Getting Started with GlusterFS v1.3
From GlusterDocumentation
Contents |
Introduction
GlusterFS is a powerful network/cluster filesystem written in user space, and it uses FUSE. GlusterFS is programmable using its volume configuration file. It takes a layered approach to the file system, where features are added/removed as per the requirement. Though GlusterFS is a File System, it uses already tried and tested disk file systems, like ext3, xfs, ZFS, to store the data. It can easily scale up to peta bytes storage, which is available to user under a single mount point.
GlusterFS Installation
Please refer to Installation Guide for instructions.
Note: GlusterFS requires fuse versions 2.7.x or above. Refer to Tuning FUSE module to learn how GlusterFS patched Fuse can give better I/O performance.
GlusterFS Volume Specification
The volume specification file is a very important component of the GlusterFS file system and is needed by both the client and server process. This file defines the behavior of the filesystem. Knowing what goes in a volume spec file and mastering the art of writing a good spec file can make you a very good GlusterFS admin/hacker. GlusterFS Volume Specification v1.3 provides an overview of writing volume spec files, and the terminology associated with it.
Even with all of it's advanced features, GlusterFS is very easy to setup and manage.
Here are some volume file examples that may help you get more of an idea of what volume spec files look like.
Going Live
For complete list of GlusterFS command line options, follow GlusterFS Command-line Arguments
Starting the server
With a properly configured volume specification file for the server, you can start it like:
$ glusterfsd -f /etc/glusterfs/glusterfs-server.vol
This takes /etc/glusterfs/glusterfs-server.vol as the server volume spec file. If you have server volume spec file in different filename, then try the following thing.
$ glusterfsd -f /path/to/glusterfs-server.vol
Mounting the client
Once the server is started or client volume specification is ready, you can mount the filesystem. Refer to Mounting a GlusterFS Volume.
