How to install GlusterFS with a replicated high availability storage volume on Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS

Our sample setup

Fig.01: Our scale-out network-attached storage file system for /var/www/html is made of two nodes

What you need to setup GlusterFS with a replicated high availability storage?

• Minimum two separate storage (can be cloud or bare metal boxes)
• Each server needs a separate partition or disk for GlusterFS. For demo purpose I am using /dev/vdb1 as a brick volume.
• A private network (LAN/VLAN) between servers
• Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS on both servers

Okay enough talk, lets get started with GlusterFS installation and configuration on a Ubuntu.

For demo purpose I used two nodes. But you must use 4 or more node in production to avoid split brain issues.

Step 1 – Setup /etc/hosts

First setup /etc/hosts files:
$ sudo vi /etc/hosts
Set correct private IP address as per fig.01 or as per your setup:

192.168.1.11	gfs01
192.168.2.12    gfs02

Close and save the file. Test it:
$ ping -c2 gfs01
$ ping -c2 gfs02
Sample outputs:

PING gfs01 (192.168.1.12) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from gfs01 (192.168.1.12): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.033 ms
64 bytes from gfs01 (192.168.1.12): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms

--- gfs01 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.033/0.034/0.036/0.006 ms

Step 2 – Configure iptables to accept all traffic between gfs01 and gfs02

Type the following on gfs01 to allow all traffic from lan node gfs02:
$ sudo ufw allow proto any from 192.168.1.12 to 192.168.1.11
Type the following on gfs02 to allow all traffic from lan node gfs01:
$ sudo ufw allow proto any from 192.168.1.11 to 192.168.1.12

Step 3 – Configure glusterfs stable repository

Type the following command on both gfs01 and gfs02 server to install latest stable glusterfs server:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gluster/glusterfs-3.11
$ sudo apt-get update
Sample outputs:

Fig.02: Use the following above code to install latest stable package

Step 4 – Install glusterfs stable package

Type the following apt-get command/apt command on both gfs01 and gfs02 servers:
$ sudo apt-get install glusterfs-server
Sample outputs:

Fig.03: Install server and client components

Step 4 – Hold glusterfs package upgrade for safety reasons

Your shared storage brick might corrup if glusterfs upgraded while running it. It is best to filter out of automatic updates for safety. Later you learn how to upgrade glusterfs safety. Type the following command on both gfs01 and gfs02 server:
$ sudo apt-mark hold glusterfs*
Sample outputs:

glusterfs-client set on hold.
glusterfs-common set on hold.
glusterfs-server set on hold.
glusterfs-dbg set on hold.

Step 5 – Setup and format disk in each server

You need to type the following commands on gfs01 server (be careful with device names while partition block devices):
$ sudo fdisk /dev/vdb
$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/vdb1
$ sudo mkdir -p /nodirectwritedata/brick1
$ sudo echo '/dev/vdb1 /nodirectwritedata/brick1 ext4 defaults 1 2' >> /etc/fstab
$ mount -a
$ sudo mkdir /nodirectwritedata/brick1/gvol0
$ df -H
You need to type the following commands on gfs02 server:
$ sudo fdisk /dev/vdb
$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/vdb1
$ sudo mkdir -p /nodirectwritedata/brick2
$ sudo echo '/dev/vdb1 /nodirectwritedata/brick2 ext4 defaults 1 2' >> /etc/fstab
$ mount -a
$ df -H
$ sudo mkdir /nodirectwritedata/brick2/gvol0
Sample outputs:

Fig.04: Prepare the bricks by setting up partition block devices and formatting with ext4 file system

Warning: Do not edit or write files directly to a /nodirectwritedata/brick1/ or /nodirectwritedata/brick2/ brick on each server. A direct write will corrupt your volume.

Step 6 – Verify that glusterfs service started

Type the following commands:
$ sudo systemctl status glusterfs-server.service
Sample outputs:

? glusterfs-server.service - LSB: GlusterFS server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/glusterfs-server; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2017-02-28 00:07:22 IST; 26min ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
    Tasks: 7
   Memory: 16.3M
      CPU: 1.412s
   CGroup: /system.slice/glusterfs-server.service
           ??3429 /usr/sbin/glusterd -p /var/run/glusterd.pid

Feb 28 00:07:20 ubuntu-box2 systemd[1]: Starting LSB: GlusterFS server...
Feb 28 00:07:20 ubuntu-box2 glusterfs-server[3420]:  * Starting glusterd service glusterd
Feb 28 00:07:22 ubuntu-box2 glusterfs-server[3420]:    ...done.
Feb 28 00:07:22 ubuntu-box2 systemd[1]: Started LSB: GlusterFS server.

If not running start it:
$ sudo systemctl start glusterfs-server.service
Enable glusterfs at boot time:
$ sudo systemctl enable glusterfs-server.service
Sample outputs:

glusterfs-server.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install
Executing /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable glusterfs-server

Step 7 – Configure the trusted pool

From gfs01 server type:
$ sudo gluster peer probe gfs02
peer probe: success. Host gfs02 port 24007 already in peer list
From gfs02 server type:
$ sudo gluster peer probe gfs01
peer probe: success. Host gfs01 port 24007 already in peer list

Step 8 – Set up a GlusterFS volume

From gfs01 (or gfs02) sever type:
# gluster volume create gvol0 replica 2 gfs01:/nodirectwritedata/brick1/gvol0 gfs02:/nodirectwritedata/brick2/gvol0
Sample outputs:

volume create: gvol0: success: please start the volume to access data

# gluster volume start gvol0
Sample outputs:

volume start: gvol0: success

To see status, enter:
# gluster volume status

Status of volume: gvol0
Gluster process                             TCP Port  RDMA Port  Online  Pid
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brick gfs01:/nodirectwritedata/brick1/gvol0 49152     0          Y       2621 
Brick gfs02:/nodirectwritedata/brick2/gvol0 49152     0          Y       3674 
Self-heal Daemon on localhost               N/A       N/A        Y       3694 
Self-heal Daemon on gfs01                   N/A       N/A        Y       2641 
 
Task Status of Volume gvol0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are no active volume tasks

To see info about your volume, enter:
# gluster volume info
Sample outputs:

 
Volume Name: gvol0
Type: Replicate
Volume ID: 5d871eed-182e-461f-9eb6-06798eeb2c04
Status: Started
Snapshot Count: 0
Number of Bricks: 1 x 2 = 2
Transport-type: tcp
Bricks:
Brick1: gfs01:/nodirectwritedata/brick1/gvol0
Brick2: gfs02:/nodirectwritedata/brick2/gvol0
Options Reconfigured:
transport.address-family: inet
performance.readdir-ahead: on
nfs.disable: on

Step 9 – Client mounts

Now our cluster is up and running. It is the time our clients can mount shared stoage. You can have 1,2,3,4 or as many client you want as per your network resources. You can configure gfs01 and gfs02 as client itself too.

Client mount on gfs01/gfs02 node itself

Type the following command:
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/www/
$ sudo mount -t glusterfs gfs01:/gvol0 /mnt/www/
Update the /etc/fstab file:

echo 'gfs01:/gvol0 /mnt/www glusterfs defaults,_netdev 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

Save and close the file. Mount it:
$ sudo mount -a
$ df -H
Sample outputs:

Filesystem                           Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev                                 981M     0  981M   0% /dev
tmpfs                                138M  2.5M  136M   2% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--box--1--vg-root   37G  2.0G   33G   6% /
tmpfs                                489M     0  489M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                                5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs                                489M     0  489M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/vda1                            472M  105M  343M  24% /boot
/dev/vdb1                            4.8G   11M  4.6G   1% /nodirectwritedata/brick1
tmpfs                                 98M     0   98M   0% /run/user/0
gfs02:/gvol0                         4.8G   11M  4.6G   1% /mnt/www

Client mount on a different server named www1

If www1 is using a Debian/Ubuntu Linux OS, type:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gluster/glusterfs-3.11
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install glusterfs-client
$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/www/
Edit /etc/hosts file and update it as follows:

192.168.2.11	gfs01
192.168.2.12    gfs02

Save and close the file. Update /etc/fstab file to mount a shared storage:
Update the /etc/fstab file:

echo 'gfs01:/gvol0 /mnt/www glusterfs defaults,_netdev 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

Save and close the file. Mount it:
$ sudo mount -a
$ df -H

Step 10 – Test it

Cd /mnt/www/ and create some files on www1 or gfs02:
# cd /mnt/www
# mkdir test
# cd test
# cp /etc/*.conf .
You should see files on both gfs02, gfs01 and www1.

A note about setting network.ping.timeout

Finally run the following command on both gfs02 and gfs01 to set network ping timeout to 5 seconds from default 42:
$ sudo gluster volume set gvol0 network.ping-timeout "5"
Verify it
$ sudo gluster volume get gvol0 network.ping-timeout

Option                                  Value                                   
------                                  -----                                   
network.ping-timeout                    5      

Otherwise glusterfs client will hang out when other node goes down for 42 seconds. You just reduced this to 5 seconds.

A note about Apache DocumentRoot

You need to edit httpd.conf and set DocumentRoot to point to /mnt/www/ directory.

References

• www.gluster.org