IBM General Parallel File System for AIX: Administration and Programming Reference

What's new for GPFS 1.5

GPFS 1.5 provides several usability enhancements:

• Fibre Channel attached disks

  Disks for a GPFS file system now support both SSA and Fibre Channel attachment. See the latest IBM^(R) product announcements for specific supported disk subsystems.

• An increase in maximum file system size supported with 64KB or greater block size

  The maximum GPFS file system size that can be mounted is limited by the control structures in memory required to maintain the file system. These control structures, and consequently the maximum mounted file system size, are a function of the block size of the file system.

  • If your file systems have a 16KB block size, you may have one or more file systems with a total size of 1TB mounted.
  • If your file systems have a 64KB block size, you may have one or more file systems with a total size of 10TB mounted.
  • If your file systems have a 256KB or greater block size, you may have file systems mounted with a total size of not greater than 200TB where no single file system exceeds 100TB.
• Default quota limits

  The ability to apply default quotas values for a new user or groups writing to a file system. Applying default quotas ensures all users of the file system will have minimum quota limits established. If default quota values for a file system are not enabled, a new user or group has a quota value of zero which establishes no limit to the amount of space they can use. There are three new commands in support of default quotas:

  1. mmdefquotaon
  2. mmdefquotaoff
  3. mmdefedquota

  Existing commands which have been updated to support default quotas:

  1. mmlsquota
  2. mmrepquota
• The mmrepquota command has been enhanced to display a numerical user id.
• In an HACMP cluster environment, the new mmcrlv command creates logical volumes for use by GPFS. The mmaddcluster command has been updated to automatically import existing logical volumes created by the mmcrlv command as nodes are added to the GPFS cluster.

Programming specifications include:

• AIX 5L^(TM) Version 5.1 with APAR IY21957

  AIX 5L Version 5.1 represents the next generation of AIX^(R). Fortified with open technologies from some of the world's top providers, AIX 5L builds on a solid heritage of supplying integrated, enterprise-class support for IBM RS/6000^(R) and pSeries^(TM) systems. It provides an industrial-strength UNIX^(R) operating system with increased levels of integration, flexibility, and performance for meeting the high demands of today's mission-critical e-business applications. It offers an advanced operating system with a strong affinity with Linux and built-in capabilities designed to accommodate IBM POWER-based nodes.

• AIX Version 4.3.3 with APAR IY22024

  AIX 4.3 has reliability, scalability, application binary compatibility across all AIX Version 4 releases, and concurrent 32 and 64-bit functionality. The following are some of the newer and relevant features in AIX4.3.3:

  • Support for the latest pSeries systems, RS/6000 Enterprise Server systems, switches, adapters, and I/O products.
  • Network Authentication Service Version 1.1--a network authentication protocol based on the IETF RFC 1510 standards protocol for 'The Kerberos V5 Network Authentication Service' includes the Generic Security Service Application Programming Interface (GSS API) and the key distribution center (KDC) server, which allows AIX middleware and external application writers to use authenticated message flow between their respective components.

  Additional technology is available with Bonus Packs.

• Specifically for an SP environment:
  • Parallel System Support Programs (PSSP) Version 3.4

    The PSSP 3.4 licensed program provides enhanced quality and support for the enablement of new nodes on which it can operate and the AIX 5L 5.1 and AIX 4.3.3 operating systems. Functional enhancements include new or expanded support in the following areas:

    • Hardware
    • The SP^(TM) Switch2
    • Boot-install from Fibre Channel SAN DASD
    • Secure remote command processing
    • The Low-Level Application Programming Interface
    • IBM Virtual Shared Disk support for Subsystem Device Driver
    • Support for 64-bit applications running with AIX 5L 5.1 on POWER nodes
    • Migration and coexistence support
    • PSSP-related licensed programs
  • A two-plane SP Switch2 system

    A two-plane SP Switch2 system has two sets of switches and two adapters per node. The switch planes are disjoint - each is cabled exactly like a single plane, both with the same topology. Communication across the pair of planes is achieved by the PSSP 3.4 software using a data striping method and an optional aggregate IP address capability.

• In an HACMP cluster environment, HACMP/ES Version 4 Release 4.1 under AIX 5L 5.1

New file system functions existing in GPFS 1.5 are not usable in existing file systems until you explicitly authorize these changes by issuing the mmchfs -V command.