[DRBD-user] adding drbd to existing gfs2 vg/lv setup

Florian Haas florian.haas at linbit.com
Tue Feb 15 19:32:03 CET 2011

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


On 02/15/2011 07:21 PM, yvette hirth wrote:
> hi,
> 
> we would like to improve the currency of our backup files.
> 
> right now we have an ensemble of GFS2 LV's ("pri") as our primary data
> store, and a "matching ensemble" of XFS LV's ("bak") as our backup data
> store.  an hourly cron job rsync's all LV's in the ensemble from pri =>
> bak.  it's incredibly reliable, but this reduces our mean backup
> currency by 1/2 hour.  one upside is that i've got snapshots that are
> only 1/2 hour old, and are daily backed up to tape.
> 
> the conversation seems to indicate that we can change the bak LV's from
> XFS to GFS2 and have drbd auto-sync the pri LV changes made to the bak
> LV's - yes?  this would reduce our backup currency from a mean of 1/2
> hour to theoretically, "atomic" (more likely "mere seconds").  i assUme
> we have to change from XFS to GFS2, as drbd doesn't appear to do file
> system conversions...
> 
> if our assumptions are correct, are there any guides / manuals / doc on
> how to do this?  it's most tempting to try, since if it doesn't work,
> the hourly cron rsync's could be simply reinstated.
> 
> many thanks in advance to any and all who can advise...

Different idea: why not keep using XFS on your LVs, but stick DRBD in
between? Then you would have a synchronous copy of your filesystem on
the DRBD Secondary node at all times, plus you could have a cron job
taking regular snapshots of your LV on the DRBD Secondary. That way you
get the best of both world: instant failover capability in case of node
failure, plus the ability to go back to your most recent snapshot in
case of accidental file deletion or modification.

Manuals? Doc?
http://www.drbd.org/users-guide/s-lvm-lv-as-drbd-backing-dev.html --
It's really dead simple.

Florian

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