The protocol you choose to use to access a namespace depends on a variety of factors. Some factors have to do with the protocols themselves, others with the environment in which you’re working. For example, your client operating system may dictate the choice of protocol. Or, you may need new applications to be compatible with existing applications that already use a given protocol.
In terms of performance, HTTP is the fastest protocol and WebDAV is a close second. Both are suitable for transferring large amounts of data. CIFS and NFS are significantly slower than HTTP and WebDAV.
In terms of features:
•With both HTTP and WebDAV:
oClient libraries are available for many different programming languages.
oYou can store custom metadata in the namespace.
oYou can use SSL security for data transfers. The namespace configuration determines whether this feature is available.
oYou can retrieve object data by byte ranges.
•With HTTP:
oEach operation can be completed in a single transaction, which provides better performance.
oYou can override metadata defaults when you add an object to the namespace.
oHCP automatically creates any new directories in the paths for objects you store in the namespace.
oYou can change object ownership.
oYou can add, replace, or delete ACLs for objects.
•With WebDAV:
oSome operations on directories, such as, COPY, MOVE, and DELETE, are performed in a single call.
oYou can recursively delete a directory and its subdirectories.
•With CIFS and NFS:
oYou get file-system semantics.
oMultiple concurrent threads can write to the same object.
•CIFS and NFS have lazy close (see CIFS lazy close or NFS lazy close).
•With CIFS and NFS, performance degrades when write operations target directories with large numbers of objects (greater than 100,000).
•With CIFS and NFS, you need to use multiple mounts of a namespace to have HCP spread the load across the nodes in the system.
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