Linux vendor Red Hat has begun to sell new software for creating a universal storage system to expand your core operating system business scope.
In addition to the payment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the user is charged $ 2200 per server in addition to the Red Hat Global File System (GFS). This new product is obtained from Sistina Software, acquired from the early Red Hat.
At the same time, Red Hat performs the source code of the GFS software under the context of General public license. GFS once an open source software, but because of its financial revenue, 2001 Sistina included the software into a proprietary software category.
The GFS software makes files in a single file system shared by many servers. Related information can be stored in the server or in a storage area network.
The software enhances data access speed and can copy information, so when individual machines fail, this information is still available. This feature is advantageous for two traditional clusters: the machine associated together, which is the problem when there is a problem, one of the machines can replace another; the other is a cluster that is linked together as a giant computer.
Red Hat GFS can be collaborated with Oracle 9i RAC database software and with Red HAT cluster software, while extending the Red Hat operating system to a higher level of software environment.
Red Hat is not the only company that promotes the cluster file system business. Last Tuesday, HP released the StorageWorks upgraded file shared product, which is a server that monitors a single cluster file system for distributed a large number of file systems. The software adopts an open source Lustre system in high-performance computing tasks. The Lustre file system is currently used in a giant computer of 4096 processors in the Northwestern Pacific National Laboratory. At the same time, LUSTRE applies a cluster giant computer that configures 2,500 processors in the US National Super Computing Application Center named Tungsten. Tungsten is a giant computer ranked fifth in global processing speed.
Located in Boston, CLUSTER FILE SYSTEMS helps to develop Lustre file systems and sell the software's technical services and support. HP cooperates with several national laboratories to work on the research and development of the software.
Another open source cluster file system comes from Oracle. Oracle released an Oracle Cluster file system in the Linux system in 2003. (ZDNet China / Shaohua)
