NFS on top of GFS2 - does it work?
- by Matthew
We're currently using a NoSQL derivative called Splunk to receive our data. The software supports something called "search head pooling" in which the job-dispatching engine is housed on several servers which share a common storage point. Originally our intention was to use a clustered filesystem like GFS2 because of low latency, stability, and ease of setup. We set up GFS2, and it's working with no issues.
However when trying to run the software, it's trying to create lock files, and a bunch of other things that their support team can't quite explain. Ultimate feedback from them was that they only support NFS.
Our network administration team heavily frowns on NFS (lack of stability, file lock issues, etc).
So, I was thinking about the possibility of setting up NFS on each server in the cluster to act as a wedge layer between the GFS2 filesystem and the software. Basically configure each server to export the GFS2 filesystem's mountpoint via NFS, and then tell each server to connect to that NFS share. That way we aren't introducing any single-points-of-failure should a dedicated NFS server go down, but the vendor gets their "required" NFS share.
I'm just brainstorming ways around, so please tear this apart :)
