[CentOS] Using (was: Announcing) Gluster Storage Platform

Wed Dec 16 00:48:37 UTC 2009
Christopher Chan <christopher.chan at bradbury.edu.hk>

Alan McKay wrote:
> OK, you have my attention.  But reading around on the website for 5 or
> 10 minutes and I'm still not sure what this is.
> 
> What is it?

A cluster filesystem

> Why would I use it?

Because the alternatives are either not up to it or fraught with problems.

> What would I use instead of it?  (Who are its competitors)

Maybe Lustre or GFS if you have a small (note: SMALL) deployment.

> When would I not use it?

When you do not need/want a cluster file system that still gives you an 
alternative access mechanism (cifs, nfs, whatever) to your data if 
certain crucial bits go down.

> 
> I see this "The software is a powerful and flexible solution that
> simplifies the task of managing unstructured file data", but I have no
> idea what "unstructured file data" means.
> 

Me neither but I have me eyes on GlusterFS and I have been waiting for 
OpenSolaris support as a client or I will be using Centos 5 as a client.