CXFS™ Administration 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

Hardware and Software Support

Overview of FailSafe Coexecution

Cluster Manager Tools Overview

Overview of the Installation and Configuration Steps

2. SGI RAID Firmware

Supported SGI RAID Hardware

Required SGI RAID Firmware

RAID Firmware Verification

3. Brocade Fibre Channel Switch Verification

Required Brocade Fibre Channel Switch Firmware and License

Verifying the Brocade License

Verifying the Brocade Switch Firmware Version

Configuring the Brocade Silkworm 3900

Configuring the Brocade Silkworm 12000

Changing the Brocade FC Cable Connections

4. Obtaining CXFS and XVM FLEXlm Licenses

Obtaining the Host Information Required for the License

Obtaining and Installing the Licenses

License Verification

For More Information

5. Preinstallation Steps

Hostname Resolution and Network Configuration Rules

Configuring Network Interfaces

Verifying the Private and Public Networks

Configuring the Serial Ports for IRIX Administration Nodes

6. IRIX CXFS Installation

IRIX Administration Software Installation

IRIX Client-only Software Installation

IRIX Modifications Required for CXFS Connectivity Diagnostics

7. Linux 64-bit CXFS Installation

Linux 64-bit Limitations and Considerations

Linux 64-bit Administration Software Installation

Linux 64-bit Client-only Software Installation

Linux 64-bit Modifications Required for CXFS Connectivity Diagnostics

8. Postinstallation Steps

Configuring System Files

Rebooting the System

Testing the System

Manual CXFS Startup/Shutdown

Rolling Upgrades

IRIX: Configuring for Automatic Restart

IRIX: Converting Filesystem Definitions for Upgrades

9. Initial Configuration of the Cluster

Initial Configuration Requirements and Recommendations

Preliminary Cluster Configuration Steps

Configuring with the GUI

Configuring with the cmgr Command

Configuring a Large Cluster

10. Reference to GUI Tasks for CXFS

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. Reference to cmgr Tasks for CXFS

cmgr Overview

Set Configuration Defaults with cmgr

Node Tasks with cmgr

Cluster Tasks with cmgr

Cluster Services Tasks with cmgr

CXFS Filesystem Tasks with cmgr

Switches and I/O Fencing Tasks with cmgr

Script Example

Creating a cmgr Script Automatically

12. Administration and Maintenance

Configuring Real-Time Filesystems For IRIX Nodes

Granting Task Execution Privileges to Users

Transforming an Existing Node into a Client-Only Node

NFS Export Scripts

Using telnet and I/O Fencing

Using fsr and xfs_fsr

Using cron in a CXFS Cluster

Using Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) Products

Discovering the Active Metadata Server for a Filesystem

Metadata Server Recovery

Shutdown of the Database and CXFS

Avoiding a CXFS Restart at Reboot

Log File Management

Volume Management

Disk Management

Filesystem Maintenance

Dump and Restore

chkconfig Settings

System Tunable Parameters

Redirecting the Console for Origin 300, Origin 3200C, Onyx 300, and Onyx 3200C

Hardware Changes and I/O Fencing

13. Cluster Database Management

Performing Cluster Database Backup and Restoration

Checking the Cluster Configuration with cxfs-config

14. Coexecution with FailSafe

Why Run CXFS and FailSafe Together?

Coexecution Release Levels

Size of the Coexecution Cluster

Cluster Type

Metadata Server Node Types

Separate GUIs

Conversion

Network Interfaces

CXFS Tie-Breaker Node and Coexecution

Metadata Servers and Failover Domain

CXFS Resource Type for FailSafe

15. Trusted IRIX and CXFS

Installation Tips for CXFS and Trusted IRIX

Mandatory Access Controls

16. Monitoring Status

Status in Log Files

Cluster Status

Node Status

XVM Statistics

I/O Fencing Status

Heartbeat Timeout Status

17. Migration from an IRIX Cluster to a Linux 64-bit Cluster

18. Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Strategy

Common Problems

Understanding Error Messages

Corrective Actions

Reporting Problems to SGI

A. CXFS Software Architecture

Daemons

Communication Paths

Communication Paths in a Coexecution Cluster

Flow of Metadata for Reads and Writes

B. Memberships and Quorums

Membership Types

Cluster Database Membership Logs

Quorum and Tiebreaker Examples

Heartbeat Considerations

CXFS Recovery Issues in a Cluster with Only Two Server-Capable Nodes

C. IP Filtering Example for the CXFS Private Network

D. Operating System Path Differences

E. Filesystem Specifications

F. Initial Configuration Checklist

G. Summary of New Features from Previous Releases

CXFS Version 1: Original Implementation

CXFS Version 2: MultiOS Cluster

CXFS Version 3: IRIX or Linux 64-bit Servers

Glossary

Index