[Gluster-users] How to configure with mixed LAN addresses?

[Whit Blauvelt]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 04:56:57PM -0400, Jeff Darcy wrote:

> > But with nfs client use, and/or gluster client use locally on one of the
> > mirroring gluster servers, it still looks like best practice to use a
> > crossover to me. Or do I have the logic wrong?
> 
> In those cases you're correct so long as there are only two servers
> (another case I tend not to focus on BTW).  That didn't seem like what
> you were talking about, though, since you mentioned both client-side
> volfiles (which wouldn't be used in the NFS case) and private addresses
> (which wouldn't be hidden from clients which are also servers).  I
> therefore concluded that you must be talking about native protocol
> between two servers and separate clients.

I'm talking about a mixed environment. I've presently got - for the same two
servers - gluster-mirrored storage used by clients on the servers, as well
as gluster-mirrored storage by nfs clients elsewhere on a LAN. I would
_also_ like to use gluster clients on the LAN, to connect to storage on
these boxes, but so far those don't work for me in this configuration. (At
least with 3.1.4 clients as they compile on Ubuntu 8.04.4. Maybe the bug I'm
hitting isn't in the tree I'm barking up here.)

While it's exciting that gluster can handle huge amounts of data for the
likes of Pandora, there are many shops with smaller data storage needs,
whose main goal is consolidating systems in some approximation of an HA
environment. Largish SAS RAID arrays are cheap now, especially if you don't
care much about spindle speed. Servers with a couple of 8-core CPUs are also
cheap. So the temptation is: Take a couple of such servers, put a crossover
between them, and mirror some of their disk storage for HA. Use some of that
storage for servers elsewhere on the LAN, some locally. Use some of the
local storage for kvm vms hosted on these same servers....

What was a whole rack of servers a few years ago can easily fold down to
just a couple of boxes like this today. All the excitement seems to be about
huge clouds, but small clouds are fun too, and useful.

Best,
Whit