Gluster users - Feb 2014 - Striped Volume and Client Configuration

Hi,

I have been following a guide to setup my first glusterfs setup going. I
wanted to setup a striped glusterfs across 2 or more nodes. So I was able
to get my striped volume setup and started. I have also setup my client to
connect to the volume and the mount has been successful.

Now the guide that I've followed was for a replication setup. On the client
end, the .vol configuration file contains the replicate method and is
defining both of my nodes. When using this the replicate method, I can see
that the file I add to my client mount will appear in both nodes. However,
if i do not specify the 'replicate' volume, the file only appears on one
of
the server.

Now I'm trying to understand how the 'striped' volume works and how
the
clients stripe vs distribute method is different? Only way I was able to
get files to appear on both volumes was using the 'distribute' method.

My question is, shouldn't I only have to connect to one of my volume and if
the volume has been setup as a stripe?

I do really need to define both nodes on my client for the stripping to
occur if the volume has been setup as a striped volume?

My goal here is not redundancy but being able to add more nodes to increase
storage space when necessary. My concern here is, only the gluster-client
has the ability to define multiple volumes and use the 'distribute'
method.
If a client using NFS or CIF, how can I ensure that stripping will occur?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
<http://supercolony.gluster.org/pipermail/gluster-users/attachments/20140207/7397d83e/attachment.html>

On Fri, 7 Feb 2014 14:11:01 -0800
James Lee <uptownhr at gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>
> I have been following a guide to setup my first glusterfs setup going. I
> wanted to setup a striped glusterfs across 2 or more nodes. So I was able
> to get my striped volume setup and started. I have also setup my client to
> connect to the volume and the mount has been successful.
> 
> Now the guide that I've followed was for a replication setup. On the
client
> end, the .vol configuration file contains the replicate method and is
> defining both of my nodes. When using this the replicate method, I can see
> that the file I add to my client mount will appear in both nodes. However,
> if i do not specify the 'replicate' volume, the file only appears
on one of
> the server.
> 
> Now I'm trying to understand how the 'striped' volume works and
how the
> clients stripe vs distribute method is different? Only way I was able to
> get files to appear on both volumes was using the 'distribute'
method.
Ahhh, a bunch of this looks like you need better understanding of the
GlusterFS foundations. :)

Is watching online video an effective learning method for you?  If so,
Dustin Black's "GlusterFS for SysAdmins" presentation should fill
in a
lot of gaps:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkBndZOcEA0

The slides for it:

 
http://www.gluster.org/community/documentation/index.php/File:Gluster_for_Sysadmins_Dustin_Black.pdf

Possibly also interesting is the "gluster-deploy" wizard written by
Paul Cuzner:

  https://forge.gluster.org/gluster-deploy

He did a screencast/talk thing for an early version of it, and it's
progressed a bunch since then (has v good rep):

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxyPLnlCdhA

Does that help? :)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

-- 
GlusterFS Project: http://www.gluster.org
Justin Clift <justin at gluster.org>