[Linux-cluster] IMAP server clustering ...

[linux-cluster at spam.dragonhold.org]

On Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 11:37:18AM -0500, Lon Hohberger wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-10-28 at 18:01 -0600, Michael Gale wrote:
> > But would you even need the GFS file system then ? Could each box just 
> > be accessing a reiserfs via the FC ? and let the application take care 
> > of the "locking" ?
> 
> No, because metadata creation would not be synchronized.  You'd end up
> with a corrupt file system tree.

It's not just the creation, it's the caching too, surely?  The problem is that each system
would end up with a different set of cached data (data & metadata), more than anything.

If there was a way to get it to invalidate the cached data as required, and also serialise
access so that 2 machines don't try to access the same bit of the filesystem at the same
time, then it would work.

And at that point, you've got GFS, AFAICT.

Graham