[nylug-talk] Cluster & SAN Docs

[Matthew Barr]

Yikes!  The best solution isn't going to be one that you can pick up  
off this list, with that level of info.

You're going to have a hard time of it - attempting to do a cluster w/  
shared SAN storage on  linux platform... I can guarantee you'll have  
problems.  The most senior linux admins have trouble with this stuff-  
it's not trivial.


Now.. you can break this down a bit, to try to get some advantage of  
the group knowledge.  What are you trying to cluster-  and why?  What  
service?  Are you clustering for HA (High Avail) or for performance  
reasons (Load balancing, etc) ?  Virtualization at all?

Another issue in the linux world is iscsi vs Fiber attached storage.   
Linux is much more behind on really ubiquitous iscsi, vs what you  
might expect from Windows.

What's your budgets like?  What kind of environment? Corporate, edu,  
non profit?

In some ways.. this isn't a good project for a new to linux admin.   
Managing such a beast will be a major learning experience, and you  
might not have learned the lessons that are more easily learnable at  
the single server level.  I'm currently trying to do a large  
virtualization cluster project, and had entertaining results with RH  
Cluster Suite.    There were some heavy learning experiences, and I've  
been doing Unix/ Linux admin for something like 8 years..

I'm sorry if I'm asking so many questions, but designing clusters is  
not a one size fit all project in the linux world.  I think it's just  
that you don't have most of the options in the Windows world..

Matthew Barr
mbarr at mbarr.net


On Mar 2, 2008, at 7:21 PM, Rick Torres wrote:

> Hi! I just joined the group along with this list the other day. I am  
> also new to the Linux Admin world, and need some quick direction. I  
> have been given a task at work that I thought would be any easy  
> enough job, but have had some difficulties getting the information I  
> need. Bottom line, I need to:
>
> create a server cluster (6 node) environment connected to a SAN disk  
> and need to find some documentation, much less a recommended  
> application to walk me through the install and configuration. I came  
> from the windows world where I was able to use pretty GUI's. I'm not  
> in Kansas anymore! No offense to those from the region or those that  
> live on the yellow brick road.
>
> Any input and direction is greatly appreciated.
>
> New Guy
> Rick
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