Summary of changes
This topic summarizes changes to the IBM Spectrum Scale licensed program and the IBM Spectrum Scale library. Within each topic, these markers ( ) surrounding text or illustrations indicate technical changes or additions that are made to the previous edition of the information.
for IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.5.1
as updated, October 2022
- Commands, data types, and programming APIs
- Messages
- Stabilized, deprecated, and discontinued features
- Documentation changes
- AFM and AFM DR-related changes
- Introduced AFM IPv6 Support. For more information, see AFM IPv6 Support.
- AFM to Cloud Object Storage
- Introduced support of Seagate Lyve Cloud for AFM to cloud object storage. For more information, see Introduction to AFM to cloud object storage.
- Big data and analytics changes
- For information on changes in IBM Spectrum Scale Big Data and Analytics support and HDFS protocol, see Big Data
and Analytics - summary of changes.
- IBM Spectrum Scale Container Storage Interface driver changes
- For information on changes in the IBM Spectrum Scale Container Storage Interface driver, see
IBM Spectrum Scale Container Storage Interface driver - Summary of changes.
- IBM Spectrum Scale Erasure Code Edition changes
- For information on changes in the
IBM Spectrum
Scale Erasure Code Edition,
see
IBM Spectrum
Scale Erasure Code Edition - Summary of changes.
- File system core improvements
-
- Control fileset access for remote clusters
- The list of allowed filesets for remote clusters can now be changed and be effective without a need to remount on remote nodes. For more information, see Fileset access control for remote clusters.
- New Safeguarded copy feature
- The safeguarded copy feature is a mechanism to protect fileset and file system data from accidental or deliberate compromise. For more information, see Protecting file data: IBM Spectrum Scale safeguarded copy.
- New --expiration-time option for snapshot retention
- The --expiration-time option specifies the expiration time of a snapshot for which a retention period is defined. It ensures that the snapshot cannot be deleted before its retention time expires. For more information, see mmcrsnapshot command.
- New [--preview {policy|candidates}] option to execute the mmbackup command in the test only mode
- This option allows the user to preview what would be processed by the
mmbackup command without the backup cycles occurring. The option helps users to
plan backups efficiently. The possible values are:
- policy: Generates the policy rules to be used in file selection and processing.
- candidates: Performs the policy scan and generates backup/expire candidate lists.
- New mmrestrictedctl command for performing specific system functions
- The new mmrestrictedctl command is introduced to perform specific system functions. In IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.5 it is used to delete a GPFS snapshot prior to the expiration date of the defined retention period. For more information, see mmrestrictedctl command.
- Network resiliency enhanced with Multi-Rail over TCP (MROT) feature
- The Multi-Rail over TCP (MROT) feature enables the concurrent use of multiple network interfaces and subnets. With MROT, the subnets attribute can be used to establish fault tolerance or automatic failover. All the IP addresses which are defined in the subnets attribute are used to establish connections with the nodes within the cluster. For more information, see Configuring Multi-Rail over TCP (MROT).
- Define maximum number of filesets
- The maxFilesets attribute helps define the maximum number of filesets that can be created in a file system. For more information, see mmchconfig command.
- IBM Spectrum Scale supports accelerated writes with GPUDirect Storage (Tech Preview)
- IBM Spectrum Scale supports accelerated writes with GPUDirect Storage as a Technical Preview feature. Accelerated GPUDirect Storage writes can be tested by the Licensee on non-production systems. The support of accelerated GPUDirect Storage reads and “writes in compatibility mode” remains unchanged including the use in production environments as in the previous release. For more information, see GPUDirect Storage with accelerated writes support page documentation.
- IBM Spectrum Scale supports CipherTrust Manager 2.8
- IBM
Spectrum Scale supports CipherTrust Manager 2.8
for file system encryption. The following two configuration methods are supported depending on the
certificates being used:
- Local certificate authority configuration
For more information, see Configuring encryption with the Thales CipherTrust Manager key server by using a local certificate authority.
- External certificate authority configuration
For more information, see Configuring encryption with the Thales CipherTrust Manager key server by using an external certificate authority.
- Local certificate authority configuration
- Installation toolkit changes
-
- Ansible collection support in the toolkit.
- Precheck problem determination enhancement.
- Config populate enhancement.
- Management API changes
- The following endpoint is added:
- POST access
- Management GUI changes
-
- The About Us page in the IBM Spectrum Scale management GUI displays the supported TLS versions.
- You can configure and edit S3 accounts, services and export through the Data Access Service panel.
- The IBM Spectrum Scale management GUI provides the facility to enable expiration of snapshots for which retention periods are defined.
- You can collect files from manual update (MU) filesets for a specific file system and upload in COS by using an AFM policies in the Fileset tiering panel.
- SMB changes
- Introduced wide links parameter that controls whether or not links in the UNIX file system might be followed by the server. For more information, see mmsmb command.
- Python-related changes
- From IBM Spectrum
Scale release 5.1.0, all Python code in
the IBM Spectrum
Scale product is converted to Python 3. The
minimum supported Python version is 3.6.
For compatibility reasons on IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.0.x and later on Red Hat Enterprise Linux® 7.x (7.7 and later), a few Python 2 files are packaged and they might trigger dependency-related messages. In certain scenarios, Python 2.7 might also be required to be installed. Multiple versions of Python can co-exist on the same system. For more information, see the entry about mmadquery in Guidance for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x on IBM Spectrum Scale nodes.
The Python code in IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.y or earlier continues to be in Python 2.
Tip:- IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.x.x uses Python 3 code, and it runs best with operating systems that also use Python 3 internally such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x, SLES 15, and Ubuntu 20.04.
- IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.x.x uses Python 2 code, and it runs best with operating systems that also use Python 2 internally, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x.
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.x supports Python 3.6 or later. It is recommended that Python 3.6 is installed through the OS package manager (For example, yum install python3). If you install Python 3.6 by other means, then unexpected results might occur, such as failure to install gpfs.base for prerequisite checks, and workarounds might be required.
- System health changes
-
- Added a new sensor
GPFSDiskCap
with its sub-sensors in GPFS metrics as per the update in the perfmon config. For more information, see the GPFS metrics. -
New events added for the following:
- GDS events
- NVMeoF events
- Added a new sensor
- Commands, data types, and programming APIs
- The following section lists the modifications to the documented commands, structures, and subroutines:
- New commands
- mmrestrictedctl
- New structures
- There are no new structures.
- New subroutines
- There are no new subroutines.
- New user exits
- There are no new user exits.
- Changed commands
-
- mmafmconfig
- mmafmctl
- mmafmcosctl
- mmauth
- mmbackup
- mmcallhome
- mmchconfig
- mmchfs
- mmcrcluster
- mmcrfs
- mmcrsnapshot
- mmfsckx
- mmhealth
- mmkeyserv
- mmlsfs
- mmlssnapshot
- mmsmb
- mmsdrrestore
- mmxcp
- Changed structures
- There are no changed structures.
- Changed subroutines
- gpfs_fcntl()
- Deleted commands
- There are no deleted commands.
- Deleted structures
- There are no deleted structures.
- Deleted subroutines
- There are no deleted subroutines.
- Messages
- The following are the new, changed, and deleted messages:
- New messages
- 6027-1312, 6027-3413, and 6027-4212
- Changed messages
- 6027-2050 and 6027-3595
- Deleted messages
- 6027-1922