[ale] CIFS <-> NFS bridge?

[Dylan Northrup]

A long time ago, (25.07.07), in a galaxy far, far away, James P. Kinney III...:

:=Hmm. Build a new fileserver with new kernel. Export the files using new
:=samba and new NFS. Mount the new files onto the old server with the old,
:=certified kernel using NFS. This will let the apps run OK and dodge the
:=samba/kernel issue. Now the same files can be exported to other systems
:=from the new fileserver using samba and NFS without disrupting the
:=certified box.

If you're talking about having an all new file server, we don't want to drop
the cash it would require to replicate the 10TB file server that's already
in place (and the folks we're working with who actually own the file server
seem hesitant to do the same for equipment that works for their current
envrionment, even if it doesn't work with the new gear we're putting in. . .
yeah, politics are fun).

If you're talking about having an intermediary bridge system, that was the 
original plan.  However, recent version of NFS (tested with recent releases 
of CentOS and Suse) are not able to re-export remotely mounted file systems.  
Googling shows folks worried about doing this for security reasons ("I don't 
want people to be able to re-export files I've exported from my server. How 
can I control access?") but no solid technical reasons why this can't be 
done.  I've even come across man pages from earlier versions of rpc.nfsd 
that mention a --re-export option to do this specifically, but apparently 
someone took that option out in more recent versions of rpc.nfsd.

-- 
Dylan Northrup - docx at io.com - http://www.io.com/~docx/
"Harder to work, harder to strive, hard to be glad to be alive, but it's 
 really worth it if you give it a try." -- Cowboy Mouth, 'Easy'