Our development team is delighted to announce the further optimization of our croit storage management software. Our most recent Nightly, launched May 17th 2017, includes a first basic feature for providing CephFS as well as Network File System (NFS)

What is CephFS, the Ceph File System?

CephFS is a conform file system distributed on the Ceph Cluster. CephFS is using Metadata Server (MDS) which are administrating the file system Namespace and steering the client access to the data on the Ceph OSD's. At least one MDS needs to be active at all times in order to enable acess to the file system on the respective cluster.

What is NFS How is it Used?

The Network File System is a protocol which enables file acess via network. The files are not stored on the acessing client, therefore a reliable network connection meeting the requirements is needed.

Which Features Are Supported as of Today?

With our nightly release we are currently supporting basic features including creating one or several MDS, CephFS and NFS Gateways. Of course all these feature are available as well via our RESTful API and can be automized easy and conviniently.

What Is the NFS Gateway Used for?

If desired, the provided CephFS will be available via NFS in your network. This is helpful especially to connect even those operating systems to your cluster which do not have a CephFS client.

This includes for example:

VMware Hypervisor do not offer any option to connect datastore directly to your Ceph Storage Cluster. Using NFS, the Ceph Cluster is available directly from VMware.
Microsoft Windows is able to directly integrate NFS similar to the among windows users wide-spread SMB/CIFS. That way, scalable file systems can be used simoultanously from Windows, Linux and other operating systems.

There are many futher use cases to think of. NFS makes the open Ceph Storge useable even in proprietary software solutions and therefore helps reducing costs.

Which Features Will croit Development Focus on Next?

Following our goal to further shape croit as best indepentend software solution to manage Ceph Storage Cluster, we will for sure enhance the so far limited feature package of our CephFS and NFS Gateways.

Do you require a certain feature or enhancement? Our developer team is looking forward to hearing your ideas and your feedback - together we'll find the best solution for your business.

New Feature: CephFS and NFS