Shared Disk File System (Clustered file system)

[robert_]

Hi there,
Is it possible to build shared Disk file system using FreeNas/TrueNas storage area network ?

Here is the list of proprietary closed source clustered file system
Xsan
GPFS
StorNext
TigerStore

Thanks

 

[jgreco]

Well, of course it is. FreeNAS is happy to act as SAN storage and you can put whatever you want on top of it. SAN storage is just block storage and doesn't care what goes on top of it. iSCSI is supported out of the box, and FC is possible with a little hackery, but is not technically "supported."

You missed VMware's VMFS as the most widely deployed closed source clustered file system, of course.

https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/the-path-to-success-for-block-storage.81165/

You'll want to review that before attempting to set up any block storage on top of FreeNAS.

 

[jenksdrummer]

My main use case for me is iSCSI LUNS for VMWare; iSCSI LUNS for Hyper-V, SMB with a 5TB VHDx file, general file sharing.

To that, what you're asking is if FreeNAS/TrueNAS can act as a SAN. Yes.

The file system you put on the LUNs is up to the system connecting to it...VMFS is a cluster-aware file system, as is NTFS when used as a Clustered-Shared-Volume (CSV). The attaching operating system has to be cluster-aware, as would it's file system, as would the operating system likely need to be aware of others that are clustered with access to the LUN. IE, don't run two clusters with the same LUN(s)...though, VMWare seems to be a good bit more tolerant to that kind of thing w/ VMFS.