Can I run mysqld on top of glusterfs?

Question

I have been playing with glusterfs recently.

What I want to try is to run mysqld on top of the glusterfs in a similar way as it is possible to run MySQL on top of DRBD.

I am familiar with MySQL replication and the advantages of using that instead of this approach and I am also aware of MongoDB and other NoSQL solutions.

However, it would be an easy solution to a few specific projects I have coming up if I could leave MySQL as it is and replicate the underlying file system.

Is this possible and if it is where can I find out how?

Answer 1

Due to a reasonably long delay with no answers, I have found out by trial and error.

The answer is : Yes, I can run mysqld on top of glusterfs.

I set this up on Ubuntu and briefly here are the steps:

• Install Ubuntu
• Install and configure glusterfs
• Install mysql-server
• Configure /etc/mysql/my.cnf to set datadir /mnt/glusterfs instead of /var/lib/mysql
• Set up the databases
• Configure AppAmor to allow the above to work (or disable appamor )

The real problem comes in how MySQL handles locks.

However you can pass all of this off to glusterfs to handle so that many mysqld processes (running on separate nodes) can access the same database files on /mnt/glusterfs. You need to read this carefully.

• Disable the query cache, switch on external locking and disable delays to writing.

Answer 2

I do not think that is possible. Richard, the link you provided is talking about MyIsam and they say that is not recommended anyway. I read somewhere (I do not remember where) that using innoDB files shared by several nodes will lead to data corruption.