Re: [tlug] NFS-mounting /home

[Bruno Raoult <br@example.com>]

My points (2) & (3) were typical of needs which cannot be covered by a 
"global"
/home mount. Even if /home is reserved for users dirs, it does not mean 
that all
homes *must* be nfs-mounted (a trader on Tokyo Stock Exchange and a 
secretary
cannot afford the same downtime, but they work in the same company, and 
share
the same sysadmin).

I did not say home dirs should not be mounted. On contrary, in most of 
cases.
But a global and *unique* mount point is not good IMHO.
I really prefer a per-user mount system (nearly as easy to setup as a 
global /home),
which could *also* give you a centralized server if you wish. You just add
the possibility to do something different if you need.

We use NFS for home dirs, of course, but certainly not by mounting /home.

With the same idea, we don't mount a "/usr/local" dir where our added 
apps are.
It is also a "indirect automount map" in /usr/local/mount. With this system,
we simply have the same dirs (e.g. /usr/local/sybase), whatever the 
client is
(linux, Solaris, with different versions of Sybase).



br.


Bruno.

Matt Doughty wrote:

>On Thu, May 16, 2002 at 08:40:46AM +0900, Bruno Raoult wrote:
>  
>
>>I agree with the "/home should be machine dependent, as opposed to user 
>>dependent" statement.
>>    
>>
>
>I think that it is situation dependent, and the specific situation Josh
>describes network mounting is a good solution.
>
>  
>
>>The problem in mounting /home is that it prevents you so setup a 
>>different way for special purposes:
>>
>>1) The real need is to share users home dirs. /home is a superset of 
>>home dirs (not always as shown
>>     in next points), not *exacltly* the users home dirs.
>>    
>>
>
>In many cases /home on workstations is only used for user home directories.
>I have seen a number of environments where this was the case.
>
><SNIP>
>
>  
>
>>In fact, mounting /home does not give you any freedom on setting-up 
>>specific needs. On contrary,
>>it is an assertion that "everybody has exactly the same needs", which, 
>>maybe, I could see in my
>>next life :-)
>>    
>>
>
>This is the case in any number of institutions with computer labs.  All
>the machines are used for the same purpose. The main requirement is that
>the user has access to the same home no matter which machine s/he logs
>into. In this case just strait network mounting /home is a good simple
>solution with several advantages:
>
>1. centralized data for easy backups.
>2. smaller HD requirements per workstation.
>3. simple configuration.
>
>There is really no reason to make things more complicated than neccessary
>just so you have flexibility that you probably don't need.
>
>--Matt
>
>  
>

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