Lustre discuss - Oct 2008 - lustre as a shared filesystem for vmware?

Has anyone tried using a Lustre filesystem as a shared filesystem hosting
vmware virtual machines?  I was considering how someone might go about doing
this, but there is one big issue I''m coming up against, namely:  How
would
you mount the Lustre filesystem on a VMware ESX server?  You''d either
have
to figure out how to install the client (it would change the kernel which
would probably be bad on an ESX server...) or somehow export the filesystem
from a client via iSCSI.

The problem with exporting a Lustre filesystem via iSCSI and importing as an
iSCSI target is that it''s not really a "Lustre" client at
that point, so I''m
thinking this won''t work.  I guess maybe you could also mount the
Lustre FS
to a client and try exporting via NFS, but this doesn''t really seem
like a
good solution.  Anyhow, if anyone has gone and done this, I''d be
interested
in knowing how it was done.

Thanks!
Jay
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Jay -

 

Do you need to use ESX? ESX can use images (instead of block devices)
but the client is still an issue.

 

We have used Lustre as a shared file system for VMware Server (GSX).
Since that product relies on a host, you can set up the Lustre client
and get it working.

 

Also - the distro of Linux can impact your success - Suse seems to have
an easier time with it.

 

Kevin

 

 

 

Kevin Kelly

Terascala 

Visit us at Super Computing ''08 Booth 3226

Kevin at terascala.com <mailto:Kevin at terascala.com> 

508-330-9663

www.terascala.com <http://www.terascala.com/> 

 

 

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Nope, it does not *have* to be ESX and I was starting to think about using
VMware Server last night for the reasons you stated.  I would prefer ESX,
but I am not sure its going to be possible.

On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 4:48 AM, Kevin Kelly <kevin at terascala.com>
wrote:
>  Jay ?
>
>
>
> Do you need to use ESX? ESX can use images (instead of block devices) but
> the client is still an issue.
>
>
>
> We have used Lustre as a shared file system for VMware Server (GSX). Since
> that product relies on a host, you can set up the Lustre client and get it
> working.
>
>
>
> Also ? the distro of Linux can impact your success ? Suse seems to have an
> easier time with it.
>
>
>
> Kevin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Kevin Kelly
>
> Terascala
>
> *Visit us at Super Computing ''08 Booth 3226*
>
> Kevin at terascala.com
>
> 508-330-9663
>
> www.terascala.com
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lustre-discuss mailing list
> Lustre-discuss at lists.lustre.org
> http://lists.lustre.org/mailman/listinfo/lustre-discuss
>
>
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