Why do I need a cluster file system
Why do you need a special file system if you have more than one computer accessing a partition?
First, if two computers have file system cache, it can happen that one writes a block and the other one fetches an obsolete block from its cache, so there would be inconsistencies. But if you switch off file system cache, this problem is solved.
OK, let's look at the next problem: Computer A reads a counter file and increases it:
Computer A reads 20 Computer B reads 20 Computer A writes 21 Computer B writes 21
And we have inconsistencies. But wait, this is not a cluster-specific problem, you will have the same problem in a multi-tasking environment.
The real problem is the file system meta data. A file system is on disk, but its changes are processed on a computer, and on only one computer. The file system meta data is always cached, and even if not, you run into race conditions. Take this example:
Computer A looks for a free inode, finds number 20 Computer B looks for a free inode, finds number 20 Computer A writes data into inode number 20 Computer B writes data into inode number 20
BOING, data is lost.