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IBM Storage Scale: Cloud-kit now supports AFM-COS on GCP as a Technical Preview feature in 5.2.0.0

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Abstract

The IBM Storage Scale Cloud-kit command-Line interface (CLI) now supports “AFM-COS” (Active File Management to Cloud Object Storage) on GCP clusters as technology preview feature in Storage Scale 5.2.0.0 for evaluation, testing, and non-production purposes.

Content

Description:

AFM (Active File Management) to COS (Cloud Object Storage) enables placement of files or objects in an IBM Storage Scale cluster to a cloud object storage. Refer to https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-scale/5.2.0?topic=overview-introduction-afm-cloud-object-storage, for detailed explanation and planning of AFM-COS.

IBM Storage Scale on GCP via cloudkit now provides infrastructure to enable AFM-COS (i.e. provisioning gateway nodes, configuring AFM to use GCS endpoint) using the best recommended practices of security (i.e. leveraging the GCP service accounts) and performance.

Requirements:
Refer to https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-scale/5.2.0?topic=planning-storage-scale-public-clouds, which has the requirements for planning and getting started with cloudkit on GCP:
Getting started:
1.) Create an IBM Storage Scale “Storage-only“ cluster on the GCP, using the following command;
./cloudkit create cluster --deployment-mode "Storage-only"
2.) Create a caching relationship to the IBM Storage Scale cluster on the GCP, using the following command;
You can use this command to specify the number of gateway nodes which will be used to configure AFM.
./cloudkit create caching setup
3.) Delete the storage cluster using the following command;
./cloudkit delete cluster
Limitations:
1.) The application read/write is required to initiate the AFM transfer based on the configured AFM mode.
2.) Parallel read data transfer (i.e. configuring AFM to cloud object storage relationship with fileset using multiple gateway nodes) needs to configured manually.
3.) “Manual-Update” mode needs to be configured manually based on the use case.
4.) Smaller gateway node profile can lead to poor performance or relationship becoming “InActive”. Apprioriate gateway profile/configuration needs to be selected based on the usecase.
5.) AFM-COS target GCS bucket should be created or used from the same region of the cluster.
Note:
We welcome your feedback. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions regarding any of the information provided here, email scale@us.ibm.com.

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Document Information

Modified date:
26 April 2024

UID

ibm17148057

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