[DRBD-user] do I really need heartbeat for DRBD?

Dominik Klein dk at in-telegence.net
Mon Dec 17 16:12:41 CET 2007

Note: "permalinks" may not be as permanent as we would like,
direct links of old sources may well be a few messages off.


> I just want to replicate a SAN (array, disk etc.) to another physical 
> location.

Then you don't need heartbeat and drbd will do just fine.

> There is no sense in using heartbeat for me, as when that primary SAN 
> dies, the asymmetric link from another datacenter will be too slow 
> anyway to provide services.

Then you just want a data backup. Okay - drbd can do that for you. You 
might want something that checks the device, connection and network 
status, though.

> So, if I want to replicate a local array to another machine, should I 
> use 127.0.0.1 address in drbd.conf?
> 
> 
> resource drbd0 {
>   protocol C;
>   incon-degr-cmd "halt -f";
> 
>   on thost1 {
>     device    /dev/nb1;
>     disk      /dev/hda7;
>     address   127.0.0.1:7789;

This has to be an address that the other drbd node can connect to.

>   }
> 
>   on thost2 {
>     device    /dev/nb1;
>     disk      /dev/hda7;
>     address   10.1.1.32:7789;
>   }
> }   
> 
> 
> And what happens if your heartbeat box dies? ;)

Heartbeat is installed on all boxes (nodes). But I think you really dont 
need it.

Regards
Dominik



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