[Gluster-users] GlusterFS problems & alternatives
Anoop C S
anoopcs at cryptolab.net
Fri Feb 14 10:02:12 UTC 2020
On Wed, 2020-02-12 at 07:16 -0500, Diego Remolina wrote:
> I can echo the sentiment, lived with a horrible memory leak on FUSE
> mounted glusterfs all the way from some 3.X version (I think it went
> bad on 3.7, but cannot remember) through 4.x on a period of 2+ years,
> where the only solution was to reboot the servers every 15 to 30 days
> to clear the memory (servers have 64GB of RAM). After the latest
> upgrades of version 4.x, the reboot had to be done every 15 days.
> Finally on 6.6 the issue seems fixed (knock on wood).
>
> # free
> total used free shared buff/cache
> available
> Mem: 65771848 16740376 7500048 755468 41531424
> 47707444
> Swap: 0 0 0
> [root at hostname ~]# uptime
> 07:05:49 up 31 days, 8:47, 1 user, load average: 0.40, 0.36, 0.33
>
> If I had been running 4.x series on the above example, gluster would
> had already eaten 40GB-50GB of RAM and the server would probably have
> about 5GB free at best, if it hadn't already started miss-behaving
> after 2 weeks.
>
> I have had success running MooseFS Pro, I am using the "unreleased"
> 4.x branch, which we got for use in an Educational institution. Have
> not had any issues with it. If it wasn't for the elevated cost, I
> would had already replaced every other instance of glusterfs I run
> with MooseFS.
>
> My takeaway is that things get eventually fixed, but I have suffered
> through a lot using glusterfs and Samba. There have been many
> different combinations of glusterfs and the samba vfs gluster plugin
> that have stolen my peaceful sleep. To this date, I have never gone
> back to using the samba vfs gluster plugin after a catastrophe where
> it broke on a samba upgrade and then nobody could write files back to
> the servers via samba.
Sorry to hear that..
But please keep in mind that Samba fixes that are required to work well
with GlusterFS are not yet regularly available as updates in CentOS(or
via CentOS-Storage-SIG). All this while those fixes used to eventually
land in some rebased or a higher version and is the case now.
Let us know about issues that you encounter so that we can confirm
whether it is already fixed with an upcoming version. And possibly we
could provide test packages for verification purposes until we
resurrect the CentOS-Storage-SIG for Samba[1].
[1] https://github.com/CentOS-Storage-SIG/samba
> That is when I changed over to FUSE mounts and then lived with the
> memory leak problems for so long.
>
> Diego
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 12, 2020 at 2:23 AM Hari Gowtham <hgowtham at redhat.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Stefan, sorry to hear that things are breaking a lot in your
> > cluster, please file a bug(s) with the necessary information so we
> > can take a look.
> > If already filed, share it here so we are reminded of it. Fixing
> > broken cluster state should be easy with Gluster.
> > There are a few older threads you should be able to find regarding
> > the same.
> >
> > Do consider the facts that the devs are limited in bandwidth. we do
> > look at the issues and are fixing them actively.
> > We may take some time expecting the community to help each other as
> > well. If they couldn't resolve it we get in try to sort it out.
> > FYI: You can see dozens of bugs being worked on even in the past 2
> > days: https://review.gluster.org/#/q/status:open+project:glusterfs
> > And there are other activities happening around as well to make
> > gluster project healthier. Like Glusto. We are working on this
> > testing framework
> > to cover as many cases as possible. If you can send out a test
> > case, it will be beneficial for you as well as the community.
> >
> > We don't see many people sending out mails that their cluster is
> > healthy and they are happy (not sure if they think they are
> > spamming.
> > which they won't be. It helps us understand how well things are
> > going).
> > Thanks Erik and Strahi, for sharing your experience. It means a lot
> > to us :)
> > People usually prefer to send a mail when something breaks and
> > that's one main reason all the threads you read are creating
> > negativity.
> >
> > Do let us know what is the issue and we will try our best to help
> > you out.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Hari.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 12, 2020 at 11:58 AM Strahil Nikolov <
> > hunter86_bg at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > On February 12, 2020 12:28:14 AM GMT+02:00, Erik Jacobson <
> > > erik.jacobson at hpe.com> wrote:
> > > >> looking through the last couple of week on this mailing list
> > > and
> > > >reflecting our own experiences, I have to ask: what is the
> > > status of
> > > >GlusterFS? So many people here reporting bugs and no solutions
> > > are in
> > > >sight. GlusterFS clusters break left and right, reboots of a
> > > node have
> > > >become a warrant for instability and broken clusters, no way to
> > > fix
> > > >broken clusters. And all of that with recommended settings, and
> > > in our
> > > >case, enterprise hardware underneath.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >I have been one of the people asking questions. I sometimes get
> > > an
> > > >answer, which I appreciate. Other times not. But I'm not paying
> > > for
> > > >support in this forum so I appreciate what I can get. My
> > > questions
> > > >are sometimes very hard to summarize and I can't say I've been
> > > offering
> > > >help as much as I ask. I think I will try to do better.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >Just to counter with something cool....
> > > >As we speak now, I'm working on a 2,000 node cluster that will
> > > soon be
> > > >a
> > > >5120 node cluster. We're validating it with the newest version
> > > of our
> > > >cluster manager.
> > > >
> > > >It has 12 leader nodes (soon to have 24) that are gluster
> > > servers and
> > > >gnfs servers.
> > > >
> > > >I am validating Gluster7.2 (updating from 4.6). Things are
> > > looking very
> > > >good. 5120 nodes using RO NFS root with RW NFS overmounts (for
> > > things
> > > >like /var, /etc, ...)...
> > > >- boot 1 (where each node creates a RW XFS image on top of NFS
> > > for its
> > > > writable area then syncs /var, /etc, etc) -- full boot is 15-
> > > 16
> > > > minutes for 2007 nodes.
> > > >- boot 2 (where the writable area pre-exists and is reused, just
> > > > re-rsynced) -- 8-9 minutes to boot 2007 nodes.
> > > >
> > > >This is similar to gluster 4, but I think it's saying something
> > > to not
> > > >have had any failures in this setup on the bleeding edge release
> > > level.
> > > >
> > > >We also use a different volume shared between the leaders and
> > > the head
> > > >node for shared-storage consoles and system logs. It's working
> > > great.
> > > >
> > > >I haven't had time to test other solutions. Our old solution
> > > from SGI
> > > >days (ICE, ICE X, etc) was a different model where each leader
> > > served
> > > >a set of nodes and NFS-booted 288 or so. No shared storage.
> > > >
> > > >Like you, I've wondered if something else matches this solution.
> > > We
> > > >like
> > > >the shared storage and the ability for a leader to drop and not
> > > take
> > > >288 noes with it.
> > > >
> > > >(All nodes running RHEL8.0, Glusterfs 72, CTDB 4.9.1)
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >So we can say gluster is providing the network boot solution for
> > > now
> > > >two
> > > >supercomputers.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >Erik
> > > >________
> > > >
> > > >Community Meeting Calendar:
> > > >
> > > >APAC Schedule -
> > > >Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 11:30 AM IST
> > > >Bridge: https://bluejeans.com/441850968
> > > >
> > > >NA/EMEA Schedule -
> > > >Every 1st and 3rd Tuesday at 01:00 PM EDT
> > > >Bridge: https://bluejeans.com/441850968
> > > >
> > > >Gluster-users mailing list
> > > >Gluster-users at gluster.org
> > > >https://lists.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-users
> > >
> > > Hi Stefan,
> > >
> > > It seems that devs are not so active in the mailing lists, but
> > > based on my experience the bugs will be fixed in a reasonable
> > > timeframe. I admit that I was quite frustrated when my Gluster
> > > v6.5 to v6.6 upgrade made my lab useless for 2 weeks and the
> > > only help came from oVirt Dev, while gluster-users/devel were
> > > semi-silent.
> > > Yet, I'm not paying for any support and I know that any help here
> > > is just a good will.
> > > I hope this has nothing in common with the recent acquisition
> > > from IBM, but we will see.
> > >
> > >
> > > There is a reason why Red Hat clients are still using Gluster v3
> > > (even with backports) - it is the most tested version in Gluster.
> > > For me Gluster v4+ compared to v3 is like Fedora to RHEL.
> > > After all, the upstream is not so well tested and Gluster
> > > community is taking over here - reporting bugs, sharing
> > > workarounds, giving advices .
> > >
> > > Of course, if you need rock-solid Gluster environment - you
> > > definately need the enterprise solution with it's 24/7 support.
> > >
> > > Keep in mind that even the most expensive storage arrays break
> > > after an upgrade (it happened 3 times for less than 2 weeks where
> > > 2k+ machines were read-only, before the vendor provided a new
> > > patch), so the issues in Gluster are nothing new and we should
> > > not forget that Gluster is free (and doesn't costs millions like
> > > some arrays).
> > > The only mitigation is to thoroughly test each patch on a cluster
> > > that provides storage for your dev/test clients.
> > >
> > > I hope you didn't understand me wrong - just lower your
> > > expectations -> even arrays for millions break , so Gluster is
> > > not an exclusion , but at least it's OpenSource and free.
> > >
> > > Best Regards,
> > > Strahil Nikolov
> > >
> > > ________
> > >
> > > Community Meeting Calendar:
> > >
> > > APAC Schedule -
> > > Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 11:30 AM IST
> > > Bridge: https://bluejeans.com/441850968
> > >
> > > NA/EMEA Schedule -
> > > Every 1st and 3rd Tuesday at 01:00 PM EDT
> > > Bridge: https://bluejeans.com/441850968
> > >
> > > Gluster-users mailing list
> > > Gluster-users at gluster.org
> > > https://lists.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-users
> > >
> >
> >
> > ________
> >
> > Community Meeting Calendar:
> >
> > APAC Schedule -
> > Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 11:30 AM IST
> > Bridge: https://bluejeans.com/441850968
> >
> > NA/EMEA Schedule -
> > Every 1st and 3rd Tuesday at 01:00 PM EDT
> > Bridge: https://bluejeans.com/441850968
> >
> > Gluster-users mailing list
> > Gluster-users at gluster.org
> > https://lists.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-users
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