3.2 The Filr Appliances and Their Roles

The appliances in a large Filr deployment perform three distinct roles that are essential to delivering Filr services: Filr, Filr Search, and MySQL. For more information, see Filr Applications and Appliances in the Novell Filr 1.0.1 Installation and Configuration Guide.

Table 3-1 Appliance Role Summary

 

Filr

Filr Search

MySQL

Role

  • File access and sharing

  • Content indexing for searching purposes

  • Database storage retrieval of file metadata, system configuration, and user/group identities

Number Required

  • At least one and as many as the service load demands

  • Two

  • One

Dependencies

  • At least one Filr Search appliance

  • Access to a MySQL database

  • None

  • None

Functions

  • Run a number of web-based services that are responsible for Filr client and web client (browser) interaction with the rest of the system.

  • Synchronize Net Folders.

  • When indexing applies, extract indexable content from synchronized files and send it to the Filr Search appliance to be indexed.

  • Accept information to be indexed

  • Respond to user-initiated search requests from Filr Appliances

Store and provide access to the following:

  • Configuration settings for all of the Filr cluster appliances

  • Information on the users and files within the system

Best Practices

Required:

Configure /vashare to point to a remote NFS disk that all Filr appliances share in common.

Strongly recommended: Deploy two Filr Search appliances to provide fault tolerance and prevent desktop clients from having to re-download all synchronized files when reindexing occurs.

Strongly recommended: Configure Filr to use a qualified DBA and high-availability in-house MySQL installation whenever possible.