Gluster - SWOT Analysis 2017

Vijay Bellur GlusterFS Co-Maintainer Red Hat @vbellur

What is a SWOT Analysis?

Gluster - Strengths● Hybrid Cloud Storage● Community Momentum● Ecosystem Integration● Use Case Clarity

Gluster - Strengths: Hybrid Cloud Storage● Flexible and easy to run on any platform● Runs on

○ Physical Machines○ Virtual Machines○ Containers○ Public Cloud

● Data replication across Hybrid Cloud● Consistent Storage Stack for applications

Gluster - Strengths: Community Momentum ● Predictable release cycles

● Brick Multiplexing● Reblance time estimation● Statedump for gfapi 3.10

Feb 2017

Gluster - Strengths: Community Momentum ● Predictable release cycles

● Brick Multiplexing● Reblance time estimation● Statedump for gfapi 3.10

Feb 2017

● Halo Replication● Metadata performance● Rebalance

performance improvements

3.11May 2017

Gluster - Strengths: Community Momentum ● Predictable release cycles

● Brick Multiplexing● Reblance time estimation● Statedump for gfapi 3.10

Feb 2017

● Halo Replication● Metadata performance● Rebalance

performance improvements

3.11May 2017

● Sub-directory mounts for FUSE

● Gfid to Path by default● Configurable time zone

for logs

3.12Aug 2017

Gluster - Strengths: Community Momentum ● Upcoming release cycles

● Gfapi support for upcalls● IPv6 Support● Discard Support for EC3.13

Nov 2017

Gluster - Strengths: Community Momentum ● Upcoming release cycles

● Gfapi support for upcalls● IPv6 Support● Discard Support for EC3.13

Nov 2017

● Glusterd2● Thin client/ gfproxy● N+1 scaling

4.0Feb 2018?

Gluster - Strengths: Community Momentum ● Upcoming release cycles

● Gfapi support for upcalls● IPv6 Support● Discard Support for EC3.13

Nov 2017

● Glusterd2● Thin client/ gfproxy● N+1 scaling

4.0Feb 2018?

● RIO● Geo-replication to S3● Performance

improvements

4.1May 2018?

Gluster - Strengths: Community Momentum ● Improved diversity in community (code) contributions● Broad community leadership - NO SPOF!

○ More Core maintainers○ More component maintainers & peers○ $(topdir)/MAINTAINERS in git reflects current status

● More gluster ecosystem projects - gluster-block, gluster-s3, Tendrl● Experimental branch for innovation

Gluster - Strengths: Ecosystem Integration● Containers

○ Kubernetes, gluster-kubernetes, Heketi

Gluster - Strengths: Ecosystem Integration● Hyperconvergence

○ Ovirt (6 Steps to Nirvana!)

1

2

3

4

5

6

Gluster - Strengths: Ecosystem Integration● NFS Ganesha● Samba● Tcmu-runner● Swift

Gluster - Strengths: Use Case clarity● Scale-out NAS across Hybrid Cloud● Container Native Storage● Hyperconvergence for VMs

Gluster - Weaknesses

Gluster - Weaknesses● Usability● Scale● Automation● Discoverability of information

Gluster - Weaknesses: Usability● Installation is a breeze, but:

○ Day 2 operations are difficult○ GUI based management is inadequate○ Monitoring is painful○

● [root@deepthought westford]# gluster volume create d disperse disperse-data 4 redundancy 2 hostname1:/brick1 hostname2:/brick1 hostname3:/brick1 hostname4:/brick1 hostname5:/brick1 hostname6:/brick1 hostname7:/brick2 hostname8:/brick2 hostname:/brick3 hostname4:/brick2 hostname5:/brick2 hostname6:/brick2 hostname1:/brick3 hostname2:/brick3 hostname3:/brick3 hostname4:/brick3 hostname5:/brick3 hostname6:/brick3….

●

Gluster - Weaknesses: Scale● Management Scale

○ Being improved with glusterd2

● Data Scale○ Directory & Metadata improvements with RIO

● Monitoring at Scale○ Eventing, promotheus?

● Debugging at Scale○ EFK, better logs

Gluster - Weaknesses: Automation● Insufficient automation of tests wrt features

○ Glusto needs more help and love!

● Lack of automation w.r.t debugging○ Need tooling for log analysis, performance analysis etc.

● Lack of automation for Day 2○ gdeploy?

● Non-deterministic release testing○ Related to point #1

Gluster - Weaknesses: Discoverability● Documentation - continues to be problematic● Messaging - Not structured, infrequent● Features to Release mapping

○ Projects in github - solves this problem!

Gluster - Opportunities

Gluster - Opportunities● Deeper integration with containers, autonomic computing● Hardware gamechangers like NVMe/pmem● Integration with emerging technologies - BlockChain, Machine Learning, IoT

etc.● Innovate to outperform proprietary storage!

Gluster - Threats

Gluster - Threats● Public Cloud● Emerging & Legacy Proprietary storage● Lack of Innovation● Lack of Innovation - Stability balance

Questions?