[Linux-cluster] Home-brew SAN/iSCSI

[Andrew A. Neuschwander]

Madison Kelly wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
>   Until now, I've been building 2-node clusters using DRBD+LVM for the 
> shared storage. I've been teaching myself clustering, so I don't have a 
> world of capital to sink into hardware at the moment. I would like to 
> start getting some experience with 3+ nodes using a central SAN disk.
> 
>   So I've been pricing out the minimal hardware for a four-node cluster 
> and have something to start with. My current hiccup though is the SAN 
> side. I've searched around, but have not been able to get a clear answer.
> 
>   Is it possible to build a host machine (CentOS/Debian) to have a 
> simple MD device and make it available to the cluster nodes as an 
> iSCSI/SAN device? Being a learning exercise, I am not too worried about 
> speed or redundancy (beyond testing failure types and recovery).
> 
> Thanks for any insight, advice, pointers!
> 
> Madi
> 

If you want to use a Linux host as a iscsi 'server' (a target in iscsi 
terminiology), you can use IET, the iSCSI Enterprise Target: 
http://iscsitarget.sourceforge.net/. I've used it and it works well, but 
  it is a little CPU hungry. Obviously, you don't get the benefits of a 
hardware SAN, but you don't get the cost either.

-Andrew
-- 
Andrew A. Neuschwander, RHCE
Systems/Software Engineer
College of Forestry and Conservation
The University of Montana
http://www.ntsg.umt.edu
andrew at ntsg.umt.edu - 406.243.6310

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