Configuring IBM Power Systems for IBM Storage Scale

The following information provides guidelines on tuning IBM® Power® Systems for IBM Storage Scale.

To get the best results, make sure that your system is correctly configured and has the correct firmware for the server, adapters and operating system version.

Operating system considerations

IBM Storage Scale can run on IBM Power System with the Linux® distribution and the kernel versions that are mentioned in the Functional Support Matrices tables in the IBM Storage Scale FAQ in IBM Documentation.

Note: IBM has tested these guidelines on updated kernel levels that are included the relevant security updates from rhn.redhat.com. The minimum level suggested for IBM Power nodes that run IBM Storage Scale is RHEL 7.1.

Required packages

Ensure that all executable files and configuration files are installed specific to Linux distribution to tune the system and to help it function.

For example, on RHEL the following packages must be installed on all running partitions of IBM Storage Scale:

tuned-utils.noarch
tuned.noarch
numactl
powerpc-utils

Firmware considerations

You should upgrade your IBM Power Systems firmware to the updated version to ensure optimal performance of IBM Storage Scale continually. Obtain IBM Power Systems firmware updates from the IBM Fix Central site.

For more information, see IBM Developer tutorial.

The firmware of other components in the environment, in addition to the IBM Power Servers, must be updated regularly. For example, firmware updates must be applied to network switches and network adapters that are used in an IBM Storage Scale environment. Typically, firmware updates for Mellanox adapters are obtained through the MLNX_OFED packages (as of May 2020, the updated level is MLNX_OFED_LINUX-4.7-3.0.2.0).