On May 12, 2010, at 1:17 AM, schickb <schi...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm looking for input on building an HA configuration for ZFS. I've
read the FAQ and understand that the standard approach is to have a
standby system with access to a shared pool that is imported during
a failover.
The problem is that we use ZFS for a specialized purpose that
results in 10's of thousands of filesystems (mostly snapshots and
clones). All versions of Solaris and OpenSolaris that we've tested
take a long time (> hour) to import that many filesystems.
I've read about replication through AVS, but that also seems require
an import during failover. We'd need something closer to an active-
active configuration (even if the second active is only modified
through replication). Or some way to greatly speedup imports.
Any suggestions?
Bypass the complexities of AVS and the start-up times by implementing
a ZFS head server in a pair of ESX/ESXi with Hot-spares using
redundant back-end storage (EMC, NetApp, Equalogics).
Then, if there is a hardware or software failure of the head server or
the host it is on, the hot-spare automatically kicks in with the same
running state as the original.
There should be no interruption of services in this setup.
This type of arrangement provides for oodles of flexibility in testing/
upgrading deployments as well.
-Ross
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