GFS 를 사용해 보신분 계십니까?

GFS 를 권하시지 않는 것으로 이해해도 될까요?

GFS 와 같은 Cluster File System 과 SAN 와 많이 다른가요?

일단 GFS를 설치하는(팔고 설치해주는) 분의 말씀을 들어보면 쓸만하다고 하더군요(sistina -> redhat 제품)

GFS는 상용이니 제대로 된 지원도 가능하리라 생각합니다.

GFS는 상용이니 제대로 된 지원을 받을 권리는 생길거 같읍니다. 제대로 된 지원이 가능할지는 모르지만...

공유를 반드시 해야 한다면 믿음직한 파일 서버를 두대 놓고
NAS방식으로 HA로 구성 하는 방법 입니다.
이런 식으로 구성하면 예상외로 성능도 상당히 잘 나옵니다.

NAS 솔루션을 도입하신다면 저가의 솔루션은 피하시는게 좋겠습니다.
저는 저희 회사에 싼맛에 들여논 모 국산의 NAS 서버 들어 내려고 하고 있습니다.

In 2003, Red Hat announced that it was acquiring Sistina, and that it would work to release Sistina's current technologies as open source in 2004. Red Hat made good on that promise on June 24 by re-releasing the Global File System under the GPL. The Global File System (GFS) has a fairly long and interesting history. According to the OpenGFS website, the GFS project started at the University of Minnesota and was sponsored from 1995-2000 by the University. Then Matthew O'Keefe, a professor at the university, founded Sistina around GFS.

Sistina stopped making new versions of GFS available under the GPL in 2001. It's important to note that it's inaccurate to say (as many have) that GFS has been "re-released" under the GPL -- the original code that was available under the GPL remained available under the GPL. Sistina simply quit putting out new releases under the GPL, but users still had the option of using and working with releases prior to Sistina's license change, as did the OpenGFS project.

The release put out by Red Hat last week actually consists of more than just GFS the file system; it totals nine components in all. In addition to GFS itself, Red Hat has released the clustering extensions to the Logical Volume Manager 2 (LVM2). Also, Red Hat has released clustering infrastructure tools and cluster block devices that work with GFS; The Cluster Configuration System (CCS), Cluster Manager (CMAN), Distributed Lock Manager (DLM), GFS Unified Lock Manager (GULM), the Fence I/O fencing system, the Global Network Block Device (GNBD) and the Cluster Snapshot Block Device (CSBD).

Linux has no shortage of filesystems to choose from, but GFS is quite a bit different from Ext3, ReiserFS and other popular file systems being used with Linux today. The GFS release probably isn't that interesting for users with a single Linux workstation or for small installations of Linux systems that don't require a great deal of filesystem sharing or redundancy. For Linux shops that have deployed or plan to deploy Linux in a clustering capacity or using a Storage Area Network (SAN) to share filesystems among servers, instead, GFS is a very interesting technology.

GFS allows Linux servers to share a single file system on a block device via fiber channel, iSCSI, NDB or other technology, and allows those servers to simultaneously read from that file system and coordinates writes to the filesystem to avoid data being overwritten. Changes to the filesystem made by one server are immediately available to other servers. GFS is different from the Network File System (NFS) in that it removes the requirement for clients to access storage devices through an NFS server. It removes some of the overhead from working with data, making GFS more robust. One can use the two technologies in conjunction with one another, using GFS to give a set of servers access to a filesystem stored on a set of fiber channel drives (for example) and then exporting the filesystem to clients via NFS.

GFS is highly scalable, which means that hundreds of systems can share a filesystem on a SAN. In addition, as one might expect, file system and volume resizes can be performed while the system is running -- which means that enterprise systems don't need to be brought down for filesystem maintenance when a deployment starts to require more space. The file servers themselves can be clustered to provide high availability, redundancy and increased performance. Just what the doctor ordered for a database cluster, enterprise file servers, large e-mail installations and many other applications.

For those interested in trying out GFS, source RPMs are available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, CVS snapshots are available, and enterprising Fedora user Lennert Buytenhek has already whipped up FC2 RPMs of GFS and the necessary tools. Packages are no doubt being prepared for other popular Linux distributions as well. Instructions on using GFS can be found here.

Of course, RHEL users still have the option of buying GFS for a mere $2200.

The GFS team is now working to put GFS into the mainline Linux kernel. It shouldn't be terribly difficult for a project this useful to find a healthy community of users to apply whatever elbow grease is necessary to make that happen.