In pure Linux networks, I've read that NFS is good if the network is small. Are there performance issues that one runs into when using NFS for large networks? Security issues? Is there a competitor to NFS that squanders these issues?
I've also read that NFS grants access based on IP address. Doesn't that mean every client would need a deciated IP? Or is it possible to pool clients into a a range of IP addresses, and to configure NFS to grant (or restrict) access to that pool? Otherwise you would have quite a bit of overhead keeping all the IP address entries up to date in your NFS configuration! Or am I completely misunderstanding this "IP-based" authentication here?
Thanks in advance!