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Home > Archive > Data Storage > May 2004 > Compaq RA4100 Two servers, 1 logical drive.
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Compaq RA4100 Two servers, 1 logical drive.
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| Is it possible to have two servers accessing the same logical drive, on a
Compaq RA4100 SAN?
I need to create a shared storage area between two servers, for an offline
copy of the content of our file-server. Once the data has been copied to the
partition by our file & print server, the backup server would backup the
data from the shared partition.
Possible?
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| We're running W2K srv on both servers.
"WS" <WS@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:AWklc.1467$s3.127044@news02.tsnz.net...
> Is it possible to have two servers accessing the same logical drive, on a
> Compaq RA4100 SAN?
>
> I need to create a shared storage area between two servers, for an offline
> copy of the content of our file-server. Once the data has been copied to
the
> partition by our file & print server, the backup server would backup the
> data from the shared partition.
>
> Possible?
>
>
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| Bill Todd 2004-05-30, 11:11 am |
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"WS" <WS@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:AWklc.1467$s3.127044@news02.tsnz.net...
> Is it possible to have two servers accessing the same logical drive, on a
> Compaq RA4100 SAN?
Most likely. Especially given that your description indicates that they
don't have to access the drive concurrently: one fully writes it, then the
other fully reads it.
>
> I need to create a shared storage area between two servers, for an offline
> copy of the content of our file-server. Once the data has been copied to
the
> partition by our file & print server, the backup server would backup the
> data from the shared partition.
>
> Possible?
Virtually anything is possible. The main thing you have to worry about is
that the file system on each server is wholly ignorant of the file system on
the other, so the *only* way they communicate is via the data on the drive.
And file systems routinely cache information in system memory that will
therefore not be updated when the drive is (not that the drive itself is
always updated immediately - another cause for concern), hence can get out
of synch if multiple systems are accessing the drive concurrently without
the higher levels of coordination that a SAN file system provides..
So the safest way to do what you're describing is to dismount the drive on
the file/print server after having copied what you want to it (which should
flush any yet-unwritten changes to the drive), then mount the drive on the
backup server and read it, then dismount on the backup server when done in
preparation for remounting on the file/print server next time.
- bill
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