ext3 and LUN sharing

[Reiniche]

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

[Ivan Ferreira]

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.

[Ivan Ferreira]

You can also see:

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

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

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

[Reiniche]

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

[Reiniche]

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