Site NAS Introduction

This page is intended to provide potential customers with information regarding the site-wide nas (network attached storage) service offered by the Computing Division Core Support Service Department. Two NAS storage types are available for labwide use:

1. AFS: A globally accessible filesystem. This is a fairly secure filesystem using kerberos 5 authentication, with ACLs. It is globally accessible across UNIX and Windows platforms. This filesystem requires that client code, and in some cases, client kernel modules, be installed on the machine which is used to access the storage. Performance is typically < 25MB/s on a locally attached GiGE network, much less if going over the WAN. Storage is limited to 8GB increments known as volumes. Depending on amount of storage space needed, there may be a cost charged back to the requester.
2. NFS/CIFS: A campus-wide accessible filesystem. Access to this filesystem is restricted to the Fermilab campus. Performance over NFS is very good, up to 104 MB/s on a locally attached GiGE network. Aggregate bandwidths achieved in testing are > 200MB/s write and > 300MB/s read. Storage is limited to 128TB per volume. Files can be accessed either via NFS (UNIX/Mac), CIFS (Windows/Mac) or both. NFS access uses local system authentication. CIFS access uses the Windows Active Directory at FNAL for authentication and authorization.

   Currently, access to the NFS/CIFS service are through 4 providers as listed in the table below:

   Primary access method via	Contact
   FermiGrid	FermiGrid Admins
   FNALU	FNALU Admins
   Experiments (CDF/D0)	REX Admins
   All others	helpdesk@fnal.gov

   Depending on amount of storage and type of access required, a cost may be charged back to the user or requestor.