Samba – Local file cache

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I'm looking for a solution that would allow me to generate some sort of local samba cache. MS has it's own solution called "offline files" (not sure if it 100% what I would need), but since I'm using CentOS as a file server and as clients – I need some linux based solution.

I have a situation where rarely modified files are accessed numerous times. Currently those files are mounted as samba shares, and every time those files need to be processed (read) they create an unnecessary network load. I'm wondering if there is some sort of system wide caching solution that would allow me to auto-magically store those frequently used files on a local drive ? Preferably samba included (nfs as a last resort).

Thanks for any tips.

Best Answer

The Linux equivalent to the Windows Offline Files is the Offline File System.

It is a layer that is mounted over the actual remote file system using FUSE, just linke EncFS is used for encryption.

Drawbacks:

  • it is not shipped with any distribution (AFAIK) so it might be not so trivial to roll it out on a large number of clients.

Benefits:

  • Just like with offline files you can specify which folders on a share you want to have offline available
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