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Dell HPC Lustre Storage solution with Mellanox Infiniband EDR

 Object Storage Target (OST) – Stores the data stripes or extents of the files on a file system.

 Object Storage Server (OSS) – Manages the OSTs, providing Lustre clients access to the data.

 Lustre Clients – Access the MDS to determine where files are located, then access the OSSs to

read and write data

Typically, Lustre configurations and deployments are considered very complex and time-consuming

tasks. Lustre installation and administration is normally done via a command line interface (CLI),

requiring extensive knowledge of the file system operation, along with the auxiliary tools like LNet and

the locking mechanisms. In addition, once the Lustre storage system is in place, maintaining the system

and performance optimizations can be a daunting undertaking. Such requirements, and the steep

learning curve associated with them, may prevent System Administrators unfamiliar with Lustre from

performing an installation, possibly preventing their organization from experiencing the benefits of a

parallel file system. Even for experienced Lustre System Administrators, maintaining a Lustre file

system can take a big portion of their time.

3. Dell HPC Lustre Storage with Intel EE for Lustre

Description

The Dell HPC Lustre Storage with Intel EE for Lustre solution provides a storage solution consisting of a

management server, Lustre Metadata Servers, Lustre Object Storage Servers and the associated

backend storage. The solution provides storage using a single namespace that is easily accessed by the

cluster’s compute nodes and managed through the Intel Manager for Lustre (IML), an extensive Web-

based interface. Figure 2 shows an overview of a Dell HPC Lustre Storage solution with Intel EE for

Lustre system in a 240-drive configuration, including some basic information about the different

components described in detail later in this section. Note the three major components:

 Management Server (IML)

 Metadata Server pair (MDS)

 Object Storage Server pair (OSS)