Overview of the spectrumscale installation toolkit

The spectrumscale installation toolkit automates the steps required to install GPFS™, deploy protocols, and install updates and patches.

When using the spectrumscale installation toolkit, you provide environmental information and the toolkit will install, configure, and deploy the optimal configuration, dynamically creating a cluster definition file.

This install toolkit enables you to do the following:

  • Install and configure GPFS.
  • Add GPFS nodes to an existing cluster.
  • Deploy and configure SMB, NFS, Object, and performance monitoring tools on top of GPFS.
  • Configure authentication services for protocols.
  • Upgrade GPFS and all protocols and install patches.

Installation and configuration are driven through commands.

In the self-extracting package, the spectrumscale installation toolkit is in this location:
location_extracted_to/4.2.0.0/installer

Using the spectrumscale installation toolkit is driven from the spectrumscale executable in the installer directory, and this can optionally be added to the path.

Note: The toolkit installs the Chef configuration management tool, a Python-based tool wrapped around Opscode Chef technologies, enabling configuration management and deployment at scale. For more information, see Apache license information .
The spectrumscale installation toolkit operation consists of four phases:
  1. User input via spectrumscale commands
    1. All user input is recorded into a clusterdefinition.txt file in /usr/lpp/mmfs/4.2.0.0/installer/configuration
    2. Please review the clusterdefinition.txt file to make sure that it accurately reflects your cluster configuration
    3. As you input your cluster configuration, remember that you can have the toolkit act on parts of the cluster by simply not telling it about nodes that may have incompatible OS levels, architectures, etc.
  2. A spectrumscale install phase
    1. Install will act upon all nodes input into the clusterdefinition.txt file
    2. GPFS and perfmon rpms will be installed
    3. GPFS portability layer will be created
    4. GPFS will be started
    5. A cluster will be created
    6. Server and client licenses will be applied
    7. GUI nodes may be created and the GUI may be started upon these nodes
    8. NTP, perfmon, GPFS ephemeral ports, and cluster profile may be configured
    9. NSDs may be created - Note that file systems are not created during install
  3. A spectrumscale deploy phase
    1. Deploy will act upon all nodes input into the clusterdefinition.txt file
    2. File systems will be configured - Note that it is possible to only configure file systems during the deploy phase if you do not want protocols
    3. SMB, NFS, and Object protocol rpms will be copied to all protocol nodes
    4. SMB, NFS, and Object services may be started
    5. Authentication may be configured
    6. Server and client licenses will be applied
    7. GUI nodes may be created and the GUI may be started upon these nodes
    8. NTP, perfmon, GPFS ephemeral ports, and cluster profile may be configured
    9. NSDs may be created - Note that file systems are not created during install
  4. A spectrumscale upgrade phase
    1. Upgrade will act upon all nodes input into the clusterdefinition.txt file
    2. All installed/deployed components will be upgraded
    3. Upgrades are sequential with multiple passes
    4. Pass 1 of all nodes will upgrade GPFS sequentially
    5. Pass 2 of all nodes will upgrade NFS sequentially
    6. Pass 3 of all nodes will upgrade SMB sequentially
    7. Pass 4 of all nodes will upgrade Object sequentially
    8. The Spectrum Scale GUI may be installed and started upon upgrade
Parent topic: Installing GPFS on Linux nodes