C H A P T E R 1 - Planning Your File System

C H A P T E R 1

Planning Your File System

This chapter provides an overview of the Sun StorageTek QFS software and explains some of the design considerations that should be taken into account before you begin to install and configure your software. It also provides a high-level overview of the software installation process.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Product Overview

Installation Process Overview

Product Overview

Sun StorageTek QFS software is a high-performance file system that can be installed on Solaris x64 AMD and SPARC platforms, and on Linux x86/x64 platforms (for shared clients only). This high-availability file system ensures that data is available at device-rated speeds when requested by one or more users. The Sun StorageTek QFS file system's inherent scalability enables the storage requirements of an organization to grow over time with virtually no limit to the amount of information that can be managed. This file system enables you to store many types of files (text, image, audio, video, and mixed media) all in one logical place. In addition, the Sun StorageTek QFS file system enables you to implement disk quotas and a shared file system. This file system also includes the following features:

Metadata separation

Direct I/O capability

Shared reader/writer capability

Sun Cluster support for high availability

File sharing in a storage area network (SAN) environment

About the SAM-QFS File System

The SAM-QFS configuration is one in which the Sun StorageTek QFS file system is used with the Sun StorageTek SAM storage and archive management software. The SAM-QFS file system enables data to be archived to and retrieved from automated libraries at device-rated speeds. This file system manages the online, nearline, and offline data automatically and in a manner that is transparent to the user or application. Users read and write files to a SAM-QFS file system as though all files were on primary storage. In addition, the SAM-QFS file system backs up work in progress continually, automatically, and unobtrusively. Multiple file copies can be archived to many media types in a standard format. This minimizes the need for additional backup and provides fast disaster recovery in an effective long-term data storage solution.

The SAM-QFS file system is especially suited to data-intensive applications that require a scalable and flexible storage solution, superior data protection, and fast disaster recovery. This file system also includes the following features:

Storage policy management

Complete volume manager

Disk-to-disk copying and archiving

Shared tape drives

Read-ahead/write-behind capability

File segmentation

For more information on the Sun StorageTek SAM product, see the Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager File System Configuration and Administration Guide, the Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide, and the Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager Archive Configuration and Administration Guide.

About Shared Sun StorageTek QFS File Systems and the Linux Client

A Sun StorageTek QFS shared file system is a distributed, multihost file system that you can mount on multiple Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) hosts. One Solaris OS host acts as the metadata server, and the others act as clients. You can also designate one or more clients as potential metadata servers, enabling you to switch metadata servers.

Within a shared file system, the Sun StorageTek QFS software can be installed on Linux clients as well as on Solaris clients. The Sun StorageTek QFS Linux client software supports the following Linux distributions:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 (UD-5 and UD8) for x86/x64 platforms (Sun StorageTek QFS shared client only)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 (UD-2 and UD-4) for x64 platforms (Sun StorageTek QFS shared client only)

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 (service pack 4) for x64 platforms (Sun StorageTek QFS shared client only)

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 (service pack 2) for x64 platforms and SGI Altix Itanium systems (Sun StorageTek QFS shared client only)

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 for x64 platforms (Sun StorageTek QFS shared client only)

Note - This is the last version of Sun StorageTek QFS that will support SuSE Enterprise Linux 8. It will not be supported in the next version of the software.

Unlike a shared Sun StorageTek QFS Solaris client, the Linux client is restricted to client-only behavior. It cannot be configured as a potential metadata server. The Linux client supports interaction with Sun StorageTek SAM software, but has Sun StorageTek QFS file system functionality only.

The Sun StorageTek QFS software functionality is largely the same for the Solaris and Linux clients. For more information about the Sun StorageTek QFS Linux client software, see the Sun StorageTek QFS Linux Client Guide.

About the Sun Cluster Environment

You can install a Sun StorageTek QFS file system in a Sun Cluster environment and configure the file system for high availability. The following configuration methods are available, depending on whether your file system is shared or unshared:

In a shared file system, when the Sun Cluster software fails over, it moves the Sun StorageTek QFS file system operations from the failing server to a different server. The Sun Cluster software then moves the metadata server's operations from a failing node to another node without requiring you to enter further commands.

Make sure that your environment meets the requirements listed in Hardware and Software Requirements.

Beginning with version 4U6 of the Sun StorageTek QFS software, you can also have shared clients outside of the cluster in a Sun Cluster environment. For complete configuration instructions, see the Sun StorageTek QFS File System Configuration and Administration Guide.

An unshared Sun StorageTek QFS file system configured in a Sun Cluster environment is a highly available file system. Such a file system is configured on one node but is enabled as a highly available resource within the cluster. When the node hosting the file system fails, the Sun Cluster software moves the file system to another node.

A SAM-QFS configuration can also be configured for high availability by using Sun Cluster software. High-availability SAM (HA-SAM) depends on the Sun StorageTek QFS Sun Cluster agent, so this configuration must be installed with a shared Sun StorageTek QFS file system that is mounted and managed by the Sun StorageTek QFS Sun Cluster agent. For more information, see the Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager Archive Configuration and Administration Guide.

Note - Although installing a Sun StorageTek QFS file system in a Sun Cluster environment improves reliability and decreases or eliminates unplanned downtime, it does not eliminate planned downtime. In order to maintain the health of the file system, the Sun StorageTek QFS software may need to be brought down occasionally to run the samfsck process. It also needs to be shut down in order to apply software patches or updates.

Installation Process Overview

The following list is a high-level overview of the software installation process. For detailed installation instructions, see Chapter 3 of this manual.

1. Verify that the hardware and software requirements have been met (see Hardware and Software Requirements).

2. Install the software packages (see Installing the Software Packages).

3. If you want to configure the system using File System Manager, install the File System Manager software (see Installing the File System Manager Software).

4. Configure the Sun StorageTek QFS environment (beginning with Setting Up the Environment Configuration).

5. If applicable to your environment, complete the configuration tasks specific to a shared Sun StorageTek QFS or Sun Cluster environment (see Configuring a Shared or Sun Cluster Configuration).