[Gluster-users] System Requirements (and mild rant re: lack-of-documentation)

[Jonathan B. Horen]

What little documentation that there is for Gluster doesn't include anything
regarding system requirements -- minimum or recommended.

We're trying to spec-out a setup using four SAN storage units: two NexSans
(30T SATAbeast and 10T SATAboy) and two FalconStors (32T NSS650 and 32T
NSS620), all connected via iSCSI. These supply storage for two RHEL5 compute
clusters (17-node Penguin and 3-node IBM x3950m2) and 300+ user secure file
share.

Without "real" documentation -- conceptual and otherwise -- it's damn
difficult to decide. Is Gluster cpu-intensive, memory heavy, or a mix of the
two? And bricks! Is a 10T SAN unit a "brick", or a "block" (or several
"bricks")? and does it matter? How many bricks can/could/should a Gluster
server node serve?

I could spend weeks searching through the mailing-list archives, but that's
the purpose of documentation. Frankly, we're at a loss.

Is there information to be found, and, if so, where is it?

-- 
JONATHAN B. HOREN
Systems Administrator
UAF Life Science Informatics
Center for Research Services
(907) 474-2742
jbhoren at alaska.edu
http://biotech.inbre.alaska.edu