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 should 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 Spectrum 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.
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 Spectrum 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, do the following:
- Check for 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 Spectrum Scale FAQ in IBM Knowledge Center (www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/STXKQY/gpfsclustersfaq.html).
- 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.