A basic question when getting into HPC is how to get data into and out of the cluster from local Linux and Windows machines.

HPC systems require shared filesystems to function effectively. Two really good choices for both small and large systems are NFS and SSHFS.

With some simple tuning, SSHFS performance is comparable to NFS almost across the board. In an effort to get even more performance from SSHFS, we examine SSHFS-MUX, which allows you to combine directories from multiple servers into a single mountpoint.

Sharing data saves space, reduces data skew, and improves data management. We look at the SSHFS shared filesystem, put it through some performance tests, and show you how to tune it.