Concept Guide

Dell EMC BeeGFS Storage Solution Reference Architecture
10 Dell EMC Ready Solutions for HPC BeeGFS High Performance Storage | ID 460
3.4 Clients
Thirty-two C6420 servers were used as clients. The BeeGFS client module must be loaded on to all the hosts
that need to access the BeeGFS file system. When the beegfs-client is loaded, it mounts the file systems
defined in the /etc/beegfs/beegfs-mounts.conf file instead of the usual approach based on /etc/fstab. Adopting
this approach starts the beegfs-client like any other Linux service through the service startup script. It also
enables the automatic recompilation of the BeeGFS client module after system updates. When the client
module is loaded, it mounts the file systems defined in the beegfs-mounts.conf. It is possible to mount
multiple beegfs instances on the same client as shown below:
$ cat /etc/beegfs/beegfs-mounts.conf
/mnt/beegfs-medium /etc/beegfs/beegfs-client-medium.conf
/mnt/beegfs-small /etc/beegfs/beegfs-client-small.conf
3.5 Hardware and Software Configuration
Dell EMC HPC BeeGFS Storage Solution is available in the standard configurations listed below. Contact a
Dell Sales Representative to discuss which offering works best in your environment. Customers can order any
of the preconfigured solutions or customization can be performed to fit specific needs. Tables 1 and 2
describe the hardware specifications of the management server and metadata/storage server respectively.
Table 3 describes the software versions used for the solution.
PowerEdge R640 configuration (Management Server)
Component
Details
Server Model
PowerEdge R640
Processor
2 x Intel Xeon Gold 5218 2.3 GHz, 16 cores
Memory
12 x 8 GB DDR4 2666MT/s DIMMs - 96 GB
Local Disks
6 x 300 GB 15K RPM SAS 2.5in HDDs
RAID Controller
PERC H740P Integrated RAID Controller
Out of Band Management
iDRAC9 Enterprise with Lifecycle Controller
Power Supplies
Dual 1100 W Power Supply Units
BIOS Version
2.2.11
Operating System
CentOS™ 7.6
Kernel Version
3.10.0-957.27.2.el7.x86_64
PowerEdge R740xd Configuration (Metadata and Storage Servers)
Component
Details
Server
Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd
Processor
2x Intel Xeon Platinum 8268 CPU @ 2.90 GHz, 24 cores
Memory
12 x 32 GB DDR4 2933MT/s DIMMs - 384 GB
BOSS Card
2x 240 GB M.2 SATA SSDs in RAID 1 for operating system
Local Drives
24x Dell Express Flash NVMe P4600 1.6 TB 2.5" U.2