2.7. Hardware Considerations

Use Higher Quality Storage Options

GFS2 can operate on cheaper shared storage options, such as iSCSI or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), but you will get better performance if you buy higher quality storage with larger caching capacity. Red Hat performs most quality, sanity, and performance tests on SAN storage with Fibre Channel interconnect. As a general rule, it is always better to deploy something that has been tested first.

Test Network Equipment Before Deploying

Higher quality, faster network equipment makes cluster communications and GFS2 run faster with better reliability. However, you do not have to purchase the most expensive hardware. Some of the most expensive network switches have problems passing multicast packets, which are used for passing fcntl locks (flocks), whereas cheaper commodity network switches are sometimes faster and more reliable. Red Hat recommends trying equipment before deploying it into full production.