4.14 LUN Masking for Shared Devices

LUN masking is the ability to exclusively assign each LUN to one or more host connections. With it, you can assign appropriately sized pieces of storage from a common storage pool to various servers. See your storage system vendor documentation for more information on configuring LUN masking.

When you create a Novell Cluster Services system that uses a shared storage system, it is important to remember that all of the servers that you grant access to the shared device, whether in the cluster or not, have access to all of the volumes on the shared storage space unless you specifically prevent such access. Novell Cluster Services arbitrates access to shared volumes for all cluster nodes, but it cannot protect shared volumes from being corrupted by non-cluster servers.

Software included with your storage system can be used to mask LUNs or to provide zoning configuration of the SAN fabric to prevent shared volumes from being corrupted by non-cluster servers.

IMPORTANT:We recommend that you implement LUN masking in your business continuity cluster for data protection. LUN masking is provided by your storage system vendor.