What type of file system or storage is supported?

Db2® pureScale® is a shared data architecture - every computing node accesses the same data on disk. As a result, the file system must be a cluster file system. IBM® Spectrum Scale is the only supported cluster file system. It is packaged, installed, configured, and maintained transparently by Db2. Management of the cluster file system can be performed using the Db2 cluster tool - db2cluster.

For general purpose storage, Db2 pureScale supports all storage area network (SAN) and directly attached shared block storage supported by IBM Spectrum Scale. However, storage is not only needed for storing data as Db2 pureScale also utilizes storage for tiebreaker support. Additionally, Db2 pureScale can exploit SCSI-3 Persistent Reservation feature for I/O fencing and faster file system recovery, reducing the time needed for a failed node to be reintegrated into the cluster.

As a result, the key decision point in choosing the right storage for Db2 pureScale is whether it supports SCSI-3 Persistent Reservation or not. Db2 pureScale supports all SCSI-3 PR capable storage supported by IBM Spectrum Scale.