Ceph implements a distributed object storage system with its RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store) foundation, while NFS operates as a traditional network file system protocol. Ceph's architecture provides:

// Ceph CRUSH algorithm example (simplified)
class StorageNode {
  constructor(id, weight, type) {
    this.id = id;
    this.weight = weight;
    this.type = type;
  }
}

const CRUSHmap = {
  devices: [
    new StorageNode(1, 1.0, 'ssd'),
    new StorageNode(2, 1.0, 'hdd')
  ],
  rules: {
    replicated_rule: {
      steps: [
        { op: 'take', item: -1, type: 'root' },
        { op: 'chooseleaf_firstn', num: 2, type: 'host' }
      ]
    }
  }
};

In benchmark tests with 4K random reads:

• Ceph (3-node cluster): ~8,000 IOPS
• NFS (single server): ~1,200 IOPS

The performance gap widens with parallel access patterns due to Ceph's distributed nature.

Ceph scales horizontally by adding OSD (Object Storage Daemon) nodes:

# Adding a new OSD to Ceph cluster
ceph osd create
ceph osd crush add osd.{id} {weight} {bucket-type}={bucket-name}
ceph osd in {id}

NFS typically requires vertical scaling or complex federation setups for large deployments.

Ceph provides strong consistency through its RADOS layer and supports multiple consistency modes in CephFS:

// Mounting CephFS with different consistency options
mount -t ceph mon1.example.com:/ /mnt/cephfs -o name=admin,secretfile=/etc/ceph/admin.secret,wsize=1048576,rsize=1048576

NFS implementations vary by version (NFSv4 offers stronger consistency than NFSv3).

Ceph's self-healing capabilities automatically recover from failures:

# Ceph recovery settings in ceph.conf
[osd]
osd recovery max active = 3
osd recovery op priority = 3
osd max backfills = 1

NFS requires manual intervention or HA configurations like DRBD for similar reliability.

Media processing pipeline:

// Python example using Ceph's RADOS Gateway (S3 compatible)
import boto3

s3 = boto3.client(
    's3',
    endpoint_url='http://ceph-gw.example.com',
    aws_access_key_id='ACCESS_KEY',
    aws_secret_access_key='SECRET_KEY'
)

s3.upload_file('video.mp4', 'media-bucket', 'rendering/input.mp4')

NFS for legacy application support:

# Traditional NFS export configuration
/etc/exports:
/mnt/legacy_app_data 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

Ceph's commodity hardware advantage becomes apparent at scale:

• 50TB storage: Ceph ~$15k, NFS (enterprise NAS) ~$25k
• Maintenance: Ceph requires specialized ops knowledge

Ceph is preferable when:

• Need petabyte-scale storage
• Require multi-protocol access (S3, Swift, etc.)
• Building cloud-native applications

NFS makes sense for:

• Legacy application support
• Simple POSIX file sharing needs
• Environments with existing NFS expertise

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Ceph is a distributed object storage system with a unified architecture, while NFS (Network File System) is a traditional client-server protocol for file sharing. Ceph's RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store) forms its foundation, allowing it to scale horizontally across hundreds of nodes.

Ceph excels in massive parallel I/O operations due to its CRUSH algorithm that eliminates centralized metadata servers. Here's a simple benchmark comparison:

# NFS sequential read (1GB file)
dd if=/mnt/nfs/largefile of=/dev/null bs=1M count=1024
# Average: 120 MB/s

# Ceph sequential read (same file)
rados -p mypool get largefile -
# Average: 450 MB/s with 3 OSDs

Ceph's architecture allows linear performance scaling as you add more OSDs (Object Storage Daemons). NFS servers typically hit bottlenecks at the single-server level.

Ceph automatically handles failures through replication or erasure coding. Here's how to check recovery status:

ceph osd pool get mypool size
ceph osd pool get mypool min_size
ceph -s  # Check recovery progress

NFS is better when:
- You need POSIX compliance for legacy applications
- Simple read-heavy workloads
- Budget constraints prevent distributed infrastructure

Ceph shines when:
- You need petabyte-scale storage
- High throughput for parallel workloads
- Multi-protocol access (object, block, file)

Basic NFS export configuration:

/etc/exports:
/mnt/shared 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

Basic CephFS mount:

# Create CephFS
ceph fs volume create myfs

# Mount with kernel client
mount -t ceph mon1.example.com,mon2.example.com:/ /mnt/cephfs \
-o name=admin,secretfile=/etc/ceph/admin.secret

Ceph offers features like:
- Multi-site replication
- QoS controls
- Cache tiering
- Native encryption
While NFS v4.1+ adds pNFS (parallel NFS) for limited scaling.