How Many is TOO many

[scb at juniper.UUCP]

 I have a seemingly simple question:

How many NFS(tm) mounts is too many?

This seems simple on the surface, but I'll let you in so we can
look a little deeper...


network-------------------------------------------------------------
	|	|	|	|	|	|	|(you get idea)
	[]	[]	[]	[]	[]	[]	[](servers)
The machine on this end is the ypmaster			***

He exports such things as:
/usr/local(3/rd party s/w,mail, etc)
2 usr partitions
nd for 5 clients
2 application partitions
a src partition(sccs)

all machines on this network are servers and typically have 3-5 nodes
for development purposes. All export some of the above same stuff.

There's a total of ~47 diskless nodes and 12 servers currently. Together
they export a total of >29< NFS(tm) partitions. I am getting 4 more servers
which will raise the total number of exported(NFS(tm)) partitions to around
38 NFS mounts. I have after poor performance raised the number of 'nfsd s'
to 6 after getting 20 mounts.

1. Should I grow this nunmber some more? If so how much more? nfsd 8?
2. All developers should be able to access each others' filesystems at
will. Fine, you say. But please re-read the configuration. This may/may not
become a problem.
3. Should I start considering moving users to shared NFS(tm)mounts in local
groups only and not worry about the others stuff? Practically impossible.


You see boys and girls,NFS(tm) can be a wonderful thing. But I suspect
that performance is going to hit the floor soon. This is a BIG PROBLEM.
I can't affect the developers adversely. This could cost me my job(I like
beer and CD's). I need to seek input from others who may have already
encountered this tought problem. 

I pledge in "net.honesty" to summarize this discussion. Some of your friends
here on THIS VERY NETWORK could soon be encountering this same problem.



Please discuss this ON THE NET. I'll save pertinant discussions and
summarize so some of you can stick this exercise into your filesystems...



Steve Blair
Schlumberger Technology Corporation
Austin, Texas
uucp: {sun}!texsun!austsun!ascway!scb
           !decwrl!ascway!scb