Setup guide

[Device0]
■ Path specifies the partition's mount point. Since a partition can have several paths, <path_number>
represents the number of the current path, starting at 0 for each device. For example:
Path0=/mnt/XYZ
Path1=/usr/local/ABC
■ TotalAvailableReadBandwidth represents the estimated total reading bandwidth of the device, in
megabytes per second. Based on this value, and on the amount of active reservations for the current
partition, the Bandwidth Manager decides whether new reservation requests are granted or rejected.
For example:
TotalAvailableReadBandwidth=200
■ TotalAvailableWriteBandwidth represents the maximum estimated writing bandwidth of the
device, in megabytes per second. If this parameter is not specified, its value defaults to the value of
TotalAvailableReadBandwidth. For example:
TotalAvailableWriteBandwidth=150
NOTE The total bandwidth parameters are estimates of the theoretical maximum bandwidth of the
partition. The actual bandwidth is affected by several factors, including multiple applications trying to
concurrently read or write to it. The Bandwidth Manager continuously measures partition performance
and dynamically maintains the actual total available bandwidth for each partition.
■ DefaultReservation sets the bandwidth assigned by default to applications that are denied a
reservation request or that don't have individual or group reservations associated to them. The
value is expressed in megabytes per second. For example:
DefaultReservation=10
3 After setting up all the partition parameters described above, you can start defining reservations for
the current partition.
4 Save and close the configuration file, and restart Stone and Wire by typing:
/etc/init.d/stone+wire restart
Reserving bandwidth for an application
You may define a bandwidth reservation for each Creative Finishing application or tool that uses a certain
partition. By default, a group reservation for the major Creative Finishing applications (Inferno, Flame, Flint,
Smoke, and Backdraft Conform) running locally is already defined.
Remote applications are identified by application-specific tokens, workstation host name, as well as the user
name under which the application is executed. You can use any or all of these parameters to create detailed
bandwidth reservation rules.
You can also customize the way bandwidth is redistributed in low bandwidth situations. In low bandwidth
situations, instead of reducing all reservations proportionally towards zero, the bandwidth manager first
reduces the bandwidth of each process towards the low-bandwidth value specified for that process, and
attempts to maintain that minimum for as long as possible. If the device bandwidth keeps degrading, then
the bandwidth manager starts reducing bandwidth proportionally from the low-bandwidth values towards
zero.
In the following example, low-bandwidth values are not specified in the Bandwidth Manager configuration
file. The diagram illustrates the way the Bandwidth Manger redistributes device bandwidth in such a case,
as the total available bandwidth decreases from 800 MB/s to 420 MB/s and then to 320 MB/s. Note how
bandwidth is proportionally reduced for all processes.
72 | Chapter 2 Install and configure a Flare workstation