Performance Tuning for Linux® Servers

Chapter Sixteen. File and Print Servers

By Steven French

Introduction

As the need for more network storage continues to increase, file and print servers continue to quietly fill a key role in business, school, and even home networks. However, they are often taken for granted. Since the introduction of the first Network Operating Systems (NOSs) by Novell, 3Com, IBM, and others in the 1980s, file and print servers have increased in importance in the enterprise as their ease of use, security, performance, and reliability have improved. Although primitive UNIX file and print servers based on Network File System (NFS) were available as early as 1985 (at roughly the same time that the IBM PC LAN Program was introduced for DOS/Windows), Windows 2000 was ...