CXFS™ 7 Administrator Guide for SGI® InfiniteStorage™

Table of Contents

New Features in This Guide

About This Guide

Related Publications

Obtaining Publications

Conventions

Reader Comments

1. Introduction to CXFS™

What is CXFS?

Comparison of XFS® and CXFS

Comparison of Network and CXFS Filesystems

Cluster Environment Concepts

CXFS Interoperability With Other Products and Features

Hardware and Software Requirements for Server-Capable Administration Nodes

Hardware and Software Requirements for Edge-Serving Nodes

CXFS Software Products Installed on Server-Capable Administration Nodes

CXFS Tools

2. CXFS Best Practices

Configuration Best Practices

Administration Best Practices

3. SGI RAID for CXFS Clusters

RAID Hardware

RAID Firmware

Support for a Single Partition Only

Software Requirements for InfiniBand RAID

4. Switch Configuration

Brocade Switch

QLogic® Fibre Channel Switch

5. CXFS Licensing

Licensing Overview

Installing the License Keys

License Key Verification

6. Preinstallation Steps

Hostname Resolution and Network Configuration Rules

Adding a Private Network

Verifying the Private and Public Networks

Modifications Required for CXFS GUI Connectivity Diagnostics

Configuring SuSEfirewall2

7. Server-Capable Administration Node Installation

Limitations and Considerations for Server-Capable Administration Nodes

Installation Overview for Server-Capable Administration Nodes

Installation Verification

Modifications for CXFS Connectivity Diagnostics

8. Postinstallation Steps

Configuring /etc/exports on All Nodes

Configuring Server-Capable Administration Node System Files

Enabling GRIOv2 (Optional)

Configuring XVM Path Failover

9. Initial Setup of the Cluster

Preliminary Cluster Configuration Steps

Initial Setup

Configuring a Large Cluster

Testing the System

10. CXFS GUI

GUI Overview

Guided Configuration Tasks

Node Tasks with the GUI

Cluster Tasks with the GUI

Cluster Services Tasks with the GUI

Switches and I/O Fencing Tasks with the GUI

Filesystem Tasks with the GUI

Privileges Tasks with the GUI

11. cxfs_admin Command

cxfs_admin Overview

Node Tasks with cxfs_admin

Cluster Tasks with cxfs_admin

CXFS Filesystem Tasks with cxfs_admin

Network Failover Modification Tasks with cxfs_admin

Switch Tasks with cxfs_admin

Fencing Tasks with cxfs_admin

Saving and Recreating the Current Configuration with cxfs_admin

12. Administration and Maintenance

Administrative Tools

Precedence of Configuration Options

CXFS Release Versions and Rolling Upgrades

CXFS Relocation Capability

CXFS and Cluster Administration service Commands

Using hafence

Firewalls and CXFS Port Usage

chkconfig Arguments

Granting Task Execution Privileges for Users

Transforming a Server-Capable Administration Node into a Client-Only Node

CXFS Mount Scripts

Using DMF

Discovering the Active Metadata Server

Shutdown of the Database and CXFS

Avoiding a CXFS Restart at Reboot

Log File Management

Filesystem Maintenance

Dump and Restore

Hardware Changes and I/O Fencing

Private Network Failover

Cluster Member Removal and Restoration

XVM Volume Mapping to Storage Targets

Generation of Streaming Workload for Video Streams

Frame Files Defragmentation and Analysis

Disk Layout Optimization for Approved Media Customers

Creating a Case-Insensitive CXFS Filesystem

13. Cluster Database Management

Performing Cluster Database Backup and Restoration

Validating the Cluster Configuration with cxfs-config

14. Monitoring Status

Methods to View System Status

Status in Log Files

Cluster, Node, and CXFS Filesystem Status

I/O Fencing Status

XVM Statistics

15. Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Strategies

Troubleshooting Tools

Potential Problems

Understanding Error Messages

Corrective Actions

Reporting Problems to SGI

A. CXFS Software Architecture

Kernel Threads

Communication Paths

Flow of Metadata for Reads and Writes

B. Path Summary

C. BMC System Controller

D. CXFS System Tunable Kernel Parameters

Overview of the CXFS System Tunable Kernel Parameters

Site-Configurable Parameters

Debugging Parameters

E. Migration from cmgr to cxfs_admin

F. Migration from a Cluster with IRIX® Server-Capable Administration Nodes

Differences Between IRIX and Linux System Administration

Caveats for Migrating from IRIX

Migration Procedure

Migration Troubleshooting

G. Filesystem Specifications

H. mkfs Options and CXFS

I. Deprecated Commands

J. Initial Configuration Checklist

K. Summary of New Features from Previous Releases

CXFS Version 1: Original Implementation

CXFS Version 2: MultiOS Cluster

CXFS Version 3: IRIX or SGI ProPack™ (Linux 2.4 Kernel) Servers

CXFS Version 4: IRIX or SGI ProPack (Linux 2.6 Kernel) Servers

CXFS Version 5: Linux Servers

CXFS Version 6: Linux SLES 11 Servers

CXFS Version 7: Linux SLES 11 and RHEL Servers

Glossary

Index