Overview of the installation toolkit

The installation toolkit automates the steps that are required to install GPFS™, deploy protocols, and install updates and patches. For a release-wise list of features available in the installation toolkit, see Table 1.

When you are using the installation toolkit, you provide environmental information and the installation toolkit installs, configures, and deploys the optimal configuration, dynamically creating a cluster definition file.

This install toolkit enables you to do the following tasks:

  • Install and configure GPFS.
  • Add GPFS nodes to an existing cluster.
  • Deploy and configure SMB, NFS, Object, and performance monitoring tools over GPFS.
  • Perform verification before installing, deploying, or upgrading. It includes checking whether passwordless SSH is set up correctly.
  • Configure authentication services for protocols.
  • Enable and configure call home and file audit logging functions.
  • Upgrade GPFS and all protocols and install patches.

Installation and configuration are driven through commands.

In the self-extracting package, the installation toolkit is in this location:
location_extracted_to/5.0.x.x/installer

Using the installation toolkit is driven from the spectrumscale command in the installer directory, and this directory can optionally be added to the path.

Note: The installation toolkit installs the Chef configuration management tool, a Python-based tool wrapped around Opscode Chef technologies, enabling configuration management and deployment at scale. For more information, see Apache license information (www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0).
The installation toolkit operation consists of four phases:
  1. User input by using spectrumscale commands
    1. All user input is recorded into a cluster definition file in /usr/lpp/mmfs/5.0.x.x/installer/configuration
    2. Review the cluster definition file to make sure that it accurately reflects your cluster configuration.
    3. As you input your cluster configuration, you can have the toolkit act on parts of the cluster by not specifying nodes that might have incompatible Operating systems, OS levels, or architectures.
  2. A spectrumscale install phase
    1. Installation acts upon all nodes that are defined in the cluster definition file.
    2. GPFS and performance monitoring packages are installed.
    3. Call home and file audit logging packages might be installed.
    4. GPFS portability layer is created.
    5. GPFS is started.
    6. A GPFS cluster is created.
    7. Licenses are applied.
    8. GUI nodes might be created and the GUI might be started upon these nodes.
    9. NTP, performance monitoring, GPFS ephemeral ports, and cluster profile might be configured.
    10. NSDs might be created.
      Note: File systems are not created during installation.
  3. A spectrumscale deploy phase
    1. Deployment acts upon all nodes that are defined into the cluster definition file.
    2. File systems are configured. It is possible to configure file systems only during the deployment phase if you do not want protocols.
    3. SMB, NFS, and Object protocol packages are copied to all protocol nodes.
    4. SMB, NFS, and Object services might be started.
    5. Authentication might be configured.
    6. Licenses are applied.
    7. GUI nodes might be created and the GUI might be started upon these nodes.
    8. NTP, performance monitoring, call home, file audit logging, GPFS ephemeral ports, and cluster profile might be configured.
    9. NSDs might be created.
  4. A spectrumscale upgrade phase
    1. Upgrade acts upon all nodes input into the cluster definition file.
    2. All installed/deployed components are upgraded.
    3. Upgrades are sequential with multiple passes. For more information, see IBM Spectrum Scale installation toolkit - upgrade process flow.
    4. The IBM Spectrum Scale™ GUI might be upgraded and restarted upon upgrade.
    Note: The upgrade phase does not allow new function to be enabled. In the upgrade phase, the required packages are upgraded, but adding functions must be done either before or after the upgrade.
For information about command options available with the spectrumscale command, see spectrumscale command.
The following table lists the features available in the installation toolkit in the reverse chronological order of releases.
Table 1. Installation toolkit: List of features
Release Features
5.0.1.x
  • Start of changeSupport for Ubuntu 18.04 on x86_64End of change
  • Start of changeSupport for RHEL 7.5 on x86_64, PPC64, and PPC64LEEnd of change
  • Support for Ubuntu 16.04.4 on x86_64
  • Config populate support for call home and file audit logging
  • Performance monitoring configuration-related changes
5.0.0.x
  • Extended operating system support
    • Ubuntu 16.04.0, 16.04.1, 16.04.2, 16.04.3 on x86_64
    • RHEL 7.4 on x86_64, PPC64, and PPC64LE
    • SLES 12 SP3 on x86_64
  • Improved deployment integration with Elastic Storage Server: The installation toolkit includes the capability to detect ESS nodes (EMS and I/O) and it ensures validation of permitted operations when you are adding protocol or client nodes to a cluster containing ESS.
  • File audit logging installation and configuration
  • Call home configuration
  • Cumulative object upgrade support
  • Enhanced network connectivity pre-checks including passwordless SSH validation from the admin node
  • Updated file system default block size for more likely best performance defaults
4.2.3.x
  • Extended Operating System support (SLES 12 SP1, SP2 on x86_64)
  • Enhanced problem determination: Enhanced pre-checks including checks for base OS repository setup, base software requirements, authentication prerequisites, and error reporting to console for faster problem resolution.
  • Config populate: Installation toolkit configuration retrieval from existing clusters that queries all required cluster topology and state (allowing for seamless transition to further operations with the installation toolkit usage on clusters that are created without it).
  • Installation and upgrade of gpfs.adv, gpfs.crypto, and license packages
  • Cluster upgrade enhancements (Extended upgrade pre-checks and supports the Spectrum scale upgrade when in an LTFS environment).
  • Support for up to 7 secondary NSD servers
4.2.2.x
  • Enhanced operating system support
    • RHEL 7.3 on x86_64, PPC64, PPC64LE
    • RHEL 7.1, RHEL7.2 on PPC64LE
    • SLES 12 on x86_64 (no Object)
    • RHEL 6.8 on x86_64 and PPC64 (no CES)
  • Extended platform architecture support (PPC64LE with RHEL 7.1 and 7.2)
  • Heterogeneous OS clusters (a single cluster can now contain any combination of supported operating systems)
4.2.1.x
  • Enhanced operating system support (RHEL 7.2 CES protocol support on x86_64 and PPC64)
  • Guided installation and deployment
  • Logging and debugging and separate error log
  • Enhanced pre-checks
  • Support for Central Chef server
  • Shared Java™ support
4.2.0.x
  • All upgrades involving CES protocols must upgrade to 4.2.0.0 before continuing on.
  • Management GUI installation and configuration during installation, deployment, and node addition
  • Installation GUI for basic cluster configuration (no NSD or file system or Protocols)
  • Additional Object configuration
  • Build package now includes full packages for upgrades.
  • Non-RHEL 7.x awareness
4.1.1 [Initial release of the installation toolkit]
  • Stacked CES + NSD node support (not ESS)
  • Cluster installation and creation
  • NSD creation during installation
  • Client/server license configuration
  • File system creation during deployment
  • Operating system support (RHEL 7.0 and RHEL 7.1 on x86_64)
  • Protocols Quick Overview Guide
  • Single node cluster support
  • Install Toolkit portability (Newer toolkits can be used with older code)
  • Authentication configuration during deployment
    • File: LDAP, AD, NIS, none
    • Object: LDAP, AD, local, ext
  • Performance monitoring reconfiguration
  • Ability to add nodes, protocols, NSDs, file systems, authentication to existing configurations
Parent topic: Installing IBM Spectrum Scale on Linux nodes with the installation toolkit