On Jun 16, 2010, at 4:17 PM, "Joseph L. Casale" <jcasale at 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