Symantec logo
Coordinator Disks

Coordinator disks are special-purpose disks. They comprise three (or an odd number greater than three) standard disks, or LUNs, set aside for use by I/O fencing during cluster reconfiguration.

The coordinator disks act as a global lock device during a cluster reconfiguration. This lock mechanism determines which node is allowed to fence off data drives from other nodes. From a high level, a system must eject a peer from the coordinator disks before it can fence the peer from the data drives. This concept of "racing" for control of coordinator disks is the key to understanding how fencing helps prevent split-brain.

Coordinator disks cannot be used for any other purpose. You cannot store data on them, or include them in a disk group for user data. They can be any three disks that support SCSI-3 PGR. Symantec recommends the coordinator disks use the smallest LUNs. Because coordinator disks do not store data, cluster nodes need only register with them, not reserve them.