[Linux-cluster] Fwd: High Available Transparent File System

[Digimer]

On 04/10/2011 03:06 PM, Meisam Mohammadkhani wrote:
> Dear Digimer,
> 
> First of all, thanks for your reply.
> I'm not familiar with DRBD, but according to my little searches it's a
> solution for high availability in Linux operating system. But, actually
> our application uses .net as its framework, so it is dependent to
> Windows-based operating systems and using the DRBD may facing us with
> some new challenges. Also because of commodity nature of our machines,
> using the windows solutions needs a windows server on machines that is
> heavy for them. Using DRBD, force us to run our application in virtual
> machines that decrease the performance according to hardware spec. So we
> thought that maybe a "high available transparent file system" can be a
> good solution for this case. Even if the file system was not so
> cross-platform, we maybe be able to handle it with virtual machines
> which use the physical disks as their storage.
> I will appreciate your opinion.
> 
> Regards

Hi,

  Well, I must say, I am a bit confused as this is the Linux cluster
mail list. I assumed you were using Linux. :P

  If you are running a relatively modern version of windows (ie: 2008
R2, iirc), then you can run the Windows as a paravirtualized guest on a
server with hardware virtualization support, which most modern machines
have. Particularly higher-end equipment. You would need to run Linux on
the hosts, but you could minimize the resources used by that host and
dedicate most of the resources to the VM with relatively minor
performance hit.

  Now, to back up, I can't say I can advice the use of a cluster without
you being able or willing to go through the fairly steep learning curve.
It's not *hard*, per-se, but there are many bits that have to work
together for a cluster to be stable. This inter-dependence also means
that there are many creative ways that things could go wrong. Without
sufficient time to learn and experience with Linux, those problems could
be too much to justify this solution.

  I'm afraid I know nothing about clustering or shared file systems in
the Windows world. Perhaps your vendor could provide you with some
insight into pure-windows solutions? If you're a windows shop, that
might make the most sense as it's a platform you are already familiar with.

-- 
Digimer
E-Mail: digimer at alteeve.com
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