[Linux-cluster] Clustered filesystem questions for shared storage on CentOS/vmWare/SAN

[Dax Kelson]

A few comments below.

On Fri, 2012-01-13 at 12:30 -0800, Wes Modes wrote:
> I have some general clustered filesystem questions for you.  I'm wading
>
> 1)  First several online sources have pointed me to the Microsoft
> Clustered Filesystem doc to set up my linux clustered FSs on vmWare. 
> Though it deals with MSCS, I can see that it has some applicability. 
> However, I have yet to find a step-by-step guide to linux clustered
> filesystems.  Is there a better suited document to guide me thorough the
> process of creating shared filesystems on CentOS/RHEL on vmWare across
> boxes? 

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Global_File_System_2/index.html
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Cluster_Administration/index.html

> 2)  Is it necessary to create a private network for access to the shared
> filesystem as the MSCS doc suggests?

Required? No.

> 3)  So far I've been looking at GFS because it is native to
> CentOS/RHEL.  Is there a better non-commercial/free choice?

Not really. Probably the next most popular is OCFS2.

> 4)  Is there a clustered filesystem method that supports vmWare HA? 
> This is important to us.

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean fencing?

> 5)  Seems there at least three different methods to set up GFS (using
> parted, using lvmconf, and using iSCSI).  If I go with GFS, which method
> should I use?

GFS2 requires shared storage such as SAN, iSCSI or DRBD. Pick one.

>From the RH docs, "While a GFS2 file system may be used outside of LVM,
Red Hat supports only GFS2 file systems that are created on a CLVM
logical volume."

On RHEL6 and clones, clvmd requires cman.

GFS2 requires fencing for safety and reliability suitable for
production.

Dax Kelson
Guru Labs