[Beowulf] HPC and SAN

[Michael Will]

On Wednesday 29 December 2004 01:11 am, Leif Nixon wrote:
> Guy Coates <gmpc at sanger.ac.uk> writes:
> 
> > The only time SAN attached storage helps is in the case of storage node
> > failures, as you have redundant paths between storage nodes and disks.
> 
> And the added complexity of a fail-over mechanism might well lower
> your total MTBF.

Speaking from experience?

The expectation when building a fail-over system is that the systems mtb-total-f
is higher even though the mtb-partial-f is shorter (more parts that can fail).

Of course the probability, that the failover logic / software is the new single-point-of-failure,
is not zero either. 

Michael
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