Gluster users - Dec 2013 - Project pre planning

Hello GlusterFS users,
 
can anybody give me please his opinion about the following facts and
questions:
4 storage server with 16 SATA bays, connected by GigE:

Q1: 
Volume will be set up as distributed-replicated.
Maildir, FTP Dir, htdocs, file store directory => as sub dir's in one big
GlusterVolume or each dir in it's own GlusterVolume?

Q2: Set up the bricks as a collection of JBOD's or underlay it with a RAID-5
array?

Q3: A client mounted the GlusterFS from a nfs export of node 1. What if the
server is down - would be a set up with virtual IP triggered by heartbeat a
solution to provide one available fix IP for the clients?

I have everytime two http-server, (FTP server, Mailserver, SMB Server) which
have mounted the GlusterFS by nfs.
The clients are also controlled by heartbeat with a virtual IP which will
use the clients on the network:

Gluster Node1 --+ 
                | 
Gluster Node2 --+      +-- http1 --+
                +------+           |--> Clients
Gluster Node3 --+      +-- http2 --+
                | 
Gluster Node4 --+ 

Will this work? 

best regards
Frank

On 17.12.2013 08:06, Frank Kirschner wrote:
> Hello GlusterFS users,
Hello,
> 
> can anybody give me please his opinion about the following facts and
> questions:
> 4 storage server with 16 SATA bays, connected by GigE:
My IMHO inline:
> 
> Q1:
> Volume will be set up as distributed-replicated.
> Maildir, FTP Dir, htdocs, file store directory => as sub dir's in
one
> big
> GlusterVolume or each dir in it's own GlusterVolume?
I'd go for individual volumes, might give you extra flexibility in the 
future and it's also better security to have stuff in different places.
> 
> Q2: Set up the bricks as a collection of JBOD's or underlay it with a 
> RAID-5
> array?
We use RAID6 in our setup, JBOD might give you better total throughput 
at the cost of more hassle (replacing bricks). There was a similar 
thread recently, check it out:
https://www.mail-archive.com/gluster-users at gluster.org/msg13707.html
> 
> Q3: A client mounted the GlusterFS from a nfs export of node 1. What 
> if the
> server is down - would be a set up with virtual IP triggered by 
> heartbeat a
> solution to provide one available fix IP for the clients?
You can use a VIP to export your NFS, we use keepalived, but in 
hindsight I regret not knowing about CTDB at the time, it plays well 
with Samba.
http://download.gluster.org/pub/gluster/glusterfs/doc/Gluster_CTDB_setup.v1.pdf
http://ctdb.samba.org/
> 
> I have everytime two http-server, (FTP server, Mailserver, SMB Server) 
> which
> have mounted the GlusterFS by nfs.
> The clients are also controlled by heartbeat with a virtual IP which 
> will
> use the clients on the network:
> 
> Gluster Node1 --+
>                 |
> Gluster Node2 --+      +-- http1 --+
>                 +------+           |--> Clients
> Gluster Node3 --+      +-- http2 --+
>                 |
> Gluster Node4 --+
> 
> Will this work?
Looks good to me.

Good luck!

-- 
Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!

Nux!
www.nux.ro