On Jun 16, 2010, at 4:17 PM, "Joseph L. Casale" <jcasale@activenetwerx.com
wrote:
I am just trying to consider my options for storing a large mass of data (tens of terrabytes of files) and one idea is to build a clustered FS of some kind. Has anybody had any experience with that? Any recommendations?
You haven't actually stated whether you want the backing devices distributed or have the file system support more than one mount?
You likely don't need a cluster aware fs, if you need to access the data in more than one place any of several file sharing methodologies will work.
I suspect as your storage need is large, you need to distribute it across more than one block device probably on several servers? DRBD is of no use here.
You are probably looking to have multiple iSCSI/FC storage servers/ appliances in the backend with one or more NAS head servers serving it up via NFS/CIFS.
If the head servers will be serving the same file systems simultaneously then you need a cluster file system and clustering software. If each head server will be serving a distinct file system then you probably just need some HA software like heartbeat or pacemaker to have those exports fail-over to the other head server(s) in the event of a head server failure.
-Ross