[DRBD-user] DRBD and KVM for a HA-Cluster ?

Digimer linux at alteeve.com
Wed Jan 5 19:45:13 CET 2011

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On 01/05/2011 09:14 AM, Lentes, Bernd wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm planning to create a HA-Cluster with two nodes: The nodes are running SLES 11 SP1, the services i want to make ha are running on several VM's (one VM for one service) on these nodes. My idea is to synchronise the storage with DRBD and not to use a SAN. It is possible to install a KVM VM into a plain logical volume (the lv has no filesystem and is not mounted).  
> Is it possible to synchronize such logical volumes (no filesystem and not mounted) with DRBD ? What do you think about my setup ?
> 
> Thanks for any answer.
> 
> Bernd

With the preface that my experience is in RHEL and Xen:

  Yes, you can use DRBD + CLVMD for hosting the VMs in dedicated LVs
just fine. Be sure that DRBD is managed in Pacemaker though, so that
split-brain conditions cause a stonith (fence) call. Failing that, setup
a fence device inside of DRBD directly.

  Also, be aware that you should run the VMs only on nodes that are
UpToDate. If the node's DRBD resource is still sync'ing and the UpToDate
disk goes away, the Syncing resource will go Secondary and your VMs will
crash. You can always live-migrate the VMs back once the sync is complete.

HTH

-- 
Digimer
E-Mail: digimer at alteeve.com
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