I'm trying to learn linux and primarily interested in storage clustering, mainly because of cloud hype.

I've got a esxi server I installed 3 CentOS vms each with a vdisk for OS and another for storage.

I've been trying to find a complete "setup a cluster for dummies" and came across a few that seemed to be ideal but I'm running into issues not mentioned in the articles.

ie: article on linuxdynasty on how to setup gfs2 with clustering (too new to post the link, google you'll find it)

I've gotten to the lvm part and I'm getting an error:
Error locking on node sc02: Volume group for uuid not found lkahsdlhasjkfhdkjasfjhasklfhla
Failed to activate new LV.

I'm trying to create my own cloud, not exactly, where each node has its own disk and files are written to the cluster and the cluster takes care of nodes to ensure retention.

Am I going about this the wrong way? I'm starting to get worried I'm wasting my time and this whole storage cluster is just a way to share a single storage unit like an iscsi box across multiple linux boxes.

any help would be appreciated.