Re: CVS Server and Load-Balancing/Redundancy

[Andrew Johnson]

Duncan Sommerville wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Is the CVS repository-locking mechanism strong enough (or designed)
> to allow 2+ CVS servers potential access to the same repository?
> I'm using version 1.11 running under OSF1.

Probably, but it depends on the reliability and capabilities of the
underlying file system.  We have been using NFS to mount our CVS
repository on multiple SunOS and Solaris machines without using the
client/server CVS capabilities for many years with zero problems.  However
it is known that using dissimmilar OSs in this manner can cause repository
corruption, so YMMV.

> This would be for load-balancing and/or redundancy purposes in a
> production system...

What happens if one system has creates a lock file and then promptly dies,
leaving the repository in a locked state?  Bear in mind that there's
nothing built into CVS to recover from this, so it might require manual
intervention in the even of one system failing.  The data will still be
safe, although a multi-file commit might be only partially applied in that
circumstance.

- Andrew
-- 
Perfection is reached, not when there is no longer anything to add,
but when there is no longer anything to take away.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery