Shared file systems are file systems that are distributed on multiple hosts. The advantage of a shared file system is that file data is passed directly from the Fibre Channel disks to the hosts. Data travels by way of local path I/O (direct access I/O). This is in contrast to the NFS service, which transfers data over the network.
The browser interface supports the creation and management of the Sun QFS file system as a shared file system.
For information about the packages required on the server in order for it to host shared file systems, see About Supported File Systems.
You configure a Sun QFS file system to be shared by selecting Shared in the New File System wizard. When you configure the Sun QFS file system to be shared, you configure it to be a distributed file system that can be mounted on multiple host systems. One host acts as the metadata server for the file system, and additional hosts act as clients.
More than one host can be configured as a potential metadata server, but only one host can be configured as the metadata server at any one time. There is no limit to the number of shared file system mount points.
Archiving shared file systems can be configured through the browser interface by selecting both the archiving and shared options in the File System wizard. When both of these options are enabled, the software manages archiving for the file system on the metadata server. If you later change the metadata server to another host, you must manually set up the archiver configuration on the new host.
Note - When you create a shared file system through the browser interface, the software updates the hosts configuration for the file system. However, the software does not create or update the hosts.family-set-name file for the file system. If you want to create the hosts.family-set-name file, see How to Create the Shared Hosts File.
The shared file system does not support the following file types:
Blocked special files
Character special files
FIFO (named pipe) special files
Through the browser interface, you can perform the following tasks for a shared file system:
Create a metadata server for a new file system
Add clients to an existing file system
Add a potential metadata server to an existing file system
Mount or unmount the metadata server and the clients
Change mount options
Delete a client
Delete the metadata server
All other operations related to shared file systems must be performed outside of the browser interface. For more detailed information about the shared Sun QFS file system, see the Sun QFS Installation and Upgrade Guide.