ZTE Proposes a Ceph-Based High-Availability NFS Cluster Solution

ZTE today demonstrated a high availability NFS (Network File System) cluster solution based on Ceph at the Cephalocon APAC 2018, to further extend the application field of Ceph, making quick response to the market and meeting customers’ demands.

As a mature technology, NFS is widely used in all kinds of operating systems (OS). However, with the explosive growth of data, traditional NFS servers are challenged by capacity expansion, performance improvement and other problems. The Ceph Filesystem (Ceph FS) is a POSIX-compliant filesystem that uses a Ceph Storage Cluster to store its data. It requires the client to install Ceph-fuse software, which limits its application scope.

ZTE’s NFS cluster solution is based on the Ceph file system. It leverages the standardized, matured, and cross-platform NFS to enable Ceph to apply to more platforms. On the other hand, depending on the high performance, high scalability and high reliability of Ceph, it solves the capacity expansion, performance improvement and other challenges to traditional NFS servers.

Meanwhile, to achieve high availability (HA), the solution uses multiple NFS servers to form an NFS cluster. When one server fails, the workloads will be switched over to other servers automatically. It uses load balancing technology to distribute the wordloads among multiple servers, to protect servers from overloading and achieve the linear expansion of service capability.

As the world’s leading open source contributor, ZTE has been actively participating in open source communities and giving back to the communities, especially in the Ceph community. ZTE ranks second in the world and first in China in multiple consecutive releases. This time, ZTE has further expanded Ceph's application field through this innovative solution which combines Ceph and NFS, injecting new vitality into the innovation and development of telcos and various vertical industries.