Dell DX6004S DX Object Storage Application Guide - Page 15

Using Multicast-DNS mDNS, 2.3. Using DNS Round Robin

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2.2.2. Using Multicast-DNS (mDNS) Another way to make your nodes available on the network and of finding an initial PAN is to use mDNS. mDNS is often referred to by the name Zeroconf, the collective name form DNS and DNS Service Discovery to enable zero-configuration networking. mDNS is supported for all deployments and provides the most flexibility because it provides applications with a list of storage nodes to choose from when selecting a PAN without requiring the application to maintain a static list of IP addresses. Every DX Storage node implements an mDNS service that allows applications to do what is called service discovery. Even if DHCP is being used to assign and change node IP addresses, mDNS will allow an application to "discover" an active node in any DX Storage cluster and use it as the PAN. There are several free mDNS client implementations in various languages that application integrators may wish to reference when considering using mDNS node location. Note When you are using mDNS, make sure the value of the cluster parameter is unique for each cluster. The cluster parameter is located in the node.cfg file for a non-CSNmanaged cluster or in the PXE configuration for a CSN-managed cluster. DX Storage's mDNS support allows an application to discover all nodes on a network, all nodes in a specific cluster, or to look up a node. To do this it "publishes" several different records, including an A (host) record for the node and an SRV (service) record under the service type _scsp._tcp. Although a thorough discussion of mDNS and its use is beyond the scope of this document, a typical usage example follows. The example uses Avahi's command line tools to pass in the name of the cluster and return all nodes discovered in that cluster: % avahi-browse -tr _._sub._scsp._tcp local + eth0 IPv4 D2024267FF8F1DD056EEA15E40EE52C9 local = eth0 IPv4 CD35B28FD2E70CD1E47095C774F8050F local hostname = [CD35B28FD2E70CD1E47095C774F8050F.local] address = [192.168.1.123] port = [80] txt = [] = eth0 IPv4 D2024267FF8F1DD056EEA15E40EE52C9 local hostname = [D2024267FF8F1DD056EEA15E40EE52C9.local] address = [192.168.1.125] port = [80] txt = [] _scsp._tcp _scsp._tcp _scsp._tcp Here two nodes were found and their IP addresses were returned in the address field for each record. 2.2.3. Using DNS Round Robin For large and/or dynamic DX Storage clusters where nodes are being added and removed often, even for temporary maintenance reasons, you should address the cluster using a DNS host name instead of an IP address. Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved 10 Version 5.0 December 2010

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Copyright © 2010 Caringo, Inc.
All rights reserved
10
Version 5.0
December 2010
2.2.2. Using Multicast-DNS (mDNS)
Another way to make your nodes available on the network and of finding an initial PAN is to use
mDNS. mDNS is often referred to by the name
Zeroconf
, the collective name form DNS and DNS
Service Discovery to enable zero-configuration networking.
mDNS is supported for all deployments and provides the most flexibility because it provides
applications with a list of storage nodes to choose from when selecting a PAN without requiring the
application to maintain a static list of IP addresses.
Every DX Storage node implements an mDNS service that allows applications to do what is called
service discovery. Even if DHCP is being used to assign and change node IP addresses, mDNS
will allow an application to “discover” an active node in any DX Storage cluster and use it as the
PAN. There are several free mDNS client implementations in various languages that application
integrators may wish to reference when considering using mDNS node location.
Note
When you are using mDNS, make sure the value of the
cluster
parameter is unique
for each cluster. The
cluster
parameter is located in the
node.cfg
file for a non-CSN-
managed cluster or in the PXE configuration for a CSN-managed cluster.
DX Storage’s mDNS support allows an application to discover all nodes on a network, all nodes in a
specific cluster, or to look up a node. To do this it “publishes” several different records, including an
A (host) record for the node and an SRV (service) record under the service type
_scsp._tcp
.
Although a thorough discussion of mDNS and its use is beyond the scope of this document, a
typical usage example follows. The example uses Avahi's command line tools to pass in the name
of the cluster and return all nodes discovered in that cluster:
% avahi-browse -tr _<clustername>._sub._scsp._tcp
local
+ eth0 IPv4 D2024267FF8F1DD056EEA15E40EE52C9
_scsp._tcp
local
= eth0 IPv4 CD35B28FD2E70CD1E47095C774F8050F
_scsp._tcp
local
hostname = [CD35B28FD2E70CD1E47095C774F8050F.local]
address = [192.168.1.123]
port = [80]
txt = []
= eth0 IPv4 D2024267FF8F1DD056EEA15E40EE52C9
_scsp._tcp
local
hostname = [D2024267FF8F1DD056EEA15E40EE52C9.local]
address = [192.168.1.125]
port = [80]
txt = []
Here two nodes were found and their IP addresses were returned in the address field for each
record.
2.2.3. Using DNS Round Robin
For large and/or dynamic DX Storage clusters where nodes are being added and removed often,
even for temporary maintenance reasons, you should address the cluster using a DNS host name
instead of an IP address.