Is S3 a proper choice to keep live linux user home directories?

Question

We are building an RDP cluster using Amazon EC2/S3. Users' home directories are on S3 (single bucket) and all EC2 nodes mount the same S3 bucket using S3FS. Each EC2 node uses the appropriate home directory of the user that logs in to that node. It does work, but is very slow, has random errors and is unpredictable. EBS is not an option as 100+TB required. Is S3 the right choice? If not, what would be?

Note: The nodes run Ubuntu Linux.

EEAA · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-16T20:26:10.440

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Is S3 a proper choice to keep live linux user home directories?

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

Amazon has announced their EFS service, which is exactly what you need for this. Either use EFS or roll your own NFS server for home directories.

edited Jun 16 '15 at 20:26

answered Jun 16 '15 at 20:15

EEAA

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IMO we really need more GIF answers around here. – ceejayoz Jun 16 '15 at 20:30
@ceejayoz Agreed. I'm trying to do my part. :) – EEAA Jun 16 '15 at 20:31
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@EEAA I too am excited about EFS. Thanks for the suggestion. Problem is it hasn't been launched in all regions yet - Don't know how long it would be. Secondly, it costs 10x of S3. What did people do for such use cases prior to EFS? – Vij Vijay Jun 16 '15 at 21:13
@user2180615 Well then NFS server it is! – EEAA Jun 16 '15 at 21:15
@EEAA Roll out an EBS based NFS server of 100+ TB? – Vij Vijay Jun 16 '15 at 21:36
Sure, a RAID of EBS vols. – EEAA Jun 16 '15 at 21:45
@EEAA Thanks a ton. This is the right answer. This is my first question at serverfault and I'm so happy about the clear and instant answer. I'm accepting your answer. Thanks again – Vij Vijay Jun 16 '15 at 21:50
Make sure number of free inodes is in control – Anatoly Sep 10 '15 at 21:47

Is S3 a proper choice to keep live linux user home directories?

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