache file from 
>> nfs to local disk, does any similar software can be run on FreeBSD?
>
> Since no one else has answered, I toss out "None that I am aware of".
>
> I am planning on doing some work caching files on local disk when they are 
> delegated to the client, but that will be NFSv4 specific and at least next 
> summer before it is available. I also consider it experimental work, so it 
> may never end up usable in a near production environment.
>
> To be honest, for LAN environments, ny hunch is that local disk caching will 
> only help if the client keeps accessing the same files over and over again. 
> But that's just a hunch at this point.

The AFS argument may be relevant here: persistent client-side caching is as 
much about indirectly improving client performance through greater server 
scalability as about directly improving client performance through local disk 
I/O speed.

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge