Summary of changes

This topic summarizes changes to the IBM Spectrum Scale™ licensed program and the IBM Spectrum Scale library. Within each topic, double angle brackets (Start of change End of change ) surrounding text or illustrations indicate technical changes or additions that are made to the previous edition of the information.

Start of change

Summary of changes
for IBM Spectrum Scale version 4 release 2.2
as updated, November 2016

This release of the IBM Spectrum Scale licensed program and the IBM Spectrum Scale library includes the following improvements:
CES iSCSI support for remotely booting nodes
The CES node now provides the iSCSI target service for remotely booting nodes. For more information about the iSCSI target service, see:

Enhancements in Hadoop data collection by using gpfs.snap command on Linux
You can now customize Hadoop data collection to include user-defined files and directories in to the snapshot. For more information, see Data gathered for hadoop on Linux.

Enabling object access to existing filesets
Object access can now be enabled for the files that are stored in an existing fileset. For the procedure, see Enabling object access to existing filesets.

Enhanced operating system support with spectrumscale installation toolkit
The spectrumscale installation toolkit now also supports the following operating systems:
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 and SLES 12 on the Intel x86_64 architecture
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 on the PPC64 architecture
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 and 7.2 on the PPC64LE architecture
For more information, see Installation prerequisites.

Enhanced support for accessing data over SMB without setting the READ_ACL (Read Permissions) bit on every file and directory
Files and folders that were not accessible previously due to missing READ_ACL (GPFS™) or Read Permissions (Microsoft Windows) rights can now be accessed.

Extended status information
The subroutines gpfs_fstat_x() and gpfs_stat_x() provide extended status information. The subroutines directly return a gpfs_iattr64_t structure that contains many additional fields that are available only through this call, such as file creation time and file generation time. For more information, see gpfs_fstat_x() subroutine and gpfs_stat_x() subroutine.

File Placement Optimizer enhancements

You can use the mmgetlocation command to query the block location of file. The mmgetlocation command is in the /usr/lpp/mmfs/samples/fpo/ folder. For more information, see Check the data locality.

GPFS log time stamp with time zone information
The default time stamp format for the GPFS log now includes time zone information and is similar to the ISO 8601 time stamp format. With the new format, you can convert times unambiguously to absolute times and you can sort and merge entries more easily. You can switch between the new log time stamp format and the previous format with the mmfsLogTimeStampISO8601 attribute of the mmchconfig command. You can also specify the log time stamp format for the entire cluster or for individual nodes. If you are migrating to v4.2.2, you can avoid automatically switching to the new time stamp format by specifying the mmfsLogTimeStampISO8601 parameter when you run the command mmchconfig release=LATEST. For more information, see Time stamp in GPFS log entries.

IBM Spectrum Scale GUI changes
The following main changes are made in the IBM Spectrum Scale management GUI:
  • Added new Home page. The Home page provides an overall summary of the IBM Spectrum Scale system configuration and health status of its components and services that are hosted on it.
  • Added new Files > Transparent Cloud Tiering page. The Transparent Cloud Tiering page provides both summarized and attribute-specific details of the Transparent Cloud Tiering service, which is integrated with the IBM Spectrum Scale system.
  • Added new Storage > NSDs page. The NSDs page provides an easy way to monitor the performance, health status, and configuration aspects of the all network shared disks (NSD) that are available in the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster.
  • The file system detailed view is added in the Files > File Systems page. The detailed view helps to analyze the performance, configuration, and health aspects of the selected file system. To access the detailed view, select the file system in the File Systems page and select View Details.
  • Support for external keystone server object user authentication is added. You can now configure either an internal or external keystone server for authenticating the object users.
  • The IBM Spectrum Scale system health component, mmhealth, replaces the internal GUI health monitoring system. All the GUI pages and components that display the system health status are modified to display the health status reported by mmhealth. For more information on the system health monitoring options that are available in the GUI, see Monitoring system health using IBM Spectrum Scale GUI.
  • Introduced component-specific email notifications. The system administrator can now configure the email notifications in the Settings > Event Notifications page to send email notifications to the recipients, if events are reported in the following functional areas:
    • Authentication
    • Block and iSCSI services
    • CES network
    • Transparent Cloud Tiering
    • NSD
    • File system
    • GPFS
    • GUI
    • Hadoop connector
    • Keystone
    • Network
    • NFS
    • Object
    • Performance monitoring
    • SMB
    • Object authentication
    • Node
    • CES
  • The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Management Information Base (MIB) is modified. For more information on the SNMP notification and new MIB, see Configuring SNMP manager.

ILM for snapshots
Information lifecycle management policies can now be applied on snapshot data. For more information, see ILM for snapshots.

Improved performance monitoring by using Grafana
You can use the Grafana tool to analyze and display performance data. Grafana is an open source tool that uses a performance monitoring bridge to set up and populate graphs that can be easily viewed and analyzed.
Attention: Grafana is a separate component and not a part of the IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.2 package. Grafana can be downloaded from IBM® developerWorks® Wiki. For more information on how to use Grafana for performance monitoring, see Using IBM Spectrum Scale performance monitoring bridge with Grafana.

Linux on z Systems™ enhancements
The following changes are made:
  • IBM Spectrum Scale now supports Fixed Block Architecture (FBA)-type DASDs.
  • Lifted a previous restriction on Heterogeneous Cluster: Linux on z Systems nodes now can act as an NSD server or client within a cluster containing other platforms (such as System x or System p) that are running Linux or AIX® as the operating system and acting as an NSD server or client as well.

Logging file system activity by using Varonis
File system activities can now be logged by using the Varonis DatAdvantage software. For more information on logging file activity using Varonis DatAdvantage, see Logging file system activities.

Mixed operating systems support with spectrumscale installation toolkit
You can now use the spectrumscale installation toolkit to install GPFS and deploy protocols in a cluster that contains nodes that are running on different operating systems. For more information, see Mixed operating system support with the installation toolkit.

mmhealth command enhancements
The mmhealth command is enhanced to show the health status of all nodes and services of a cluster in a single view. The mmhealth cluster show command displays the summary of health status of all services running on all nodes of the cluster. The mmhealth command can also help in problem determination by showing the detailed description of the specified event by using the mmhealth event show command. The mmhealth command is further extended to display the threshold rules that are defined for the system by using the mmhealth thresholds list command. For more information, see mmhealth command.

mmprotocoltrace command enhancements
The mmprotocoltrace command can now be used to perform tracing for the winbind component with the mmprotocoltrace start winbind command. For more information, see mmprotocoltrace command.

Network checking: mmnetverify command
With the mmnetverify command, you can verify the network configuration and operation of a group of nodes before you organize them in an IBM Spectrum Scale cluster. You can also run the command after you create a cluster to analyze network problems. Tests include address checks, ping tests, remote shell and file copy tests, time-date checks, TCP connection checks, message size tests, bandwidth tests, and flooding tests. The command prints full information and error logs about all the nodes that are tested. For more information, see mmnetverify command.

New features and enhancements in Start of changecloud servicesEnd of change
The following changes are made:

New features in NFS
The following features are added:
  • Support of NFS service on PPC 64LE
  • Netgroup caching improvements
  • Support for get/setquota
  • Single file handle size for all clients
  • New RPM for NFS performance metrics proxy

New sensors added to the list of performance metrics
The following new performance monitoring sensors are added:
  • GPFSFileset
  • GPFSPool
For more information on these sensors, see List of performance metrics.

For information on how to add or remove these new sensors, see Adding or removing a sensor from an existing automated configuration.

Object heatmap data tiering policy
The object heatmap data tiering policies can now be applied to data that is frequently accessed. For the overview and information about enabling the policy, see:

Objects: Secure communication between the proxy server and other backend servers
For objects, you can now establish a secure communication between the proxy server and the other backend servers. For more information, see Secure communication between the proxy server and other backend servers.

Quality of Service for I/O operations (QoS)
The mmchqos command has added new capabilities. You can assign IOPS to individual nodes, to a node class, to a list of nodes in a text file, or to a remote cluster. You can also preserve and reuse your IOPS assignments by configuring them in a stanza file. For more information, see mmchqos command.

REST-style API for performing IBM Spectrum Scale tasks
The IBM Spectrum Scale REST API is an HTTP programming API for performing command-level IBM Spectrum Scale tasks. With the REST API, you can automate storage management operations and integrate IBM Spectrum Scale capabilities into your applications. The API can be installed on a single cluster node and requires an Apache server to be installed on the same node. It runs on HTTPS and uses JSON syntax to frame data inside HTTP requests and responses. In this release the API supports only high-priority operations, including operations on filesets, snapshots, and quotas and retrieving information about CES objects, file systems, and nodes. For more information, see IBM Spectrum Scale REST API.

Tuning parameters change history
The tuning parameters change history has been added. You can view the change history of the tuning parameters from IBM Spectrum Scale release 3.5 and later. For more information, see Tuning parameters change history.

Documented commands, structures, and subroutines
The following lists the modifications to the documented commands, structures, and subroutines:
New commands
The following commands are new:
  • mmblock
  • mmdsh
  • mmnetverify
  • mmrest
New structures
The following structures are new:
  • gpfsGetDataBlkDiskIdx_t
New subroutines
The following subroutines are new:
  • gpfs_fstat_x
  • gpfs_stat_x
Changed commands
The following commands were changed:
  • mmafmconfig
  • mmafmctl
  • mmapplypolicy
  • mmces
  • mmcesdr
  • mmchattr
  • mmchconfig
  • mmchqos
  • mmcloudgateway
  • mmadquery
  • mmlscluster
  • mmnfs
  • mmrestripefile
  • mmsmb
  • mmuserauth
  • mmtracectl
  • mmhealth
  • mmprotocoltrace
  • mmcallhome
  • spectrumscale
Changed structures
The following structures were changed:
  • gpfs_iattr64_t
Changed subroutines
There are no changed subroutines.
Deleted commands
There are no deleted commands.
Deleted structures
There are no deleted structures.
Deleted subroutines
There are no deleted subroutines.
Messages
The following lists the new, changed, and deleted messages:
New messages
6027-1755, 6027-2379, 6027-2380, 6027-2381, 6027-2382, 6027-2383, 6027-2384, 6027-2385, 6027-2386, 6027-2387, 6027-2388, 6027-2389, 6027-2390, 6027-2391, 6027-2960, 6027-2961, 6027-3916, 6027-3917, 6027-3918, 6027-3919, 6027-3920, 6027-3321, 6027-3407, 6027-4017, 6027-4018.
Changed messages
6027-2374, 6027-2378, 6027-549
Deleted messages
None.
End of change