How to Improve GFS/GFS2 File System Performance and Prevent Processes from Hanging

Cluster file systems such as the Red Hat Global File System (GFS) and Red Hat Global File System 2 (GFS2) are complex systems that allows multiple computers (nodes) to simultaneously share the same storage device in a cluster.

There can be many reasons why performance does not match expectations. In some workloads or environments, the overhead associated with distributed locking on GFS/GFS2 file systems might affect performance or cause certain commands to appear to hang. This document addresses common problems and how to avoid them, how to discover if a particular file system is affected by a problem, and how to know if you have found a real bug (rather than just a performance issue).

This document is for users in the design stage of a cluster who want to know how to get the best from a GFS/GFS2 file system, as well as for for users of GFS/GFS2 file systems who need to track down a performance problem in the system.