[linux-lvm] HA Fileserver configuration recommendation sought.

[Dan Stromberg]

I have the results I obtained while experimenting with > 2T filesystems
on RHEL 3 and FC 2 at the following URL:

http://dcs.nac.uci.edu/~strombrg/nbd.html

It mostly covers NBD and ENBD, but I believe you'll find some things
relevant to what you're looking for in it as well - EG there is some md
and LVM coverage.

Another alternative is Lustre.  It is a filesystem which purports to be
able to aggregate the disks of multiple storage computers into one or
more gigantic filesystems.  It isn't stable for us, but it may be
someday.  :)  The Lustre vendor claims to be able to break not just the
2T barrier, but also the 16T barrier.  We do have a lustre filesystem of
over 16T set up now, but it remains to be seen what will happen when we
actually put over 16T of -data- in it.

Another option may be the "LBD" patches.  I haven't tried them, nor even
studied about them.

On Fri, 2004-11-19 at 09:47 +0000, Gary Mansell wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I currently run RHAS3.0 on a Dell PE2650 which is directly attached to
> an EMC FC4500 2TB HW RAID 5 unit via two QLA2310F Fibre Channel cards.
> I have EMC's Powerpath software installed to give me multiple paths to
> the disk subsytem in case of controller or cable failure. 
> 
> This configuration has served me well but is now about to be End Of
> Life'd by Dell and I need to grow the storage. There is obviously
> quite a price premium to pay for this sort of kit so I was hoping to
> find a cheaper solution for the future.
> 
> I have seen the Nexsan ATABEAST which is a 16TB ATA array with dual
> fibre channel controllers. It seems to be well liked and is reasonably
> priced but my concern is how to achieve multiple paths to the disk.
> How would you recommend achieving a highly available configuration
> with this sort of disk subsystem?
> 
> Also, am I correct in thinking that the maximum filesystem size with
> RHEL 3.0 is 2TB? Is it possible to get over this limitation with LVM
> or some other method?
> 
> Any advice gladly received.
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> Gary Mansell -- 
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