Building the GPFS portability layer on Linux nodes
Before starting GPFS, you must build and install the GPFS portability layer.
The GPFS portability layer is a loadable kernel module that allows the GPFS daemon to interact with the operating system.
Note: The GPFS kernel module must be updated
every time the Linux® kernel is updated. Updating the GPFS kernel module after a Linux kernel update requires rebuilding and installing a new version of the
module.
Tip: You can configure a cluster to rebuild the GPL automatically whenever a new level
of the Linux kernel is installed or whenever a new level of
IBM Storage Scale is installed. This feature is available only
on the Linux operating system. For more
information, see the description of the autoBuildGPL attribute in the topic
mmchconfig command.
To build the GPFS portability layer on
Linux nodes, perform the following steps:
- Check the following before building the portability layer:
- Updates to the portability layer at the IBM® Support Portal: Downloads for General Parallel File System (www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Downloads/Software/Cluster_software/General_Parallel_File_System).
- The latest kernel levels supported in the IBM Storage Scale FAQ in IBM Documentation.
- The kernel development files and compiler utilities that are required to build the portability layer in Software requirements.
- Build your GPFS portability layer in one
of the following ways:
- Using the mmbuildgpl command (recommended) for nodes running GPFS 4.1.0.4 or later. For more information, see mmbuildgpl command.
- Using the Autoconfig tool.
- Using the directions in /usr/lpp/mmfs/src/README.