Operating system requirements

Before running IBM Storage Ceph, be sure to comply with all operating system requirements listed here.

  • For the latest supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions, see Compatibility matrix.
  • IBM Storage Ceph is supported on container-based deployments only.
  • Use the same architecture and deployment type across all nodes.

    For example, do not use a mixture of nodes with both AMD64 and Intel 64 architectures or a mixture of nodes with container-based deployments.

    Important: IBM Storage Ceph does not support clusters with heterogeneous architectures or deployment types.
  • By default, SELinux is set to Enforcing mode and the ceph-selinux packages are installed. For details, see Using SELinux for your OS version, on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) entitlements

Be aware of the following Red Hat Enterprise Linux entitlement requirements for your IBM Storage Ceph edition:
IBM Storage Ceph Premium Edition
  • Includes a Red Hat Enterprise operating system entitlement and Red Hat Enterprise Premium Service Level Agreement.
  • To access your entitlements, link your IBM Storage Ceph to your Red Hat account. You can link your IBM Storage Ceph to its Red Hat entitlement through IBM Passport Advantage. See Accessing Red Hat entitlements from IBM Storage Ceph for instructions on how to link your entitlements.
IBM Storage Ceph Pro Edition
  • Does NOT include a Red Hat Enterprise operating system entitlement or Red Hat Enterprise Premium Service Level Agreement.
  • A Red Hat Enterprise operating system subscription and Red Hat Enterprise Premium Service Level Agreement are required.
    • A Red Hat Enterprise Premium Service Level Agreement is required to align with the IBM Storage Ceph Service Level Agreement.

Deployment recommendations

Use the following recommendations when deploying the operating system for IBM Storage Ceph clusters. These recommendations are based on internal testing and lab environments and are intended to provide a consistent and optimized baseline. Adjust these settings based on your workload and infrastructure requirements.

Note: These recommendations reflect common deployment practices from internal lab environments. Additional tuning might be required based on workload and infrastructure requirements.
Software profile
  • Use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Minimal installation profile to reduce package footprint.
  • Install only the required packages for your deployment.
  • Ensure that the tuned package is installed.
Storage and filesystem layout
  • Deploy the operating system on a RAID-protected device, such as hardware RAID or MDRAID.
  • Consider using RAID 1 for the operating system devices.
  • Separate /var/lib/ceph to its own filesystem to prevent Ceph or monitoring services from filling the root filesystem.
CPU and performance tuning
  • Ensure that the tuned profile is set to network-latency.
  • For performance-sensitive workloads, consider setting the CPU governor to performance by using the cpupower command.
  • If you use Intel CPUs, evaluate:
    • Setting the CPU mode to performance in the BIOS.
    • Disabling the Intel idle driver based on workload requirements.
Networking recommendations
  • Use high-speed networking, such as 100 Gb, for all-flash nodes when possible.
  • Use NIC bonding or teaming to aggregate network links if supported by your deployment topology.
  • Configure the transmit hash policy to layer3+4 for bonded interfaces.
Firewall and system services
  • Use firewalld to manage firewall rules.
  • Ceph deployment tools configure required rules automatically.