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Au Aix Building Two Node Gpfs Cluster PDF
Au Aix Building Two Node Gpfs Cluster PDF
This article is a step-by-step guide for deploying a two-node IBM® General Parallel File System
(IBM GPFS™) V3.5 cluster on IBM AIX® 7.1.
Overview
The purpose of this article is to provide a step-by-step guide for installing and configuring a simple
two-node GPFS cluster on AIX. The following diagram provides a visual representation of the
cluster configuration.
GPFS
GPFS provides a true "shared file system" capability, with excellent performance and scalability.
GPFS allows concurrent access for a group of computers to a common set of file data over a
common storage area network (SAN) infrastructure, a network, or a mix of connection types.
GPFS provides storage management, information lifecycle management tools, and centralized
administration and allows for shared access to file systems from remote GPFS clusters providing a
global namespace.
GPFS offers data tiering, replication, and many other advanced features. The configuration can be
as simple or complex as you want.
In this article, each partition was built with AIX version 7.1, Technology Level 2, Service Pack 1:
# oslevel -s
7100-02-01-1245
Each AIX system is configured with seven SAN disks. One disk is used for the AIX operating
system (rootvg) and the remaining six disks are used by GPFS.
# lspv
hdisk0 00c334b6af00e77b rootvg active
hdisk1 none none
hdisk2 none none
hdisk3 none none
hdisk4 none none
hdisk5 none none
hdisk6 none none
The SAN disks (to be used with GPFS) are assigned to both nodes (that is, they are shared
between both partitions). Both AIX partitions are configured with virtual Fibre Channel adapters
and access their shared storage through the SAN, as shown in the following figure.
The following attributes, shown in the table below, were changed for each hdisk, using the chdev
command.
Table 1.
AIX device name Size in GB AIX disk device type Algorithm queue_depth reserve_policy
The lsattr command can be used to verify that each attribute is set to the correct value:
# lsattr -El hdisk6 –a queue_depth –q algorithm –a reserve_policy
algorithm round_robin Algorithm True
queue_depth 32 Queue DEPTH True
reserve_policy no_reserve Reserve Policy True
The next step is to configure Secure Shell (SSH) so that both nodes can communicate with
each other. When building a GPFS cluster, you must ensure that the nodes in the cluster have
SSH configured correctly so that they do not require password authentication. This requires
the configuration of Rivest-Shamir-Adleman algorithm (RSA) key pairs for the root users SSH
configuration. This configuration needs to be configured in both directions, to all nodes in the
GPFS cluster.
The mm commands in GPFS require authentication in order for them to work. If the keys are not
configured correctly, the commands will prompt for the root password each time and the GPFS
cluster might fail. A good way to test this is to ensure that the ssh command can work unhindered
by a request for the roots password.
You can refer to the step-by-step guide for configuring SSH keys on AIX:
You can confirm that the nodes can communicate with each other (unhindered) using SSH with the
following commands on each node:
aixlpar1# ssh aixlpar1a date
aixlpar1# ssh aixlpar2a date
With SSH working, configure the WCOLL (Working Collective) environment variable for the root
user. For example, create a text file that lists each of the nodes, one per line:
# vi /usr/local/etc/gfps-nodes.list
aixlpar1a
aixlpar2a
Add the following entry to the root users .kshrc file. This will allow the root user to execute
commands on all nodes in the GPFS cluster using the dsh or mmdsh commands.
export WCOLL=/usr/local/etc/gfps-nodes.list
The root users PATH should be modified to ensure that all GPFS mm commands are available to
the system administrator. Add the following entry to the root user's .kshrc file.
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin/acct:/usr/lpp/mmfs/bin
The /etc/hosts file should be consistent across all nodes in the GPFS cluster. Each IP address for
each node must be added to /etc/hosts on each cluster node. This is recommended, even when
Domain Name System (DNS) is configured on each node. For example:
# GPFS_CLUSTER1 Cluster - Test
We will install GPFS version 3.5 (base-level file sets) and then apply the latest updates to bring
the level up to 3.5.0.10. There are only three file sets to install. You can use System Management
Interface Tool (SMIT) or the installp command to install the software.
aixlpar1 : /tmp/cg/GPFS/gpfs35_aix # inutoc .
aixlpar1 : /tmp/cg/GPFS/gpfs35_aix # ls -ltr
total 123024
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 175104 Jun 7 2012 gpfs.msg.en_US
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 868352 Jun 7 2012 gpfs.docs.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 61939712 Jun 7 2012 gpfs.base
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 3549 Apr 26 16:37 .toc
aixlpar1 : /tmp/cg/GPFS/gpfs35_aix # install –Y –d . ALL
You can verify that the base-level GPFS file sets are installed by using the lslpp command:
# lslpp -l | grep -i gpfs
gpfs.base 3.5.0.0 COMMITTED GPFS File Manager
gpfs.msg.en_US 3.5.0.0 COMMITTED GPFS Server Messages - U.S.
gpfs.base 3.5.0.0 COMMITTED GPFS File Manager
gpfs.docs.data 3.5.0.0 COMMITTED GPFS Server Manpages and
The latest GPFS updates are installed next. Again, you can use SMIT (or installp) to update the
file sets to the latest level. The lslpp command can be used to verify that the GPFS file sets have
been updated.
aixlpar1 : /tmp/cg/gpfs_fixes_3510 # inutoc .
aixlpar1 : /tmp/cg/gpfs_fixes_3510 # ls -ltr
total 580864
-rw-r--r-- 1 30007 bin 910336 Feb 9 00:10 U858102.gpfs.docs.data.bff
-rw-r--r-- 1 30007 bin 47887360 May 8 08:48 U859646.gpfs.base.bff
-rw-r--r-- 1 30007 bin 99655680 May 8 08:48 U859647.gpfs.gnr.bff
-rw-r--r-- 1 30007 bin 193536 May 8 08:48 U859648.gpfs.msg.en_US.bff
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 4591 May 10 05:15 changelog
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 3640 May 10 05:42 README
-rw-r----- 1 root system 55931 May 15 10:23 GPFS-3.5.0.10-power-AIX.readme.html
-rw-r----- 1 root system 148664320 May 15 10:28 GPFS-3.5.0.10-power-AIX.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 8946 May 15 14:48 .toc
COMMAND STATUS
[MORE...59]
Finished processing all filesets. (Total time: 18 secs).
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Pre-commit Verification...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Verifying requisites...done
Results...
SUCCESSES
---------
Filesets listed in this section passed pre-commit verification
and will be committed.
Selected Filesets
-----------------
gpfs.base 3.5.0.10 # GPFS File Manager
gpfs.msg.en_US 3.5.0.9 # GPFS Server Messages - U.S. ...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Committing Software...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Summaries:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Installation Summary
--------------------
Name Level Part Event Result
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
gpfs.msg.en_US 3.5.0.9 USR APPLY SUCCESS
gpfs.base 3.5.0.10 USR APPLY SUCCESS
gpfs.base 3.5.0.10 ROOT APPLY SUCCESS
gpfs.base 3.5.0.10 USR COMMIT SUCCESS
gpfs.base 3.5.0.10 ROOT COMMIT SUCCESS
gpfs.msg.en_US 3.5.0.9 USR COMMIT SUCCESS
Path: /etc/objrepos
gpfs.base 3.5.0.10 COMMITTED GPFS File Manager
Path: /usr/share/lib/objrepos
gpfs.docs.data 3.5.0.3 COMMITTED GPFS Server Manpages and
Documentation
The cluster is created using the mmcrcluster command.* The GPFS cluster name is
GPFS_CLUSTER1. The primary node (or NSD server; discussed in the next section) is aixlpar1p
and the secondary node is aixlpar2p. We have specified that ssh and scp will be used for cluster
communication and administration.
aixlpar1 : /tmp/cg # mmcrcluster –C GPFS_CLUSTER1 -N /tmp/cg/gpfs-nodes.txt -p
aixlpar1p -s aixlpar2p -r /usr/bin/ssh -R /usr/bin/scp
Mon Apr 29 12:01:21 EET 2013: mmcrcluster: Processing node aixlpar2
Mon Apr 29 12:01:24 EET 2013: mmcrcluster: Processing node aixlpar1
mmcrcluster: Command successfully completed
mmcrcluster: Warning: Not all nodes have proper GPFS license designations.
Use the mmchlicense command to designate licenses as needed.
mmcrcluster: Propagating the cluster configuration data to all
affected nodes. This is an asynchronous process.
*Note: To ensure that GPFS daemon communication occurs over the private GPFS network,
during cluster creation, we specified the GPFS daemon node names (that is, host names ending
with p). There are two types of communication to consider in a GPFS cluster, administrative
commands and daemon communication. Administrative commands use remote shell (ssh, rsh,
or other) and socket-based communications. It is considered as a best practice to ensure that
all GPFS daemoncommunication is performed over a private network. Refer to the GPFS
developerWorks wiki for further information and discussion on GPFS network configuration
considerations and practices.
To use a separate network for administration command communication, you can change the
"Admin node name" using the mmchnode command. In this example, the separate network address
is designated by "a" (for Administration) at the end of the node name, aixlpar1a for example.
# mmchnode -admin-interface=aixlpar1p -N aixlpar1a
# mmchnode -admin-interface=aixlpar2p -N aixlpar2a
The mmcrcluster command warned us that not all nodes have the appropriate GPFS license
designation. We use the mmchlicense command to assign a GPFS server license to both the nodes
in the cluster.
aixlpar1 : / # mmchlicense server --accept -N aixlpar1a,aixlpar2a
The following nodes will be designated as possessing GPFS server licenses:
aixlpar2a
aixlpar1a
mmchlicense: Command successfully completed
mmchlicense: Propagating the cluster configuration data to all
affected nodes. This is an asynchronous process.
The cluster is now configured. The mmlscluster command can be used to display cluster
information.
# mmlscluster
At this point, you can use the mmdsh command to verify that the SSH communication is working as
expected on all GPFS nodes. This runs a command on all the nodes in the cluster. If there is an
SSH configuration problem, this command highlights the issues.
A shared disk cluster is the most basic environment. In this configuration, the storage is directly
attached to all the systems in the cluster. The direct connection means that each shared block
device is available concurrently to all of the nodes in the GPFS cluster. Direct access means that
the storage is accessible using a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) or other block-level
protocol using a SAN.
The following figure illustrates a GPFS cluster where all nodes are connected to a common Fibre
Channel SAN and storage device. The nodes are connected to the storage using the SAN and
to each other using a local area network (LAN). Data used by applications running on the GPFS
nodes flows over the SAN, and GPFS control information flows among the GPFS instances in the
cluster over the LAN. This configuration is optimal when all nodes in the cluster need the highest
performance access to the data.
The mmcrnsd command is used to create NSD devices for GPFS. First, we create a text file that
contains a list of each of the hdisk names, their GPFS designation (data, metadata, both*), and the
NSD name.
hdisk1:::dataAndMetadata::nsd01::
hdisk2:::dataAndMetadata::nsd02::
hdisk3:::dataAndMetadata::nsd03::
hdisk4:::dataAndMetadata::nsd04::
hdisk5:::dataAndMetadata::nsd05::
hdisk6:::dataAndMetadata::nsd06::
*Note: Refer to the GPFS Concepts, Planning, and Installation document for guidance on
selecting NSD device usage types.
The lspv command now shows the NSD name associated with each AIX hdisk.
# lspv
hdisk0 00c334b6af00e77b rootvg active
hdisk1 none nsd01
hdisk2 none nsd02
hdisk3 none nsd03
hdisk4 none nsd04
hdisk5 none nsd05
hdisk6 none nsd06
The mmlsnsd command displays information for each NSD, in particular which GPFS file system is
associated with each device. At this point, we have not created a GPFS file system. So each disk
is currently free. You'll notice that under NSD servers each device is shown as directly attached.
This is expected for SAN-attached disks.
# mmlsnsd
*Note: Choose your block size carefully. It is not possible to change this value after the GPFS
device has been created.
# cat /tmp/cg/gpfs-disk.txt
nsd01:::dataAndMetadata:-1::system
nsd02:::dataAndMetadata:-1::system
nsd03:::dataAndMetadata:-1::system
# cat /tmp/cg/gpfs1-disk.txt
nsd04:::dataAndMetadata:-1::system
nsd05:::dataAndMetadata:-1::system
nsd06:::dataAndMetadata:-1::system
The mmlsnsd command displays the NSD configuration per file system. NSD devices 1 to 3 are
assigned to the gpfs0 device and devices 4 to 6 are assigned to gpfs1.
# mmlsnsd
The mmdsh command can be used here to quickly check the file system status on all the nodes.
aixlpar1 : / # mmdsh df -g | grep gpfs
aixlpar2: /dev/gpfs0 150.00 147.81 2% 4041 7% /gpfs
aixlpar2: /dev/gpfs1 150.00 147.69 2% 4041 3% /gpfs1
aixlpar1: /dev/gpfs1 150.00 147.69 2% 4041 3% /gpfs1
aixlpar1: /dev/gpfs0 150.00 147.81 2% 4041 7% /gpfs
Disks in storage pool: system (Maximum disk size allowed is 422 GB)
nsd01 50G -1 yes yes 49.27G ( 99%) 872K ( 0%)
nsd02 50G -1 yes yes 49.27G ( 99%) 936K ( 0%)
nsd03 50G -1 yes yes 49.27G ( 99%) 696K ( 0%)
------------- -------------------- -------------------
(pool total) 150G 147.8G ( 99%) 2.445M ( 0%)
Inode Information
-----------------
Number of used inodes: 4040
Number of free inodes: 62008
Number of allocated inodes: 66048
Maximum number of inodes: 66048
Inode Information
-----------------
Number of used inodes: 4040
Number of free inodes: 155704
Number of allocated inodes: 159744
Maximum number of inodes: 159744
In this example, we chose three (out of six) NSD devices as tiebreaker disks. We stopped GPFS
on all nodes and configured the cluster accordingly.
# mmshutdown -a
# mmchconfig tiebreakerDisks="nsd01;nsd03;nsd05"
# mmstartup -a
You can use the mmgetstate command to view the status of the GPFS daemons on all the nodes in
the cluster.
# mmgetstate -aLs
Node number Node name Quorum Nodes up Total nodes GPFS state Remarks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 aixlpar2a 1* 2 2 active quorum node
2 aixlpar1a 1* 2 2 active quorum node
Summary information
---------------------
Number of nodes defined in the cluster: 2
Number of local nodes active in the cluster: 2
Number of remote nodes joined in this cluster: 0
Number of quorum nodes defined in the cluster: 2
Number of quorum nodes active in the cluster: 2
Quorum = 1*, Quorum achieved
Summary
Congratulations! You've just configured your first GPFS cluster. In this article, you've learnt how to
build a simple two-node GPFS cluster on AIX. This type of configuration can be easily deployed to
support clustered workload with high availability requirements, for example an MQ multi-instance
cluster. GPFS offers many configuration options; you can spend a lot of time planning for a GPFS
cluster. If you are seriously considering a GPFS deployment, I encourage you to read all of the
available GPFS documentation in the Resources section of this article.
Resources
The following resources were referenced during the creation of this article.