White Papers
Table Of Contents
- Executive Summary (updated May 2011)
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Dell NFS Storage Solution Technical Overview
- 3. NFS Storage Solution with High Availability
- 4. Evaluation
- 5. Performance Benchmark Results (updated May 2011)
- 6. Comparison of the NSS Solution Offerings
- 7. Conclusion
- 8. References
- Appendix A: NSS-HA Recipe (updated May 2011)
- A.1. Pre-install preparation
- A.2. Server side hardware set-up
- A.3. Initial software configuration on each PowerEdge R710
- A.4. Performance tuning on the server
- A.5. Storage hardware set-up
- A.6. Storage Configuration
- A.7. NSS HA Cluster setup
- A.8. Quick test of HA set-up
- A.9. Useful commands and references
- A.10. Performance tuning on clients (updated May 2011)
- A.11. Example scripts and configuration files
- Appendix B: Medium to Large Configuration Upgrade
- Appendix C: Benchmarks and Test Tools
Dell HPC NFS Storage Solution - High Availability Configurations
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I/O path redundancy
Each server is connected to both controllers on the MD3200. Each server has two SAS cables
directly connected to the MD3200, which eliminates a single point of server to storage I/O path
failure. A redundant path from MD3200 to the MD1200 array is deployed to enhance the
availability of the storage I/O path. The storage cabling is shown in Figure 3.
3.2. Software
The key software components in the solution are shown in Figure 4.
The NSS-HA runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 x86_64 (RHEL 5.5). The high availability
component is provided by Red Hat Cluster Suite
(4)(5)
which is an add-on feature available for RHEL
5.5.
The user data resides on a Red Hat XFS file system that is created on the shared storage provided
by the Dell PowerVault storage arrays. The virtual disks on the shared storage are grouped using
Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM). This file system is exported to the clients or the compute
nodes using the Network File System v3 (NFS).
The clients access the data over InfiniBand or 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE). 10GbE drivers are
native to RHEL 5.5. InfiniBand clusters need OFED 1.5.1 to be installed.
The PowerVault storage arrays are managed using the Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager (MDSM).
The PowerEdge servers are managed using the Dell OpenManage Systems Administrator (OMSA).
Figure 4 - NSS-HA Software Components
3.3. High Availability Cluster
In the simple NSS solution, access to shared storage is provided through a single NFS server. A
failure of the NFS server or a network failure can interrupt the client access to the shared storage
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5
Red Hat Cluster Suite
NFS Version 3
XFS Disk File System
OFED 1.5.1
10 GbE Driver
SAS HBA
Driver
DM-
Multipath
HA LVM