Storage: GlusterFS

Storage pool type: glusterfs

GlusterFS is a scalable network file system. The system uses a modular design, runs on commodity hardware, and can provide a highly available enterprise storage at low costs. Such system is capable of scaling to several petabytes, and can handle thousands of clients.

After a node/brick crash, GlusterFS does a full rsync to make sure data is consistent. This can take a very long time with large files, so this backend is not suitable to store large VM images.

Configuration

The backend supports all common storage properties, and adds the following GlusterFS specific options:

server

GlusterFS volfile server IP or DNS name.

server2

Backup volfile server IP or DNS name.

volume

GlusterFS Volume.

transport

GlusterFS transport: tcp, unix or rdma

Configuration Example (/etc/pve/storage.cfg)

glusterfs: Gluster
        server 10.2.3.4
        server2 10.2.3.5
        volume glustervol
        content images,iso

File naming conventions

The directory layout and the file naming conventions are inherited from the dir backend.

Storage Features

The storage provides a file level interface, but no native snapshot/clone implementation.

Table 1. Storage features for backend glusterfs

Content types	Image formats	Shared	Snapshots	Clones
images vztmpl iso backup snippets	raw qcow2 vmdk	yes	qcow2	qcow2

See Also

• Storage

Introduction

This new storage plugin supports the use of GlusterFS volumes. It uses a fuse mount point for volume management (create/delete/snapshot,rollback,...) but Qemu accesses the virtual disk images directly to get best performance.

This storage plugin is a technology preview, available since Proxmox VE 3.1.