Why not use a multi-ported direct attached storage (DAS) enclosure? Performance 
is retained and configuration is straightforward. There are a number of such 
enclosures available from a range of vendors, many of whom have solutions that 
have been qualified with Lustre.

Malcolm Cowe
High Performance Data Division
Intel Corporation | www.intel.com

From: lustre-discuss [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf 
Of [email protected]
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2016 11:37 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [lustre-discuss] Lustre failover configuration - Need help in 
selecting storage



We need storage specifically for HPC Lustre failover setup, where it is must 
that two servers should share same block level storage to have failover 
configuration.

With very limited knowledge on hardware, I have the below understanding:
*         NAS can be used for shared storage, but there will be bottleneck for 
speed due to intermediate network.
*         SAN can be used, but it is costly to implement the solution and not 
really needed for Storage of 50-100TB.
*         If at all we find multiple iscsi ports to the storage enclosure, the 
storage can be used only by splitting i.e., works as two storage devices and 
the same storage can't be used by both the
systems. (And one thing to remind here, in the lustre setup, both the servers 
would be only attached, but only one will be used (not sure, how it is 
possible, again need to check on this).
*         Having two virtual machines may be how we can do it. But, then, it is 
not really helpful for the purpose of failover, as the physical machine would 
be only one.

But, while posting the question, I am thinking, maybe we can compromise on 
speed in NAS, if we try having one directly attached server (primary) and the 
other attached via network (failover), so we face slowness only when the 
primary stops working.

As I posted the similar question on Server Fault: 
http://serverfault.com/questions/763569/is-it-possible-to-have-a-directly-attached-shared-storage-accessed-at-block-lev,
 I have got the following response:
"Have you actually attempted to set up a proof of concept, or at least looked 
through the documentation<http://doc.lustre.org/lustre_manual.xhtml>? Lustre 
really doesn't care very much how you connect to the underlying storage, so you 
can do whatever gets you the bandwidth you need."

So, is it true that we don't need to worry about bandwidth of the storage 
server?

I mean, for example: the communication as I understood is as follows:

==>  Client <----> MGS (Ethernet)

==>  MGS <----> MGT (Direct/ISCSI)

==>  MGS <----> MDS (Ethernet/Internal Communication)

==>  MDS <----> MDT (Direct/ISCSI/Ethernet)

==>  MDS <----> OSS (Ethernet)

==>  OSS <----> OST (Direct/ISCSI/Ethernet)

==>  OST <----> Client (Ethernet)

Does it mean that, the performance won't be affected at any stage, if iscsi is 
replaced by Ethernet or by using limited bandwidth?








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Jeevan Patnaik B | Project Engineer
Nokia IT - HEE Platform | WIPRO Technologies - Hyderabad
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