Planning for GPFS

Although you can modify your GPFS™ configuration after it has been set, a little consideration before installation and initial setup will reward you with a more efficient and immediately useful file system.

During configuration, GPFS requires you to specify several operational parameters that reflect your hardware resources and operating environment. During file system creation, you can specify parameters that are based on the expected size of the files or you can let the default values take effect.

The spectrumscale installation toolkit is also available to assist with GPFS installation on Linux nodes. For more information, see Overview of the spectrumscale installation toolkit

Planning for GPFS includes:

  • Hardware requirements
    You can validate that your hardware meets GPFS requirements by taking the steps outlined in this topic.
  • Software requirements
    GPFS planning includes understanding the latest software requirements.
  • Recoverability considerations
    Sound file system planning requires several decisions about recoverability. After you make these decisions, GPFS parameters enable you to create a highly-available file system with rapid recovery from failures.
  • GPFS cluster creation considerations
    A GPFS cluster is created using the mmcrcluster command.
  • Disk considerations
    Designing a proper storage infrastructure for your GPFS file systems is key to achieving performance and reliability goals. When deciding what disk configuration to use, you should consider three key areas: infrastructure, performance, and disk access method.
  • File system creation considerations
    File system creation involves anticipating usage within the file system and considering your hardware configurations. Before creating a file system, consider how much data will be stored and how great the demand for the files in the system will be.
  • Fileset considerations for creating protocol data exports
    You can create exports on the entire file system, on sub-directories of a file system, or on filesets.
  • Backup considerations for using Tivoli Storage Manager
    If you are planning to use Tivoli Storage Manager to back up IBM Spectrum Scale™ file systems, refer to the following considerations.
Parent topic: Planning for IBM Spectrum Scale