Mixed operating system support with the installation toolkit

You can use the spectrumscale installation toolkit to install GPFS™ and deploy protocols in a cluster that contains nodes that are running on different operating systems. Multiple validations are done when you use the spectrumscale command in a mixed operating system cluster.

The following operating systems are supported with the spectrumscale installation toolkit in a mixed operating system cluster.

Table 1. Operating systems supported with the installation toolkit in a mixed cluster
CPU architecture	Operating system
x86_64	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 ¹ SLES 12 ²
PPC64	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 ¹

Note:

¹ Protocols, callhome, and management GUI are not supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8.
² The object protocol is not supported on SLES 12.

Important:

In a mixed operating system cluster, all protocol nodes must be running on the same operating system. However, nodes that are running on different minor versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x (7.0, 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3) can be designated as protocol nodes in the same cluster.
In a mixed operating system cluster, all nodes must have the same CPU architecture and endianness.

The installation toolkit performs the required validations in a mixed operating system cluster to prevent users from attempting any configurations that are not supported. These validations include the following.

Table 2. Validations by the installation toolkit in a mixed operating system cluster
Operation that is attempted with the installation toolkit	Validations done
Node addition by using the `spectrumscale node add NodeName` command	Check whether the operating system of the target node is supported. If it is not supported, an error occurs.
Protocol node designation by using the `spectrumscale node add NodeName -p` command	Check whether the operating system of the target node is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8. If it is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8, then that node cannot be added. Check whether the operating system of the target node is SLES 12. If it is SLES 12, a warning is generated that states: Object protocol is not supported on SLES 12. Check whether all protocol nodes being added are running on the same operating system. If you attempt to add protocol nodes running on different operating systems, then that operation is not allowed. For example, if you have added a protocol node running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x and then you try to add another protocol node running on SLES 12, then that operation is not allowed.
Protocol enablement by using the `spectrumscale enable Protocol` command	Check whether the protocol being enabled is supported on the operating system that is running on the node. If the protocol is not supported, an error occurs and you cannot continue with the installation and deployment. For example, if you try to enable object on a node running on SLES 12, an error occurs.