Beta testers wanted for ultra high-scalability/performance clustered object storage system designed for web content delivery

DataDirect Networks (www.ddn.com) is searching for beta testers for our exciting new object-based clustered storage system. Does this sound like you? * Need to store millions to hundreds of billions of files * Want to use one big file system but can't because no single file system scales big enough * Running out of inodes * Have to constantly tweak file systems to perform better * Need to replicate content to more than one data center across geographies * Have thumbnail images or other small files that wreak havoc on your file and storage systems * Constantly tweaking and engineering around performance and scalability limits * No storage system delivers enough IOPS to serve your content * Spend time load balancing the storage environment * Want a single, simple way to manage all this data If this sounds like you, please contact me at jgoldstein@ddn.com. DataDirect Networks is a 10-year old, well-established storage systems company specializing in Extreme Storage environments. We've deployed both the largest and the fastest storage/file systems on the planet - currently running at over 250GB/s. Our upcoming product is going to change the way storage is deployed for scalable web content and we're seeking testers who can throw their most challenging problems at our new system. It's time for something better and we're going to deliver it.

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Deploying MySQL Database in Solaris Cluster Environments

MySQL™ database, an open source database, delivers high performance and reliability while keeping costs low by eliminating licensing fees. The Solaris™ Cluster product is an integrated hardware and software environment that can be used to create highly-available data services. This article explains how to deploy the MySQL database in a Solaris Cluster environment. The article addresses the following topics: * "Advantages of Deploying MySQL Database with Solaris Cluster" on page 1 discusses the benefits provided by a Solaris Cluster deployment of the MySQL database. * "Overview of Solaris Cluster" on page 2 provides a high-level description of the hardware and software components of the Solaris Cluster. * "Installation and Configuration" on page 8 explains the procedure for deploying the MySQL database on a Solaris Cluster. This article assumes that readers have a basic understanding of Solaris Cluster and MySQL database installation and administration.

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Product: DRBD - Distributed Replicated Block Device

From their website: DRBD is a block device which is designed to build high availability clusters. This is done by mirroring a whole block device via (a dedicated) network. You could see it as a network raid-1. DRBD takes over the data, writes it to the local disk and sends it to the other host. On the other host, it takes it to the disk there. The other components needed are a cluster membership service, which is supposed to be heartbeat, and some kind of application that works on top of a block device. Examples: A filesystem & fsck. A journaling FS. A database with recovery capabilities. Each device (DRBD provides more than one of these devices) has a state, which can be 'primary' or 'secondary'. On the node with the primary device the application is supposed to run and to access the device (/dev/drbdX). Every write is sent to the local 'lower level block device' and to the node with the device in 'secondary' state. The secondary device simply writes the data to its lower level block device. Reads are always carried out locally. If the primary node fails, heartbeat is switching the secondary device into primary state and starts the application there. (If you are using it with a non-journaling FS this involves running fsck) If the failed node comes up again, it is a new secondary node and has to synchronise its content to the primary. This, of course, will happen whithout interruption of service in the background. And, of course, we only will resynchronize those parts of the device that actually have been changed. DRBD has always done intelligent resynchronization when possible. Starting with the DBRD-0.7 series, you can define an "active set" of a certain size. This makes it possible to have a total resync time of 1--3 min, regardless of device size (currently up to 4TB), even after a hard crash of an active node.

Related Articles

How to build a redundant, high-availability system with DRBD and Heartbeat by Pedro Pla in Linux Journal

Linux-HA Press Room with many excellent high availability articles.

Sync Data on All Servers thread.

MySQL clustering strategies and comparisions

Wikipedia on DRBD

Using Xen for High Availability Clusters by by Kris Buytaert and Johan Huysmans in ONLamp.com

DRBD for MySQL High Availability

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clusteradmin.blogspot.com - blog about building and administering clusters

A blog about cluster administration. Written by a System Administrator working at HPC (High Performance Computing) data-center, mostly dealing with PC clusters (100s of servers), SMP machines and distributed installations. The blog concentrates on software/configuration/installation management systems, load balancers, monitoring and other cluster-related solutions.

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Clustering Solution

Hi, I'm interested in peoples thoughts on the best choice for a database clustering solution. I have a database that is mostly varchars and numbers that doesn't store any binary data at all. It's used at about 70% read and 30% writes - though we're using memcached at the moment so it's not really hit that hard. We're currently using mysql with m/cluster, but are interested in a new solution. Possible candidate so far are unicluster (which doesn't seem mature yet.) or DRBD. Had anyone had a similar experience and can make any suggestions? Thanks

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