POSIX compliant distributed file systems without using shared storage
 

Hey,
I am a clustering newbie and am learning the tricks of the trade. My field of interest is single system image clustering

I just want to know if there are any POSIX compliant distributed file systems that doesn't require SAN/shared storage. As per my (possibly flawed) understanding GFS,luster,etc require shared storage

For example: Node1 has a 40 GB IDE HDD and Node 2 (a separate physical computer) has a 60 GD IDE HDD. I want a file system partition that is shared and writable by both these nodes and a write on one system is reflected in both of the nodes.

If Node2 goes down then there is no loss of data on the shared partition and the same is the case if node 1 goes down.

The nodes are assumed to be interconnected using LAN.

Related discussion:Debian Administrators - Distributed file system

Hope my question was understood and have a great day

DRBD might do what you want, if I understand your question correctly. It creates a new block device that, when written to, writes both to the physical device on your machine and mirrors the write to another machine over your network.

You would then create a cluster file system like GFS on the DRBD device if you want to be able to write from two machines simultaneously.