I am considering building a pair of storage servers that will be using CentOS and GFS to share the storage from a Coraid (SATA+Raid) EtherDrive shelf. Has anyone else tried such a setup? Is GFS stable enough to use in a production environment? There is a build of GFS 6.1 at http://rpm.karan.org/el4/csgfs/. Has anyone used this? Is it stable? Will I run into any problems if I use CentOS 3.5 with it's GFS package to access a shared 5TB filesystem? I've been googling on this stuff off and on for a month now. I've found a bunch of conflicting and confusing information, but no clear answers. I've been kind of hoping that the new GFS 6.1 packages would be released while I was waiting... :) I appreciate any suggestions or pointers. Bowie
If you are using CentOS 3.5 then you want the el3 version of GFS from here: http://mirror.centos.org/centos-3/3/csgfs/ This is only GFS 6.0 but it works well. It looks like there are lots of differences in 6.1 so I don't think it will work out of the box on CentOS-3. I use GFS with GNBD and it works OK. Some of the nodes are 2 hops away over the ethernet and they can sometimes be a bit slow. They also lock up if the network goes down (no hardware fencing). The servers are in the same rack and work well together. I don't know the maximum filesystem size, or if your hardware is supported but read the docs and it won't cost you anything to try it. John. Bowie Bailey wrote:> I am considering building a pair of storage servers that will be using > CentOS and GFS to share the storage from a Coraid (SATA+Raid) EtherDrive > shelf. Has anyone else tried such a setup? > > Is GFS stable enough to use in a production environment? > > There is a build of GFS 6.1 at http://rpm.karan.org/el4/csgfs/. Has anyone > used this? Is it stable? > > Will I run into any problems if I use CentOS 3.5 with it's GFS package to > access a shared 5TB filesystem? > > I've been googling on this stuff off and on for a month now. I've found a > bunch of conflicting and confusing information, but no clear answers. I've > been kind of hoping that the new GFS 6.1 packages would be released while I > was waiting... :) > > I appreciate any suggestions or pointers. > > Bowie > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > >-- John Newbigin Computer Systems Officer Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, Australia http://www.ict.swin.edu.au/staff/jnewbigin
From: John Newbigin [mailto:jnewbigin at ict.swin.edu.au]> > Bowie Bailey wrote: > > > I am considering building a pair of storage servers that will be > > using CentOS and GFS to share the storage from a Coraid > > (SATA+Raid) EtherDrive shelf. Has anyone else tried such a setup? > > > > Is GFS stable enough to use in a production environment? > > > > There is a build of GFS 6.1 at http://rpm.karan.org/el4/csgfs/. Hasanyone> > used this? Is it stable? > > > Will I run into any problems if I use CentOS 3.5 with it's GFS packageto> > access a shared 5TB filesystem? > > > > I've been googling on this stuff off and on for a month now. I've founda> > bunch of conflicting and confusing information, but no clear answers.I've> > been kind of hoping that the new GFS 6.1 packages would be releasedwhile I> > was waiting... :) > > If you are using CentOS 3.5 then you want the el3 version of > GFS from here: > http://mirror.centos.org/centos-3/3/csgfs/Right. The version I referenced would be for CentOS 4.1.> This is only GFS 6.0 but it works well. It looks like there are > lots of differences in 6.1 so I don't think it will work out of the > box on CentOS-3. > > I use GFS with GNBD and it works OK. Some of the nodes are 2 hops > away over the ethernet and they can sometimes be a bit slow. They > also lock up if the network goes down (no hardware fencing).What is GNBD?> The servers are in the same rack and work well together. > > I don't know the maximum filesystem size, or if your hardware is > supported but read the docs and it won't cost you anything to try it.Actually, I'm trying to determine workability before I spend money on the storage hardware, so it will cost me quite a bit to try it. Does anyone know the maximum filesystem size for CentOS 3.5 and GFS 6.0? Bowie
Just wondering if anyone out there has any opinions or better still experience with Coraid's AoE products in a centos environment? We're looking at developing a very basic active/standby 2 node cluster which will need a shared storage component. It would be a huge bonus if other servers could also use the storage device. Originally I was looking at the Dell/EMC iSCSI solution as it's a cheaper solution than fibre channel. However, the performance issues without using a TCP offload HBA are a bit of a concern. Then I found the Coraid (www.coraid.com) products based on the open standard AoE protocol. It's got a number of benefits including: price, less protocol overhead for the server and the ability to use any disks where as "enterprise" approved products form the likes of Dell/Sun etc only support 250gb sata disks at the moment. I guess my concern is that it's a new technology that's not been widely adopted so far and all the issues that go along with that. Any options or feedback would be really helpful. Cheers, Nick