[Zope] Scalability questions

[Oliver Bleutgen]

Phil Glaser wrote:
 > [snip]
> ***LocalFS***
> LocalFS could be used to store large objects (like spreadsheets, PDF files,
> WAV files, etc.) on the file system and benefit from Zope's meta data and
> permissions system. In this case, it seems like the data Zope would store
> would be limited to the meta data and permissions data -- the entire object
> would not be duplicated in Data.FS. Like the ExternalMount solution, LocalFS
> would, it seems, alleviate performance issues related to the size of
> Data.fs.
> 
> 
> Have I exhausted the possibilities, or are there others?


One thing comes to mind. I don't know if it's implemented, but it
should be quite easy.
Run zope behind a proxy (squid or apache+mod_rewrite+mod_proxy)
Use a product like localFS or external file and modify it to _not_ serve 
the file upon __call__, but instead to deliver a 302 redirect to the 
browser, pointing to an URL which gets the file from the local 
filesystem via apache.
That way you get apaches performance and scalability for your big files 
and don't loose any metadata.
If you need somewhat more complicated permissions on the files, take a 
look at apaches security api, I'm know that it's possible to make zope 
do the security stuff for apache, see for instance mod_auth_any, 
http://www.itlab.musc.edu/~nafees/mod_auth_any.html )


HTH,
oliver