Limiting access to a SAN volume
Is it possible to have multiple servers with read-only access to the same SAN volume and have a single server read-write access to the same SAN volume? Do you have any advice for setting up a system this way?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

Yup... my advice is to not do it unless you use a cluster or global file system (GFS) that controls access to the LUN by each system via a lock manager. If not, you may be risking data corruption.

One way to do it without a clustered file system is to provide single writer access (on one server) to the LUN via the SAN, and then create a network share on that server for multiple read access by the other servers over the LAN.

Some clustering products include: Veritas VCS, Microsoft MSCS, SunCluster, TruCluster and VMS Cluster.

Some GFS solutions include: SAMFs/Qfs, Sistina, Panasas, IBRIX, SGI IRIX, Lustre, IBM TotalStorage and SANfs.

This was first published in December 2005