1.2. Performance, Scalability, and Economy

You can deploy GFS in a variety of configurations to suit your needs for performance, scalability, and economy. For superior performance and scalability, you can deploy GFS in a cluster that is connected directly to a SAN. For more economical needs, you can deploy GFS in a cluster that is connected to a LAN with servers that use GNBD (Global Network Block Device).

The following sections provide examples of how GFS can be deployed to suit your needs for performance, scalability, and economy:

Note

The deployment examples in this chapter reflect basic configurations; your needs might require a combination of configurations shown in the examples.

1.2.1. Superior Performance and Scalability

You can obtain the highest shared-file performance when applications access storage directly. The GFS SAN configuration in Figure 1.1, “GFS with a SAN” provides superior file performance for shared files and file systems. Linux applications run directly on GFS nodes. Without file protocols or storage servers to slow data access, performance is similar to individual Linux servers with directly connected storage; yet, each GFS application node has equal access to all data files. GFS supports up to 125 GFS nodes.

GFS with a SAN