[Fedora-xen] Block device sharing

[Bertho Stultiens]

Hi,

I am trying to share a GFS2 partition across multiple xen boxes to share
f.x. the /home dir (using FC6). According to the Xen 3.0 documentation
at chapter 6.1, I should be using either NFS or a clusterFS. I do not
want to use a networkFS, so GFS seems to be the sane choice. The setup:

SAN -> /dev/sdX -> [c]LVM -> vgxen -> lvbox{00-99}
                                   -> lvswap{00-99}
                                   -> lvhome
Each VM has mounted a unique rootfs from lvboxX and swap from lvswapX
partition and share lvhome using GFS. The SAN has a multipath FC
connection to 8 blades and the VMs run distributed over the blades.

The problem, however, is that xen does not allow me to export
blockdevices that are in use. I've tried to export the PV (/dev/sdX) and
the LV (/dev/vgxen/lvhome), but both cases fail with an error (Device
/dev/sdX is mounted in a guest domain, and so cannot be mounted now.)
Any VM started after the first fails.

Is there a way to force xen to export the same blockdevice (either the
PV or preferably the LV)?


-- 
Greetings Bertho


Bertho Stultiens
Senior Systems Manager
Mobilethink A/S