How to access GlusterFS volume from Linux

GlusterFS volume can be mounted in Linux manually via the mount command or automatically via fstab, just like other network filesystems. Also, just like other network filesystems, the client requires specific drivers or libraries, which, unfortunately, for GlusterFS, usually is not installed by default.

Required and supporting libraries to mount GlusterFS volume in Linux usually are available in the default repository of the distributions' default package manager. GlusterFS volume can be mounted from the command line in Linux.

1. Launch terminal session on server.
2. List available GlusterFS volumes on the GlusterFS server.

   $ sudo gluster volume list
   [sudo] password for user:
   volume1 

3. List host name of GlusterFS peers on the GlusterFS server.

   $ cat /etc/hosts
   192.168.111.70    node1.gluster.local    node1
   192.168.111.71    node2.gluster.local    node2

4. Launch terminal session on the client.
5. Open /etc/host using your favorite text editor.
6. Add static host.

   192.168.111.70    node1.gluster.local    node1
   192.168.111.71    node2.gluster.local    node2

7. Install GlusterFS client application.

   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install --assume-yes glusterfs-client # Ubuntu or Debian variant

   $ sudo dnf install --assumeyes glusterfs-fuse # CentOS, Fedora or Red Hat variance

8. Create mount point.

   $ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/volume1

9. Mount manually using host name.

   $ sudo mount -t glusterfs node1:/volume1 /mnt/volume1/

10. Test if mount is successful.

    $ df /mnt/volume1/
    Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
    node1:/volume1  19991152 8207136  10945388  43% /mnt/volume1

11. Unmount GlusterFS volume.

    $ sudo umount /mnt/volume1

12. Open fstab using your preferred text editor.

    $ sudo vi /etc/fstab

13. Add entry to mount GlusterFS volume.

    node1:/volume1  /mnt/volume1 glusterfs  defaults,_netdev        0 0

14. Save and exit the text editor.
15. Mount GlusterFS volume via fstab entry.

    $ sudo mount /mnt/volume1/

16. Test if GlusterFS volume is successfully mounted.

    $ df /mnt/volume1/
    Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
    node1:/volume1  19991152 8207136  10945388  43% /mnt/volume1

17. Reboot system and test if volume successfully mount after reboot.

    $ sudo reboot