Hello, fellow Linux buffs!

As an intern of networking, I have been tasked with coming up with a high-availability iSCSI SAN as a learning project. Here are the details as they were presented to me:

**********************************
SAN - Implementing Functions

Hi Steve,

Good job on the work, btw! Here is what I need:

Tasks:
1. Install two VMs with Debian (7.0) Wheezy and set them up as SANs (Install iSCSI services).
2. Setup High Availability/mirroring between the virtual SANs using GlusterFS.
3. Provision two LUNs (LUN0 and LUN1) on the GlusterFS.
4. Install a third VM (CentOS 6.4 x86_amd64) using LUN0 as its primary (and only) hard disk.
5. Install a fourth VM (XCP i686) using LUN1 as its primary (and only) hard disk.
6. Test the HA (High Avilability) by powering off one of the SANs. Watch the VMs and see if they freeze or if they continue to function as normal. If they work as expected, it is task complete.

** I would also like you to use the "dstat" utility inside the CentOS 6.4 VM to watch disk usage while testing the High Availability / failover.

Sources:
Debian 7.0 Wheezy ISOs: http://www.debian.org/distrib/
CentOS 6.4 x86_64: http://wiki.centos.org/Download
Xen Cloud Platform (XCP) 1.6: http://www.xen.org/download/xcp/index_1.6.0.html

Essential Links:
1. GlusterFS: http://www.gluster.org/
2. http://www.howtoforge.com/high-avail...age-servers-p2

Let me know if you have any questions and send me screenshots! :-D
*******************************************

I am trying to get an understanding of the logical layout of this project, which will actually be 4 VMs running on VMWorkstation9 on my laptop... I have uploaded what I think the topology should look like, though I would like the opportunity to lean on your expertise! Did I get this topology correct?

Any help on the project would be much appreciated, even above and beyond just the topology. Thanks for taking the time!

Attached Thumbnails

 

The only question I might ask is, why not add in a second virtual nic to the servers so that they have a ha connection between them more to replicate a real computer install.


Also the laptop better be a monster for this to work well. I assume you wish to use gpxe/ipxe boot to the 3 and 4 systems?

Other people may have more to ask or tell.

Hey, jefro! What's news, brother? Thanks for the reply, you seem to be a repository for awesome answers! Anyways, here are my VM installation notes as well as an updated topology:

VM1: Debian Wheezy 7.0 (netinstall iso)
VM Name: debian san0
HDD: 20GB
NIC#1: VMNet8 - NAT (192.168.133.0/24)
NIC#2: VMNet1 (192.168.99.0/24)
NIC#3: VMNet2 (10.10.10.0/24)
Name: san0
Domain: example.com
Root PWord: 1234
User: Steve
UName: steve
PWord: 1111
Partitioning:
SCSI3 (sda) 21.5GB
#1 primary 0.5GB ext4 /boot (boot flag=on)
#2 primary 4.5GB ext4 /
#3 primary 1.5GB swap
#4 primary 15GB lvm
Volume Group: vg0 (/dev/sda4)
LVM VG vg0, LV storage_lun0 7.5GB
LVM VG vg0, LV storage_lun1 7.5GB

*****************************************************************************

VM2: Debian Wheezy 7.0 (netinstall iso)
VM Name: debian san1
HDD: 20GB
NIC#1: VMNet8 - NAT (192.168.133.0/24)
NIC#2: VMNet1 (192.168.99.0/24)
NIC#3: VMNet2 (10.10.10.0/24)
Name: san1
Domain: example.com
Root PWord: 1234
User: Steve
UName: steve
PWord: 1111
Partitioning:
SCSI3 (sda) 21.5GB
#1 primary 0.5GB ext4 /boot (boot flag=on)
#2 primary 4.5GB ext4 /
#3 primary 1.5GB swap
#4 primary 15GB lvm
Volume Group: vg0 (/dev/sda4)
LVM VG vg0, LV storage_lun0 7.5GB
LVM VG vg0, LV storage_lun1 7.5GB

*****************************************************************************

VM3: CentOS 6.4 x86_64 (netinstall iso)
VM Name: CentOS Initiator1
HDD: 20GB
NIC#1: VMNet8 - NAT (192.168.133.0/24)
NIC#2: VMNet1 (192.168.99.0/24)
Name:initiator1
RootPWord: 123456
Partitioning:
sda1 500MB /boot ext4
sda2 19979MB vg_initiator1 LVM
vg_initiator1
lv_root 17992MB ext4 /
lv_swap 1984 swap
Install: Minimal Desktop

*****************************************************************************

VM4: Xen Cloud Platform [XCP] i686 (full iso install)
VM Name: XCPi686 Initiator2
HDD: 20GB
NIC#1: VMNet8 - NAT (192.168.133.0/24)
NIC#2: VMNet1 (192.168.99.0/24)
Name: initiator2
RootPWord:123456
Partitioning:
Local Storage(default)
LVM 11GB /dev/sda3

*****************************************************************************

Does this look like a good way to go about starting up this project? As you see, I took your advice and added NICs, though as a newbie I may have misconstrued what you were getting at. Anyways, thanks for the concern about the laptop... it is by no means a monster but it does just fine running these 4 VMs in tandem!.. even if a bit choppy. I'm a big fan of no GUI so that certainly helps alot with my overhead!

My idea from here is to set up iscsi on the SAN0 & SAN1, then connect them together using GlusterFS. Any advice you can give will be much appreciated, buddy! I will fill this thread with notes on my implementation ideas if you're interested in seeing them. Again, thanks for your time!

Attached Thumbnails

 

My main issue that I haven't performed this exact test or used glusterfs. You have a lot going on but it should be fine from a rough look over. This may help on the glusterfs.

http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/tutorials...sing-glusterfs

A decent laptop should make this work but any performance data would be useless. This is a pretty advanced setup with a lot of traffic. Laptops are never good testbeds but no need to go out an buy a 8x xeon with 64G ram.

There are quite a number of very smart linux users at LQ. My main goal is to just help once in a while, maybe with 50% of the answer or more.

1 members found this post helpful.