topic Re: ext3 and LUN sharing in Operating System - Linux

ext3 and LUN sharing

Reiniche — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:11:20 GMT

Hi there,
Is there a way to share the same LUN between 2 different servers, based on the ext3 FS?
In other words, is there a way to control scsi reservation/release trough ext3?
Of course, we do not intend to access the same LUN from 2 servers at the same time (there’ll be 1w standby host) but we want to be sure that once we’ll swap to the standby node, we’ll be able to mount the FS without scsi reservation conflicts.
Thx

Re: ext3 and LUN sharing

Ivan Ferreira — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:53:20 GMT

So far I have not seen a cluster software for Linux that provides SCSI reservation for LUNs in a failover configuration (Maybe ServiceGuard).

You could use the Linux HA software (http://www.linux-ha.org/), it provides some "fencing" schemes or STONITH options to avoid file system corruption.

Cluster Suite is another option.

Re: ext3 and LUN sharing

Ivan Ferreira — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:02:55 GMT

You can also see:

http://linux.die.net/man/8/sg_persist
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-17809

Re: ext3 and LUN sharing

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:10:03 GMT

Shalom,

Short answer is:

GFS is the filesystem designed for simultaneous access and LUN sharing.

If as you note above, you DO NOT require simultaneous access, then ext3 will work for you.

SEP

Re: ext3 and LUN sharing

Reiniche — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:55:32 GMT

Thanks for you answers! That's all I wanted to know.
Cheers!

Re: ext3 and LUN sharing

Reiniche — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:57:51 GMT

Thread Closed -