You can obtain the highest shared-file performance when applications access storage directly. The GFS SAN configuration in Figure 1.11, “GFS with a SAN” provides superior file performance for shared files and file systems. Linux applications run directly on cluster nodes using GFS. Without file protocols or storage servers to slow data access, performance is similar to individual Linux servers with directly connected storage; yet, each GFS application node has equal access to all data files. GFS supports over 300 GFS nodes.

[D]

Figure 1.11. GFS with a SAN