Comments on: High Availability with Open Source http://blog.qbangsolutions.com/high-availability-with-open-source/ qBang Solutions | solutions you want. done. Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:47:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Benjamin Smith http://blog.qbangsolutions.com/high-availability-with-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-68460 Benjamin Smith Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:33:37 +0000 http://www.qbangsolutions.com/blog/index.php/2007/02/26/high-availability-with-open-source/#comment-68460 NFS is truly awful for networked file systems. Locking/blocking issues abound. If you want to see distributed, redundant, fault-tolerant, high-availability cluster file system, look no further than GlusterFS. I went from reading docs to implemented and working in 30 minutes, without repartitioning ANYTHING. The only kernel module I had to worry about was FUSE. (and it was already installed on my CentOS 4 systems) GlusterFS changes the game. [EDITOR'S NOTE]:   I talked to folks at Gluster recently when I went to the Southern California Linux Expo in Los Angeles.  Gluster looks like some *seriously* cool tech.  I'm looking forward to doing some hands-on testing with Gluster and doing a write up for InfoWorld.  Find Gluster at <a xhref="http://www.gluster.org" title="GlusterFS Home" target="gluster" rel="nofollow">http://www.gluster.org</a>. NFS is truly awful for networked file systems. Locking/blocking issues abound.

If you want to see distributed, redundant, fault-tolerant, high-availability cluster file system, look no further than GlusterFS. I went from reading docs to implemented and working in 30 minutes, without repartitioning ANYTHING. The only kernel module I had to worry about was FUSE. (and it was already installed on my CentOS 4 systems)

GlusterFS changes the game.

[EDITOR'S NOTE]:   I talked to folks at Gluster recently when I went to the Southern California Linux Expo in Los Angeles.  Gluster looks like some *seriously* cool tech.  I’m looking forward to doing some hands-on testing with Gluster and doing a write up for InfoWorld.  Find Gluster at http://www.gluster.org.

]]> By: Michael Osten http://blog.qbangsolutions.com/high-availability-with-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-107 Michael Osten Fri, 02 Mar 2007 02:47:41 +0000 http://www.qbangsolutions.com/blog/index.php/2007/02/26/high-availability-with-open-source/#comment-107 After shopping to replace our end-of-life EMC Clairion and NFS NAS head I fully expected one of the major storage vendors to be able to pitch me *some* sort of blessed global file system. Nope, EMC and Storagetek both looked dumbfounded when I asked. I can't be the only one in the world that has multiple machines accessing data on the same storage.... NFS is very slow and doesn't work for some things (anything that requires locking, or any expectation of low latency). After shopping to replace our end-of-life EMC Clairion and NFS NAS head I fully expected one of the major storage vendors to be able to pitch me *some* sort of blessed global file system. Nope, EMC and Storagetek both looked dumbfounded when I asked. I can’t be the only one in the world that has multiple machines accessing data on the same storage….

NFS is very slow and doesn’t work for some things (anything that requires locking, or any expectation of low latency).

]]> By: Josh Kuo http://blog.qbangsolutions.com/high-availability-with-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-70 Josh Kuo Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:22:51 +0000 http://www.qbangsolutions.com/blog/index.php/2007/02/26/high-availability-with-open-source/#comment-70 Here is a detailed <a href="http://www.howtoforge.com/high_availability_nfs_drbd_heartbeat" title="Setting Up A Highly Available NFS Server" rel="nofollow">HOWTO</a> for setting up a highly available NFS server. I personally have not done that, but I would figure building something like this should not be too difficult. That should satisfy your HA File Server requirement. As for Mail Servers and Multi-Master Database systems, I suspect it should not be too far off from the NFS setup either... Thanks for the info on the Sun Microsystem ZFS, good to know :-) Here is a detailed HOWTO for setting up a highly available NFS server. I personally have not done that, but I would figure building something like this should not be too difficult. That should satisfy your HA File Server requirement. As for Mail Servers and Multi-Master Database systems, I suspect it should not be too far off from the NFS setup either…

Thanks for the info on the Sun Microsystem ZFS, good to know :-)

]]> By: Frank Daley http://blog.qbangsolutions.com/high-availability-with-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-69 Frank Daley Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:02:30 +0000 http://www.qbangsolutions.com/blog/index.php/2007/02/26/high-availability-with-open-source/#comment-69 "Open Source makes HA easy to implement, with offerings like heartbeat, keepalived, and CARP." But the challenge for Sys Admins has moved well beyond Web Servers and LDAP servers! Customers are also looking for HA File Servers, Mail Servers, Multi-Master Database systems. I am yet to find a really robust Linux-based HA (FOSS) solution for any of the above. However Sun Microsystems has understood the problem and is steaming ahead with solutions grounded on its ZFS file systems. The new Linux GlusterFS file systems looks promising, but right now - HA on Linux still has lots of gaps. ***** Editor's note: Sun Microsystems' ZFS has been open sourced since this comment was posted, and I believe that a Linux version is already implemented, and possibly BSD versions as well. Also, a Mac OS X version is in the works! “Open Source makes HA easy to implement, with offerings like heartbeat, keepalived, and CARP.”

But the challenge for Sys Admins has moved well beyond Web Servers and LDAP servers!

Customers are also looking for HA File Servers, Mail Servers, Multi-Master Database systems. I am yet to find a really robust Linux-based HA (FOSS) solution for any of the above.

However Sun Microsystems has understood the problem and is steaming ahead with solutions grounded on its ZFS file systems. The new Linux GlusterFS file systems looks promising, but right now – HA on Linux still has lots of gaps.

***** Editor’s note:

Sun Microsystems’ ZFS has been open sourced since this comment was posted, and I believe that a Linux version is already implemented, and possibly BSD versions as well. Also, a Mac OS X version is in the works!

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