Question about the suitability of PVFS in a certain situation. I have run a few parallel/cluster file systems in the past, but they were mostly for cluster systems which did not have a whole lot of I/O needs in terms of disk access. I am going to be setting up a new system and I am wondering if PVFS is a good fit compared to others. I have read most of the docs and I think it will be a good fit, but I would rather hear what real experience has to say, if you have a moment.
The setup will be on the order of 10 servers, each with either sata or sas drives (they have not been purchased just yet). The servers will be linked with two links each, one for pvfs only and one for client access. Both are 1GB minimum, probably bonded 1GB for now, moving to 10GB when the switch arrives. About 30 clients to start, moving up slightly in the future. Storage will be about 1TB in each server after RAID for about 9TB total. The problem (which I hope PVFS can solve) is not that the data is huge, but that it is needed fast. Files are typically on the order of 50-500MB each, but clients need a lot of them at once... typically each client will need about 100 files at one time, each file somewhere in that size range, but of different sizes (each). Given that not all clients will access files at once (sometimes they will, sometimes not) would PVFS make sense here? I keep reading that in a single client mode, sometimes nfs is faster, but I was hoping that spreading it across 10 servers would make up for that. Opinions appreciated. Thank you for reading. -- ../number9 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Pvfs2-users mailing list [email protected] http://www.beowulf-underground.org/mailman/listinfo/pvfs2-users
