scst/scst/README.drbd

SCST, DRBD and Dual Primary Mode
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Introduction
------------
One possible approach to build a highly available storage solution is to
combine SCST with DRBD. While designing such a solution one has to choose an
operation mode for DRBD. While single primary mode is the easiest to set up,
with dual primary mode it becomes possible to balance the load for a single
LUN over the clustered servers. However, SCST and DRBD settings have to be
chosen carefully in order to avoid data corruption with dual primary
mode. One must make sure that SCST only confirms a write as finished to the
multipath initiator after the data involved in write operation has been
passed on to DRBD on both nodes.

SCST Configuration
------------------
In order to avoid data corruption it is crucial to use the following SCST
settings for each DRBD block device exported via SCST:
* One can use either the vdisk_blockio device handler or vdisk_fileio.
* Caching MUST be disabled: set the nv_cache parameter to 0 in scst.conf.
* Write-through MUST be enabled: set the write_through parameter to 1 in
  scst.conf.
* If SCSI reservations are used, their sync between nodes must be enabled,
  see README.dlm.

DRBD Configuration
------------------
As documented in the DRBD manual, dual primary mode only works with the DRBD
replication protocol C and not with protocol A nor with protocol B.

Initiator Configuration
-----------------------
When using VMware, do NOT use multipath I/O in round-robin mode. This mode
namely depends on persistent reservations to guarantee data
consistency. When running an SCST cluster, the SCST persistent reservation
state is not shared between the two nodes.

References
----------
* DRBD authors, [Dual Primary Mode], DRBD Manual, 2011.
* VMware, [iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide 4.1], VMware website, September 2010.
* Phil White, [VMware ESX, MPIO, SCST and DRBD in Dual Primary Mode], SCST
  Developers Mailing List, June 2010.
* Stefan Berger, [SCST and DRBD in Dual Primary Mode], DRBD users mailing
  list, June 2010.
* Bart Van Assche [SCST and DRBD in Dual Primary Mode], SCST Developers
  Mailing List, May 2011.