Patrick J. LoPresti
2010-Apr-15 17:34 UTC
[Ocfs2-users] Best Linux distribution for OCFS2?
OK, I realize this is a loaded question, but I really am interested in some feedback. I am preparing to create a new OCFS2 cluster -- several of them, actually -- and I have the luxury of choosing my Linux distribution. I am agnostic on this, save for a slight bias against Fedora Core (and, by implication, Red Hat) due to some bad experiences a few years ago. My current short list of options reads: Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 OpenSuse 11.2 or 11.3 Although I have my choice of distributions now, and I have a couple of months to prototype, once the choice is made I will be stuck supporting the configuration for years; hardware and O/S changes will be costly. So I want to get this right. I have been reading this mailing list for a while, and it sounds like OCFS2 has had some fairly serious bugs fixed just in the last few weeks and months (e.g., ENOSPC when there is plenty of space). Which distribution, if any, has incorporated these fixes? Which would be most likely to provide such fixes in the future? I am also curious to hear success stories, failure stories, advocacy, warnings... Feel free to reply to me personally if you do not want to spam the list, and I will post a summary. Possibly relevant other technologies I intend to use: iSCSI over 10GigE Linux md software RAID-0 (my iSCSI hardware RAID units already provide redundancy) My configuration will be storing 100+ terabytes on a single partition. (Sounds crazy, perhaps? My application is a little... special.) Thanks! - Pat
Watch out for SLES11 as it needs extra package license to use OCFS2. http://forums.novell.com/novell-product-support-forums/suse-linux-enterprise-server-sles/sles-configure-administer/366627-sles-11-ocfs2.html What about CentOS with stock Oracle OCFS2 packages? Regards, S?rgio Em Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:34:52 -0700 "Patrick J. LoPresti" <lopresti at gmail.com> escreveu:> OK, I realize this is a loaded question, but I really am interested in > some feedback. > > I am preparing to create a new OCFS2 cluster -- several of them, > actually -- and I have the luxury of choosing my Linux distribution. > I am agnostic on this, save for a slight bias against Fedora Core > (and, by implication, Red Hat) due to some bad experiences a few years > ago. > > My current short list of options reads: > > Ubuntu Lucid Lynx > Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 > OpenSuse 11.2 or 11.3 > > Although I have my choice of distributions now, and I have a couple of > months to prototype, once the choice is made I will be stuck > supporting the configuration for years; hardware and O/S changes will > be costly. So I want to get this right. > > I have been reading this mailing list for a while, and it sounds like > OCFS2 has had some fairly serious bugs fixed just in the last few > weeks and months (e.g., ENOSPC when there is plenty of space). Which > distribution, if any, has incorporated these fixes? Which would be > most likely to provide such fixes in the future? I am also curious to > hear success stories, failure stories, advocacy, warnings... Feel > free to reply to me personally if you do not want to spam the list, > and I will post a summary. > > Possibly relevant other technologies I intend to use: > > iSCSI over 10GigE > Linux md software RAID-0 (my iSCSI hardware RAID units already > provide redundancy) > > My configuration will be storing 100+ terabytes on a single partition. > (Sounds crazy, perhaps? My application is a little... special.) > > Thanks! > > - Pat > > _______________________________________________ > Ocfs2-users mailing list > Ocfs2-users at oss.oracle.com > http://oss.oracle.com/mailman/listinfo/ocfs2-users-- .:''''':. .:' ` S?rgio Surkamp | Gerente de Rede :: ........ sergio at gruposinternet.com.br `:. .:' `:, ,.:' *Grupos Internet S.A.* `: :' R. Lauro Linhares, 2123 Torre B - Sala 201 : : Trindade - Florian?polis - SC :.' :: +55 48 3234-4109 : ' http://www.gruposinternet.com.br
OCFS and Fedora both work well with OCFS just be aware OCFS/RHEL are on seriously outdated kernel 2.6.18 vs 2.6.30 so OCFS's module is an added kmod . -----Original Message----- From: ocfs2-users-bounces at oss.oracle.com [mailto:ocfs2-users-bounces at oss.oracle.com] On Behalf Of S?rgio Surkamp Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 4:55 PM To: ocfs2-users at oss.oracle.com Subject: Re: [Ocfs2-users] Best Linux distribution for OCFS2? Watch out for SLES11 as it needs extra package license to use OCFS2. http://forums.novell.com/novell-product-support-forums/suse-linux-enterprise -server-sles/sles-configure-administer/366627-sles-11-ocfs2.html What about CentOS with stock Oracle OCFS2 packages? Regards, S?rgio Em Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:34:52 -0700 "Patrick J. LoPresti" <lopresti at gmail.com> escreveu:> OK, I realize this is a loaded question, but I really am interested in > some feedback. > > I am preparing to create a new OCFS2 cluster -- several of them, > actually -- and I have the luxury of choosing my Linux distribution. > I am agnostic on this, save for a slight bias against Fedora Core > (and, by implication, Red Hat) due to some bad experiences a few years > ago. > > My current short list of options reads: > > Ubuntu Lucid Lynx > Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 > OpenSuse 11.2 or 11.3 > > Although I have my choice of distributions now, and I have a couple of > months to prototype, once the choice is made I will be stuck > supporting the configuration for years; hardware and O/S changes will > be costly. So I want to get this right. > > I have been reading this mailing list for a while, and it sounds like > OCFS2 has had some fairly serious bugs fixed just in the last few > weeks and months (e.g., ENOSPC when there is plenty of space). Which > distribution, if any, has incorporated these fixes? Which would be > most likely to provide such fixes in the future? I am also curious to > hear success stories, failure stories, advocacy, warnings... Feel > free to reply to me personally if you do not want to spam the list, > and I will post a summary. > > Possibly relevant other technologies I intend to use: > > iSCSI over 10GigE > Linux md software RAID-0 (my iSCSI hardware RAID units already > provide redundancy) > > My configuration will be storing 100+ terabytes on a single partition. > (Sounds crazy, perhaps? My application is a little... special.) > > Thanks! > > - Pat > > _______________________________________________ > Ocfs2-users mailing list > Ocfs2-users at oss.oracle.com > http://oss.oracle.com/mailman/listinfo/ocfs2-users-- .:''''':. .:' ` S?rgio Surkamp | Gerente de Rede :: ........ sergio at gruposinternet.com.br `:. .:' `:, ,.:' *Grupos Internet S.A.* `: :' R. Lauro Linhares, 2123 Torre B - Sala 201 : : Trindade - Florian?polis - SC :.' :: +55 48 3234-4109 : ' http://www.gruposinternet.com.br _______________________________________________ Ocfs2-users mailing list Ocfs2-users at oss.oracle.com http://oss.oracle.com/mailman/listinfo/ocfs2-users
On 2010-04-15T10:34:52, "Patrick J. LoPresti" <lopresti at gmail.com> wrote:> My current short list of options reads: > > Ubuntu Lucid Lynx > Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 > OpenSuse 11.2 or 11.3Marketing on (hey, you _did_ ask!) - Like others have pointed out, SLES 11 does not include OCFS2 in the base product; you need an additional subscription for the SLE High-Availability extension. (Note its not the same as a license. Important distinction in the free software world ;-) The list price for the extension is $699 I believe; however, that includes more than just the maintenance updates, but will actually upgrade your support contract for SLES to cover the HA extension too. Without sounding too much like a marketing drone, I'd very much recommend that an HA environment is purchased together with support. If you're going to be supporting this for years, it sounds like a business environment, and a business HA environment tends to, by definition, be mission-critical. If it weren't, people wouldn't be investigating HA for it. So, to be fair, the list price for SLE HA needs to be compared with the relevant support and testing cost for Ubuntu/openSUSE to get the full cost. (Unless you have the staff internally to support all the components; in which case you wouldn't be asking ;-) openSUSE has fairly aggressive release cycles and perhaps won't get the updates you need; and won't be receiving maintenance for "years" - if you need, say, 3-10 years, SLE HA is probably the best choice. It should also be obvious that an enterprise-distribution gets more integration, QA and testing on top of the community distributions. When you report an iSCSI/md/OCFS2 bug to Novell as a paying customer, we have a bunch of OCFS2 maintainers and developers on staff to drop whatever they were doing and rush to it. Also the OCFS2 integration on SLE HA 11 is quite well tested, and it's Novell's primary cluster file system. Mark did quite a bit of debugging and performance upgrades there. We release periodic maintenance updates fixing bugs, and the upcoming SP1 release includes a fully tested refresh with all the latest OCFS2 bits. Ubuntu HA is fairly new. I'm not aware of how much experience they've got with shipping products/supporting HA environments. Looking at the contributions the community gets from Oracle, Red Hat, SuSE et al, Ubuntu contributors are not on the list. This is not meant as a dismissal; it may be Ubuntu is right for you. But from the list of the three distributions, only one of them has a 10 year history of shipping cluster solutions and enterprise support. And, of course, it allows me to buy food. I really like food. ;-) Regards, Lars -- Architect Storage/HA, OPS Engineering, Novell, Inc. SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG N?rnberg) "Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes." -- Oscar Wilde