# NFS The Network File System (or NFS), is, as the name suggests, a network file system. In this case, we export a CephFS directory over the network to store user data. NFS has been used for this purpose at various points in the CSL's history (it's mentioned in documentation since 1996!), though AFS has been the predominant choice for the use case over the last 20 years. However, AFS has become slow and hard to maintain, so the decision was made to switch to NFS in August 2023, especially since it integrates with FreeIPA and automatically only mounts directories that are in use (e.g. logged-in users' home directories instead of all 2000 of them, which is a big difference!) The NFS share is located at `/nfs` within CephFS and at `/csl` on all clients. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://documentation.tjhsst.edu/technologies/storage/nfs.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.