[linux-lvm] LVM across multiple servers?

[Clint Byrum]

On Monday, April 19, 2004, at 12:07 AM, Michael wrote:

> I remember seeing some mention that in the 2.6 kernels that the new 
> LVM implementation would allow disks across multiple servers to form 
> one logical disk. Did I understand that correctly and if so how do I 
> use that? I have several servers on my home LAN maxed out on the 
> number and size of disks they can handle and would really like to be 
> able to keep all those files managed logically in one giant drive. 
> Thanks.

I'm not sure if nbd (network block device) works as well on 2.6 as it 
did on 2.4, but I would think you could pretty easily use that to have 
LVM utilize disks on another machine. I must admit, I wouldn't do this, 
as it seems rather crude. At the point you're at, a fiber channel or 
even just external SCSI enclosure, sometimes marketted as "DAS" (Direct 
Attached Storage) is probably worth the money.

If it must be network based, nbd would work.

I have also heard of people, in lvm1, using NFS mounted loopback files 
as temporary snapshot storage while backing up. Sounds crazy to me!