GFS2 cluster setup - step by step

GFS2 nodes

Determine which nodes in the cluster will mount the GFS2 file systems.

Number of file systems

Determine how many GFS2 file systems to create initially. (More file systems can be added later.)

File system name

Determine a unique name for each file system. The name must be unique for all lock_dlm file systems over the cluster. Each file system name is required in the form of a parameter variable. 

Journals

Determine the number of journals for your GFS2 file systems. One journal is required for each node that mounts a GFS2 file system. GFS2 allows you to add journals dynamically at a later point as additional servers mount a file system.

Storage devices and partitions

Determine the storage devices and partitions to be used for creating logical volumes (via CLVM) in the file systems.

GFS Command	GFS2 Command	Description
mount	mount	Mount a file system. The system can determine whether the file system is a GFS or GFS2 file system type. For information on the GFS2 mount options see the gfs2_mount(8) man page.
umount	umount	Unmount a file system.
fsck gfs_fsck	fsck fsck.gfs2	Check and repair an unmounted file system.
gfs_grow	gfs2_grow	Grow a mounted file system.
gfs_jadd	gfs2_jadd	Add a journal to a mounted file system.
gfs_mkfs mkfs -t gfs	mkfs.gfs2 mkfs -t gfs2	Create a file system on a storage device.
gfs_quota	gfs2_quota	Manage quotas on a mounted file system. As of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 release, GFS2 supports the standard Linux quota facilities. For further information on quota management in GFS2, refer to
gfs_tool	tunegfs2 mount parameters dmsetup suspend	Configure, tune, or gather information about a file system. The tunegfs2 command is supported as of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 release. There is also a gfs2_tool command.
gfs_edit	gfs2_edit	Display, print, or edit file system internal structures. The gfs2_edit command can be used for GFS file systems as well as GFS2 file system.
gfs_tool setflag jdata/inherit_jdata	chattr +j(preferred)	Enable journaling on a file or directory.
setfacl/getfacl	setfacl/getfacl	Set or get file access control list for a file or directory.
setfattr/getfattr	setfattr/getfattr	Set or get the extended attributes of a file.

Create a partition either on shared storage lun or any other normal partition

then format with gfs2 file system.

mkfs.gfs2 -p lock_dlm -t ClusterName:FSName -j NumberJournals BlockDevice

LockProtoName

Specifies the name of the locking protocol to use. The lock protocol for a cluster is lock_dlm.

LockTableName

This parameter is specified for GFS2 file system in a cluster configuration. It has two parts separated by a colon (no spaces) as follows: ClusterName:FSName



ClusterName, the name of the cluster for which the GFS2 file system is being created.


FSName, the file system name, can be 1 to 16 characters long. The name must be unique for all lock_dlm file systems over the cluster, and for all file systems (lock_dlm and lock_nolock) on each local node.




Number

Specifies the number of journals to be created by the mkfs.gfs2 command. One journal is required for each node that mounts the file system. For GFS2 file systems, more journals can be added later without growing the file system, as described in

BlockDevice

Specifies a logical or physical volume

mkfs -t gfs2 -p lock_dlm -t HA:ktsgfs2 -j 2 /dev/vdb1

mount /dev/vdb1 /GFS

chkconfig –level 345 gfs2 on

gfs2_tool list
gfs2_tool df

echo “/dev/vdb1 /GFS gfs2 defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0″ >> /etc/fstab

If GFS file system has to be on an lvm then follow below steps.

pvcreate pv_gfs2 /dev/vdb1
vgcreate -c y vg_gfs2 /dev/sdb
lvcreate -n lv_gfs2 -L 2G mytest_gfs2
/etc/init.d/clvmd start

format the lvm via above commands.