Configuring components on the Elastic Storage Server

In an ESS system, IBM Storage Scale uses component information in the cluster configuration data to perform configuration and validation tasks. For example, when a disk needs to be replaced, the system reports the rack location of the enclosure containing the disk along with a description of the disk's slot within the enclosure.

A component in this context refers to some resource, usually hardware, that is part of the GPFS cluster; for example, rack or storage enclosure. Each component has an associated component specification that is identified by its part number. You can use the mmlscompspec command to see the defined component specifications.

You will normally configure components when deploying a cluster or when adding new hardware to a cluster. The cluster must exist before you can run any of the component-related commands.

If you use IBM Storage Scale RAID commands to configure components, the basic configuration steps are as follows:
  1. Add components to the configuration using mmdiscovercomp and mmaddcomp.
  2. Define the location of storage enclosures and servers using mmchcomploc.
  3. Set the two-digit ID visible on the back of some storage enclosures using mmsyncdisplayid.
  4. Update the component names and other attributes using mmchcomp.
The following commands use or change the cluster's component configuration:
mmaddcomp
Adds new components
mmchcomp
Change component attributes
mmchcomploc
Change component locations
mmdelcomp
Delete components
mmdiscovercomp
Discover components and add them to the configuration
mmlscomp
List components.
mmlscomploc
List component locations
mmlscompspec
List component specifications
mmsyncdisplayid
Synchronize enclosure display IDs with the cluster configuration

For information about the options that these commands support, see IBM Storage Scale RAID commands. Most commands allow you to make a single change using command-line arguments. They also support stanza file input for making any number of changes with a single command.

Alternatively, instead of using the IBM Storage Scale RAID commands described in this chapter, you can optionally perform initial component configuration using the ESS GUI's system setup wizard, which is launched automatically after you log in to the ESS GUI for the first time.

You can use the ESS GUI to edit component configuration at a later time. You can do this in the Actions > Edit Rack Components view or the Monitoring > System view.