[tahoe-dev] multi-user tahoe node suggestions

[Brian Warner]

(just adding to what Zooko said..)

Kyle Markley wrote:
> What are the recommended methods for setting up a tahoe node to be
> used by multiple users on a host, without using root?

Yeah, don't run the tahoe node as root.. it has no need for that. We
actually have an unfinished ticket to make it complain if it is run as
root.


> How then do I best enable other users on the same machine to use the
> same tahoe node? (Is that even what I really want?)

>From a reliability point of view, there's not much value to running more
than one storage node per computer (or one per disk spindle, depending
upon how well the system tolerates disk failures). So if you're enabling
storage, I'd certainly stick to having just one node. Even if you aren't
providing storage, there's a (linear) performance hit to running
multiple nodes.. each will use separate memory, separate network
connections, etc.

The main disadvantage to having multiple users sharing a node is
security. All users are vulnerable to anyone who can control the node
(probably you, in this case). With a few code changes, you could capture
their filecaps, read their documents, and modify them undetectably. If
you're the host admin, you have all those powers already, so it wouldn't
matter.

> Alternately, what are the (dis)advantages of creating a dedicated user
> account to run the tahoe node?

I'd create a separate account to run the node, if only to make it easier
to keep track of how much CPU and disk space it's using, and to limit
the damage to your own account in the unlikely case that some major bug
in Python or Tahoe allows an attacker to compromise the tahoe node
(buffer overflow or something).


Personally, I'd run a single node on my box, in a new dedicated account
(named "tahoe" or "tahoe-prodgrid" or something) and make it available
as a service for my other users. I might set it to listen on
web.port="tcp:3456:interface=127.0.0.1" to restrict its use to local
users and their CLI tools. And then I'd tell my users to set up and test
their CLI tools by doing the following:

 mkdir ~/.tahoe
 mkdir ~/.tahoe/private
 echo "http://127.0.0.1:3456/" >~/.tahoe/node.url
 tahoe create-alias tahoe:
 echo "yay" |tahoe put - tahoe:yay.txt
 tahoe get tahoe:yay.txt


cheers,
 -Brian