[Linux-cluster] Using ext3 on SAN

[Manish Kathuria]

I am working on a two node Active-Active Cluster using RHEL 5.2 and
the Red Hat Cluster Suite with each node running different services. A
SAN would be used as a shared storage device. We plan to partition the
SAN in such a manner that only one node will mount a filesystem at any
point of time. If there is a fail over, the partitions will be
unmounted and then mounted on the other node. We want to avoid using
GFS because of the associated performance issues. All the partitions
will be formatted with ext3 and the cluster configuration will ensure
that they are not mounted on more than one node at any given point.

Could there be any chances of data loss or corruption in such a
scenario? Is it a must to use a clustered file system if a partition
is going to be mounted at a single node only at any point of time? I
would be glad if you could share your experiences.

Thanks,

Manish