Chapter 3. Getting Started

This chapter describes procedures for initial setup of GFS and contains the following sections:

3.1. Prerequisite Tasks

You should complete the following tasks before setting up Red Hat GFS:

Make sure that you have noted the key characteristics of the GFS nodes (refer to Section 2.4, “Before Setting Up GFS”).
Make sure that the clocks on the GFS nodes are synchronized. It is recommended that you use the Network Time Protocol (NTP) software provided with your Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution.
Note
The system clocks in GFS nodes must be within a few minutes of each other to prevent unnecessary inode time-stamp updating. Unnecessary inode time-stamp updating severely impacts cluster performance.
In order to use GFS in a clustered environment, you must configure your system to use the Clustered Logical Volume Manager (CLVM), a set of clustering extensions to the LVM Logical Volume Manager. In order to use CLVM, the Red Hat Cluster Suite software, including the clvmd daemon, must be running. For information on using CLVM, see Logical Volume Manager Administration. For information on installing and administering Red Hat Cluster Suite, see Cluster Administration.