Re: [SLUG] Re: DEC Storage Works
Del wrote:
Slightly related, well it is multi-channel {:-), but does anyone have
any experience with using a DEC Storage works array under dual linux
hosts?[1]
1) can it be done?
Yes. It's a filesystem issue, not specifically a host issue,
Generally the storageworks units I played with left a lot to be desired
in comparison with the EMC gear. I wouldn't buy one or recommend one
to a client, however if one's fallen into your lap it may be a fun
toy, and better than a stack of yellow sticky notes from a storage
point of view.
Thanks Del. Much useful information appreciated.
Yes, it fell into my lap. I suspect is is a very basic model. The most
useful thing was that it had a full complement of hard disks and i think
some spare hard disk and power units, so I can play with software raid,
although I/O isn't going to stress anything.
OTOH, winter is coming, so it will save running a room heater
occassionally {:-)
--
Terry Collins {:-)}}}
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Re: [SLUG] Re: DEC Storage Works
On Thu, Apr 06, 2006 at 09:59:36AM +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote: quote who=Matthew Hannigan On Thu, Apr 06, 2006 at 08:51:05AM +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote: OCFS2 and GFS are supported in Ubuntu from 5.10 onwards. Nice! I believe OCFS2 made it into the standard kernel very recently; 2.6.16? Yeah - though it has been in our .12 and .15 kernels for 5.10 and 6.06. It is pretty rad. Certainly a heck of a lot simpler to set up and monitor than GFS. having a read through the LKML there still seems to be some problems with OCFS2 - data corruption under load - Jeff -- FISL 7.0: Porto Alegre, Brazilhttp://fisl.softwarelivre.org/7.0/www/ Learning and doing is the true spirit of free software -- learning without doing gets you academic sterility, and doing without learning is all too often the way things are done in proprietary software. - Raph Levien -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html signature.asc Description: Digital signature -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Re: DEC Storage Works
Slightly related, well it is multi-channel {:-), but does anyone have
any experience with using a DEC Storage works array under dual linux
hosts?[1]
1) can it be done?
Yes. It's a filesystem issue, not specifically a host issue, although
you do need to make sure that your storageworks array is the type that
will map the same filesystems to multiple hosts (early models won't do
that).
2) which distros?[2]
RHEL 3 with OCFS. RHEL 4 with OCFS2 should work as should GFS (I've
never tried it with GFS). I've seen people fail in an extremely
spectacular manner trying it with ext3. However OCFS is the only
filesystem that I've gotten it to work on personally.
3) other stuff?
You may be able to get GFS for a really recent Debian, 2.6.9 kernel or
thereabouts. You will probably need OCFS if you want this to work on
earlier / 2.4 kernels. OCFS can't be used to store files -- only Oracle
databases. You may have some joy with OCFS2 instead, not sure what
kernels that's supported under. I suspect that OCFS2 is probably more
stable than GFS, but GFS has some performance advantages. Oracle
would like you to use OCFS2, Red Hat would like you to use GFS. Choose
your poison. Neither will support you running on Debian, so you may
need to build from source and google a lot. YMMV.
It was really unstable, and crashed a lot. I suspect that was the
hardware. The ventilation needed to be really good or it spat disks
out at an alarming rate.
The need to rebuild an entire RAID array to expand the size of the
storage was a complete pain, and it wasn't the fastest box to rebuild
arrays on. Make sure you know which direction your SCSI buses and
SCSI IDs are numbered in the chassis -- some storageworks models cable
the busses going down and the IDs left to right, some do it the other
way. Getting multiple disks in the same array spanning multiple busses
within the storageworks chassis can improve your performance a lot,
so sometimes you need to fill the arrays top to bottom and sometimes
you need to fill them left to right.
Generally the storageworks units I played with left a lot to be desired
in comparison with the EMC gear. I wouldn't buy one or recommend one
to a client, however if one's fallen into your lap it may be a fun
toy, and better than a stack of yellow sticky notes from a storage
point of view.
--
Del
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Re: [SLUG] Re: DEC Storage Works
quote who=Del 3) other stuff? You may be able to get GFS for a really recent Debian, 2.6.9 kernel or thereabouts. You will probably need OCFS if you want this to work on earlier / 2.4 kernels. OCFS2 and GFS are supported in Ubuntu from 5.10 onwards. - Jeff -- GUADEC 2006: Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spainhttp://2006.guadec.org/ I love 2001. Especially the beginning with the proto-humans screaming at each other and beating each other to death with rocks and bones. That very neatly encapsulates my whole concept of interpersonal relationships. - Branden Robinson -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Re: DEC Storage Works
On Thu, Apr 06, 2006 at 08:51:05AM +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote: OCFS2 and GFS are supported in Ubuntu from 5.10 onwards. Nice! I believe OCFS2 made it into the standard kernel very recently; 2.6.16? Matt -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
