How do I Configure GlusterFS for OpenStack Block Storage

Question

Hi Guys,

As we know there are lots of technologies available to create partitions in OpenStack. One of that technology is GlusterFS. GlusterFS is an open source distributed file system that can scale out in building-block fashion to store multiple petabytes of data. How can I use GlusterFS in OpenStack to make partitions?

Answer 1

Hi@akhtar,

To set GlusterFS as your partitioner tool in OpenStack, follow the below given steps. 

1. Log in as root to the system hosting the Block Storage service.

2. Create a text file named glusterfs in /etc/cinder/ directory.

3. Add an entry to /etc/cinder/glusterfs for each GlusterFS share that OpenStack Block Storage should use for back end storage. Each entry should be a separate line, and should use the following format.

   HOST:/VOL_NAME
   

   Where:

   Optionally, if your environment requires additional mount options for a share, you can add them to the share’s entry:

   HOST:/VOL_NAME -o OPTIONS
   

   Replace OPTIONS with a comma-separated list of mount options.

   • HOST is the IP address or host name of the Red Hat Storage server.
   • VOL_NAME is the name of an existing and accessible volume on the GlusterFS server.

4. Set /etc/cinder/glusterfs to be owned by the root user and the cinder group:

   # chown root:cinder /etc/cinder/glusterfs
   

5. Set /etc/cinder/glusterfs to be readable by members of the cinder group:

   # chmod 0640 /etc/cinder/glusterfs
   

6. Configure OpenStack Block Storage to use the /etc/cinder/glusterfs file created earlier in your environment. To do so, you have to open the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf configuration file in your system and set the glusterfs_shares_config configuration key to /etc/cinder/glusterfs.

   On distributions that include openstack-config, you can configure this by running the following command instead:

   # openstack-config --set /etc/cinder/cinder.conf \
     DEFAULT glusterfs_shares_config /etc/cinder/glusterfs
   

7. Configure the OpenStack Block Storage service to use the correct volume driver in your system, namely cinder.volume.drivers.glusterfs.GlusterfsDriver. To do so,  you should open the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf configuration file and set the volume_driver configuration key  as your requirement to cinder.volume.drivers.glusterfs.GlusterfsDriver.

   On distributions that include openstack-config, you can configure this by running the following command instead:

   # openstack-config --set /etc/cinder/cinder.conf \
     DEFAULT volume_driver cinder.volume.drivers.glusterfs.GlusterfsDriver
   

8. You can now restart the service to apply the configuration.

OpenStack Block Storage is now configured to use a GlusterFS back end.

Thank You