[Linux-cluster] GFS Based File Server Advice

[HAWKER, Dan]

Hi All,

I have a new iSCSI array arriving soon and would like to carve it up and use
GFS to provide a central storage pool for a group of servers we use for
building/compiling software.

Each team of developers only has access to their own specific build server
and as such I don't need the servers to *act as one* however as they all use
a common data snapshot, a cluster FS would seem a sensible direction to
take.

My developers are coding an unholy mix of Java, C & C++ in the main, and
although they access the data snapshot simultaneously (presently spread
across a couple of servers and dragged around using NFS) they rarely, if
ever are reading/writing the exact same part of the data store at the same
time. They use a view of the snapshot (in essence a duplicate),
edit/write/etc the code, build and then submit it back to our versioning
software (Rational ClearCase) which is stored elsewhere. 

After reading through the docs and other resources, it seems GFS would be a
good fit, what with us running a mix of FC4/5 and RHEL4 boxes.

Having read through the docs and stuff it all looks pretty straightforward,
however thought I'd ask some advice to check for any gotchas and general
*that didn't quite work as anticipated* experiences from ppl that I presume
use GFS on a daily basis, and hopefully anecdotes from ppl who use GFS in a
software development role.

TIA

Dan
--

Dan Hawker
Linux System Administrator
EADS Astrium

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