[Gluster-users] inconsistent file content across clients

[Lana Deere]

I'm using glusterfs 3.1.0, 4 distributed nodes, rdma transport, server
nodes running CentOS 5.5, client nodes running CentOS 5.4.  Access via
the native/fuse client, fstab entry:
  storage0:/RaidData /mnt/RaidData glusterfs defaults,_netdev,transport=rdma 0 0

I'm seeing some file consistency issues.  Here's an example, where a second
host becomes out of sync with the first host once "vi" changes a file.  Both
hosts h1 and h2 are in the same working directory.

h1$ date
Thu Nov 18 17:19:49 EST 2010
h1$ echo "hello" > file
h1$ cat file
hello
h1$ date
Thu Nov 18 17:20:03 EST 2010
                                        h2$ date
                                        Thu Nov 18 17:20:09 EST 2010
                                        h2$ cat file
                                        hello
                                        h2$ date
                                        Thu Nov 18 17:20:14 EST 2010
h1$ date
Thu Nov 18 17:20:51 EST 2010
h1$ vi file
h1$ cat file
This is
the new version
of file.
h1$ date
Thu Nov 18 17:21:06 EST 2010
                                        h2$ date
                                        Thu Nov 18 17:21:11 EST 2010
                                        h2$ cat file
                                        cat: file: No such file or directory
                                        h2$ date
                                        Thu Nov 18 17:22:24 EST 2010
                                        h2$ cat file
                                        hello
                                        h2$
h1$ date
Thu Nov 18 17:22:29 EST 2010
h1$ cat file
This is
the new version
of file.
h1$

If I now go to a third client which was uninvolved with the above, it
has the current version of the file (same as on h1).  But even a long
time later (say, 30 minutes), h2 still sometimes shows the file as
missing and other times shows the original content, but never
the correct new content.  However, if I now use h2 to delete the
file, it immediately vanishes from h1 as well.

Is this expected behavior, and is there a way to force the files to
synchronize more closely?

Thanks!


.. Lana (lana.deere at gmail.com)