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What Is GPFS

GPFS, rebranded as IBM Spectrum Scale in 2015, is a high-performance file system that enables concurrent access across multiple nodes in a cluster. It utilizes data striping for improved I/O performance and requires specific firewall ports for operation. Key components include clusters, nodes, quorum nodes, cluster managers, file system managers, network shared disks, storage pools, and failure groups, each serving distinct roles in maintaining data integrity and system functionality.

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12 views2 pages

What Is GPFS

GPFS, rebranded as IBM Spectrum Scale in 2015, is a high-performance file system that enables concurrent access across multiple nodes in a cluster. It utilizes data striping for improved I/O performance and requires specific firewall ports for operation. Key components include clusters, nodes, quorum nodes, cluster managers, file system managers, network shared disks, storage pools, and failure groups, each serving distinct roles in maintaining data integrity and system functionality.

Uploaded by

raj0000kaml
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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GPFS - Spectrum Scale

GPFS is available on AIX since 1998 (on Linux since 2001, on Windows since 2008).
It provides concurrent high-speed file access on multiple nodes of cluster. In 2015
IBM rebranded GPFS as IBM Spectrum Scale.

Spectrum Scale provides high performance by allowing data to be accessed by


multiple servers at once. It provides higher input/output performance by "striping"
blocks of data from individual files over multiple disks, and reading and writing
these blocks in parallel. Spectrum Scale commands can be executed from any node in
the cluster. If tasks must be performed on another node in the cluster, the command
automatically redirects the request to the appropriate node for execution. (ssh-key
is needed)

These ports are needed on firewall:


GPFS - 1191 TCP
SSH - 22 TCP

----------------------------------------------

Spectrum Scale components:

Cluster:
A Spectrum Scale cluster is formed by a collection of nodes that share access to
the file systems defined in the cluster. mmcrcluster, mmstatup -a, mmshutdown -a

Node:
A node is any server that has the Spectrum Scale product installed on a physical
machine, or on a virtual machine. Mmaddnode ,mmdelnode, mmlsnode

Quorum nodes:
During cluster creation some nodes can be designated as quorum nodes. Maintaining
quorum in a GPFS cluster means that a majority of the nodes designated as quorum
nodes are able to successfully communicate. In a three quorum node configuration
two nodes have to be communicating for cluster operations to continue. When one
node is isolated by a network failure, it stops all file system operations until
communications are restored, so no data is corrupted by a lack of coordination.
(The exact calculation of quorum is, one plus half of the defined quorum nodes.)
(show quorum nodes: mmgetstate)

Cluster manager:
The cluster manager node monitors disk lease expiration, state of the quorum,
detects failures and starts recovery. In overall it has the responsibility for
correct operation of the nodes and the cluster. It is chosen through an election
held among the quorum nodes. (Starting in GPFS 3.5 it is possible to define by
command as well.) (show cluster manager: mmlsmgr)

File System manager:


Each file system has a file system manager, which handles all of the nodes using
that file system. It has the tasks: repairing/configuring the filesystem, managing
disk space allocation, giving access to files to read/write... The file system
manager is selected by the cluster manager. (check file system manager: mmlsmgr)

Network shared disk (NSD)


The disks configured in the cluster are called NSD. Each physical disk available on
AIX, which will be part of the cluter, needs to be defined first as an NSD (with
the command mmcrnsd). The names created by mmcrnsd are necessary since disks
connected to multiple nodes may have different disk names on each node. The NSD
names uniquely identify each disk. mmcrnsd must be run as a first step for all
disks that are to be used in GPFS file systems. (check NSD: mmlsnsd)

Storage pool
It ss a collection of NSDs and with this featue some disks can be grouped together
(for example based on type of storage, or vendor...) (check storage pool: mmlspool)

Failure group
In GPFS you can replicate (mirror) any files or the entire file system. A
replication factor of two in GPFS means that each block of a replicated file is in
at least two failure groups. A failure group is defined by the administrator and
contains one or more NSDs. Each file system can contain one or more failure groups
which are defined by the administrator and can be changed at any time. So when a
file system is fully replicated any single failure group can fail and the data
remains online.
(check failure groups: mmlsdisk)

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