Multiple FreeNAS Hosts Access for a JBOD/Array

[pstoianov]

Hello,

I have recently started to build a HA-NAS. The idea is to have 2 servers with LSI MegaRAID-9286 and 1x external shared SAS JBOD.
This is the build that I've scrapped together in the last few weeks of research for both nodes (servers). Each server to have:
- LSI MegaRAID-9260-8e;
- SuperMicro Server - LGA771/E5410;
- Dual port 10GbE;
- Dual port 1GbE;

Shared components:
- JBOD/enclosure ??????;
- 12x WDC RE4 2TB in RAID6;
- 3x 120GB STEC SSD CacheCade dedicated;

Does anyone have tried to build below architecture where 2 Servers shares same enclosure in ACTIVE/PASSIVE configuration with fail-over with CARP?

What (not expensive) JBOD/enclosure do you think is able to work in such HA mode where 2 server's MegaRAID are connected to same JBOD in RAID6?
Do I need dual port I/O or single also works?
How they will mount/unmount in case of failure?
Do they need some sync in between?

Thank you!

 

[cyberjock]

AFAIK CARP is broken on FreeNAS 8.3.1. Not sure if CARP is included with FreeNAS 9 or what condition it is in. I know a handful of people have tried to use CARP and posted their efforts, but I'm not sure if anyone has actually succeeded in getting it working. I know many(all?) have failed to get it working.

If you do get it working it would be beneficial to provide a guide for others to follow.

Good luck!

http://forums.freenas.org/threads/carp-fail.9040/#post-45955

 

[MtK]

@pstoianov do you have the designated JBODs?
if not, take a look at the SBB solution by SuperMicro: http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/sbb.cfm

 

[jgreco]

ZFS is not a cluster-aware filesystem and you cannot safely have a ZFS pool mounted on two machines simultaneously. While you might be able to try to detect failures of the primary head and then forcibly import the pool if it seemed to be dead, I imagine that would be dangerous consequences if two heads ended up trying to run the pool. You probably need a product that offers this specific feature and that has correctly implemented it.