[Linux-cluster] Need advice on cluster configuration

[Daniel Cunningham]

So I have been following this list for a while, and have set up a simple 
GFS/LVM cluster running on debian to test it out.  I would like others 
opinions on this list about possible solutions.

    We are a small company (25 employees) but have fairly substantial 
storage needs.  Right now I have two 1.5 TB scsi arrays each connected 
to its own debian box ( scsi jbod array attached to a raid 5 card).  The 
two boxes are running DRBD (think of it as network raid 1) synced over a 
crossover cable on GB ethernet.  The  boxes  use heartbeat to share a 
floating ip address, ie if the primary goes down, the secondary will 
come up, take the ip address, mount its side of the  storage and start 
nfs/smb services.  Our colo does a tivoli backup every night for 
persistent and off site storage. This has worked great so far because...

                  1. if the primary fails, we have a live system again 
in 30 seconds
                  2. cheap (well , no , actually the dell scsi arrays 
were expensive but not the whole solution)

    I'm now faced with growing storage pains, this solution is not 
scalable and we are quickly running out of space.  Plus our system is 
now housing some 15 million files which is giving the tivoli system 
grief, not to mention if we had to restore, we would be out of business 
for days, if not for good.

    What I'm envisioning is buying either a Storcase FC raid array (6.4 
TB), maybe even Apples (5.6TB), with two GFS/CLVM boxes in front of it 
providing nfs and smb services.  I would also like to purchase another 
one with more space just for backups (with off site backups going to the 
old system at another location for a while).   So my questions are

    1.  Is the redhat/sistina solution right for this?
    2.  Is there a better solution (for my scenario)
    3.  what thoughts on backup do others have ( I prefer open source, 
but we look at commercial)
    4.  Problems with mounts larger then 2TB and nfs clients? (ie 2.4 
problems)
    5.  (to redhat) when is the 6.1 availability? ( for AS 4.0 with 2.6 
for partitions > 2TB)
    6.  How do I achieve the same nfs/smb/ip failover as I do with 
heartbeat (really important!)
    7.  any other words of wisdom :-)

    I have been really whiting my head against the wall on this.  Any 
help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks
    Dan-