Ask the Expert

Locking mechanisms in NAS

Is there a general problem with NAS devices and NFS lock with some software? I tried using mail client software (Zmail) to read from three different NAS solutions and had the same problem with them all (Netapps, Auspex and IPstor). The software will only open the mails as read only because it couldn't create a lock for the files.

Thanks for your help on this.


    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

The use of the locking mechanisms in NAS requires a degree of cooperation by the software application that uses it. If the software does not explicitly state that it works with NFS or CIFS locking semantics, it may not operate as advertised and you'll run into some interesting (and very frustrating) anomalies when you have shared access to data. An e-mail client is a prime candidate for having these types of problems.

As always, it's best to check the details of the software (and hardware) before deployment for whatever environment you intend.

Randy Kerns
Evaluator Group, Inc.

Editor's note: Do you agree with this expert's response? If you have more to share, post it in one of our .bphAaR2qhqA^0@/searchstorage>discussion forums.


This was first published in June 2002

Join the conversationComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.
    Back to top