Most clustered FS's do require SNMP access to the fabric in order to conduct fencing.
Is SNMP more secure than NFS?
Regards, Max
No, but no actual data traverses the link. And I don't think it's SNMP (which would be a problem in any case) with GFS, but it is some sort of TCP control mechanism between the nodes for the Red hat clustering, which may be a problem for the group, we'll see. I understand their concern, as having any TCP service listening brings up the concern of buffer overflows, etc. This client is a very large enterprise, and I'm sure their security group consists of dozens of folks that need to justify their existence! :-)
I think that GFS is definitely the way to go, and they'll need to address the security concerns in their own way, or not have a solution.
Thanks all for your responses, the group came through!
G