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

CXFS Cluster Manager Tools Overview

Overview of the Installation and Configuration Steps

2. CXFS and XVM FLEXlm Licenses

Gathering the Host Information Required for the License

Obtaining the Licenses from SGI

Installing the Licenses

Verifying the Licenses

For More Information

3. 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

4. IRIX CXFS Installation

IRIX Administration Software Installation

IRIX Client-only Software Installation

IRIX Modifications for CXFS Connectivity Diagnostics

5. Linux CXFS Installation

Linux Limitations and Considerations

Linux Administration Software Installation

Linux Client-only Software Installation

Linux Modifications for CXFS Connectivity Diagnostics

6. Postinstallation Steps

Configuring System Files

Testing the System

Manual CXFS Startup/Shutdown

Rolling Upgrades

IRIX: Configuring for Automatic Restart

IRIX: Converting Filesystem Definitions for Upgrades

Linux: Using cxfs-reprobe on Client-Only Nodes

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Administration and Maintenance

CXFS and Cluster Administration Initialization Commands

Configuring Switches Other than Brocade

CXFS chkconfig Arguments

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

System Tunable Parameters

Hardware Changes and I/O Fencing

Configuring Private Network Failover

Removing a Metadata Server from the Cluster for Maintenance

11. Cluster Database Management

Performing Cluster Database Backup and Restoration

Checking the Cluster Configuration with cxfs-config

12. 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

13. Trusted IRIX and CXFS

Installation Tips for CXFS and Trusted IRIX

Mandatory Access Controls

14. Monitoring Status

Status in Log Files

Cluster Status

Node Status

XVM Statistics

I/O Fencing Status

Heartbeat Timeout Status

15. Migration from an IRIX Cluster to a Linux Cluster

16. 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. System Reset Configuration

L2 System Controller

L1 System Controller

MSC System Controller

MMSC System Controller

G. Mount Options Support

H. Initial Configuration Checklist

I. Summary of New Features from Previous Releases

CXFS Version 1: Original Implementation

CXFS Version 2: MultiOS Cluster

CXFS Version 3: IRIX or Linux Servers

Glossary

Index