In this chapter, we went through the core concepts of what a cluster is and defined it as a set of computers called nodes working together in the same type of workload. A compute cluster's primary function is to perform tasks that run CPU-intensive workloads, which are designed to reduce processing time. A storage cluster's function is to aggregate available storage resources into a single storage space that simplifies management and allows you to efficiently reach the petascale or go beyond the 1-PB available space. Then, we explored how SDS is changing the way that data is stored and how GlusterFS is one of the projects that is leading this change. SDS allows for the simplified management of storage resources, while at the same time adding features that were impossible with traditional monolithic storage arrays.
To further understand how applications interact...
