[Nottingham] Distributed filesystems

[Graeme Fowler]

Hello people

Other than those who I've already chuntered about this to, does anyone have 
much experience of the use of Linux distributed filesystems? I'd appreciate 
hearing about anything to do with:

software RAID using the nbd or enbd kernel modules
CODA
AFS
Intermezzo (or whatever it's called today)
GFS
etc etc etc.

I'm trying to build a system whereby all the servers in the system act as part 
of a shared filestore, without wanting to resort to NFS (locking issues 
abound). It could well be a fully-active system, where all component parts are 
client-facing, or it could be an active-passive system where we have some kit 
"backgrounded" waiting to step in should an active server fail.

I seem to have about a hundred different ways to go about it, so would 
appreciate any pointers or experiences you might have.

Graeme