[Lustre-discuss] New to lustre - Help setting up Lustre

[Brian J. Murrell]

On Wed, 2009-12-23 at 14:44 -0800, Jagga Soorma wrote:
> Hi Guys,

Hi,

> which RPM's should I install on my MDS & OSS.:
> 
> kernel-ib-1.4.2-2.6.18_128.7.1.el5_lustre.1.8.1.1.x86_64.rpm
> kernel-lustre-2.6.18-128.7.1.el5_lustre.1.8.1.1.x86_64.rpm
> lustre-1.8.1.1-2.6.18_128.7.1.el5_lustre.1.8.1.1.x86_64.rpm
> lustre-ldiskfs-3.0.9-2.6.18_128.7.1.el5_lustre.1.8.1.1.x86_64.rpm
> lustre-modules-1.8.1.1-2.6.18_128.7.1.el5_lustre.1.8.1.1.x86_64.rpm

As well, you should install the e2fsprogs package for your distro and
architecture.

> Should I be installing the kernel-ib* rpm?

If you want OFED, yes.

> I am planning on installing the drivers that the vendor provides for
> inifiniband.

This will not work.  You have to use OFED modules that were built with
the kernel you are installing and you have to use Lustre modules that
were built with the OFED modules for your kernel.  I highly recommend
using what we provide for simplicity.

Once you have your feet wet you might have better success in deviating
from the straightforward path.

> Also, what is the recommendation on using LVM for MDT's and OST's? 

That should be fine.  I do that here at home.  We have a number of
clients that do this.  It facilitates backups of the MDT and OSTs
without having to take them down, should you want to do backups at some
point.

> Should it be avoided or there is not much of a performance hit if we
> use LVM.

I've never been convinced that there is a significant performance hit.
I have personally been using LVM as my exclusive block device
provisioning tool for a dozen years or more.  YMMV however.  If you want
to have scientific results before you start, simply benchmark a raw
device and then create an LV and benchmark it.  Report here your
differences just for interest's sake.

> And finally, is there any reasons why I should not use large size luns
> (approx. 2TB) for my OST's?

No.  We encourage the use of fewer and larger (rather than more and
smaller) LUNS, to the limit of the (current) 8TB max for LUNs.  That
limit gets higher in 1.8.2 IIRC.

Also, there is really no point in creating more than one OST (i.e. LUN)
per "spindle" if that's an option for you.  This is not usually a
problem for most people as most people are creating LUNs larger than the
largest single disks you can commonly buy anyway.

Cheers and good luck in your Lustre adventure.

b.

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