IBM Linear Tape File System Enterprise Edition V1.1 Installation and Configuration Guide

Book description

This IBM® Redbooks® publication helps you with planning, installation, and configuration of the new IBM Linear Tape File System™ (LTFS) Enterprise Edition (EE) V1R1 for the IBM System Storage® TS3500 Tape Library. LTFS EE is designed to enable the use of LTFS for the policy management of tape as a storage tier in an IBM general parallel file system-based (IBM GPFS™) environment and helps encourage the use of tape as a critical tier in the storage environment.

LTFS EE can run any application that is designed for disk files on tape. LTFS EE supports IBM Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium 6 and 5 tape drives, and IBM System Storage TS1140 Tape Drives that are installed in TS3500 tape libraries.

LTFS EE can play a major role in reducing the cost of storage for data that does not need the access performance of primary disk. The use of LTFS EE to replace disks with tape in Tier 2 and Tier 3 storage can improve data access over other storage solutions because it improves efficiency and streamlines management for files on tape. LTFS EE simplifies the use of tape by making it transparent to the user and manageable by the administrator under a single infrastructure.

This publication is intended for anyone who wants to understand more about LTFS EE planning and implementation. This book is suitable for IBM clients, IBM Business Partners, IBM specialist sales representatives, and technical specialists.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. The team who wrote this book
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Chapter 1. IBM Linear Tape File System Enterprise Edition
    1. 1.1 Introduction
      1. 1.1.1 Operational storage
      2. 1.1.2 Active archive
    2. 1.2 LTFS EE functions
    3. 1.3 LTFS EE components
    4. 1.4 LTFS EE cluster configuration introduction
    5. 1.5 LTFS tape format
      1. 1.5.1 LTFS tape format compatibility
    6. 1.6 Data access by using the LTFS index
  5. Chapter 2. Linear Tape File System overview
    1. 2.1 Introduction to LTFS
      1. 2.1.1 Tape partitions
      2. 2.1.2 Index
      3. 2.1.3 Filesystem in Userspace
      4. 2.1.4 XML schema
    2. 2.2 Comparison of LTFS products
      1. 2.2.1 LTFS Single Drive Edition
      2. 2.2.2 LTFS Library Edition
      3. 2.2.3 LTFS Storage Manager
      4. 2.2.4 LTFS EE
    3. 2.3 GPFS
      1. 2.3.1 Overview
      2. 2.3.2 Storage pools
      3. 2.3.3 Policies and policy rules
      4. 2.3.4 Migration
    4. 2.4 Tivoli Storage Manager HSM
    5. 2.5 Types of archiving
  6. Chapter 3. Planning
    1. 3.1 System Requirements
    2. 3.2 Required software
      1. 3.2.1 Required software for Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems
      2. 3.2.2 Required software for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server systems
    3. 3.3 Hardware and software setup
    4. 3.4 Sizings and settings
      1. 3.4.1 GPFS block size
      2. 3.4.2 LTFS EE metadata file system
      3. 3.4.3 Redundant copies
      4. 3.4.4 Assigning tapes to tape cartridge pools for maximum I/O
      5. 3.4.5 Performance
  7. Chapter 4. Installation
    1. 4.1 Installing LTFS EE on a Linux system
    2. 4.2 Installation prerequisites for LTFS EE
      1. 4.2.1 Installing required software on a Linux system
      2. 4.2.2 Installing the host bus adapter and device driver
      3. 4.2.3 LTFS EE distribution of packages for Linux
      4. 4.2.4 Installing the IBM tape device driver
    3. 4.3 Installing LTFS EE
      1. 4.3.1 Extracting binary rpm files from an LTFS EE installation package
      2. 4.3.2 Installing, upgrading, or uninstalling LTFS EE
      3. 4.3.3 Removing LTFS EE binary rpm files from a Linux server system
    4. 4.4 Upgrading the IBM tape library or tape drive firmware
      1. 4.4.1 Downloading operator guides for IBM tape libraries and drives
      2. 4.4.2 Upgrading the IBM TS3500 Tape Library firmware
      3. 4.4.3 Upgrading IBM tape drive firmware
    5. 4.5 Creating a logical library and defining tape drives
      1. 4.5.1 Creating a logical library for LTFS EE
      2. 4.5.2 Assigning tape drives to the LTFS EE logical library
      3. 4.5.3 Assigning the control path tape devices
      4. 4.5.4 Assigning tape media for LTFS EE within the logical library
    6. 4.6 One-Page Quick Installation Guide for LTFS EE
  8. Chapter 5. Configuration
    1. 5.1 Configuration prerequisites
      1. 5.1.1 Configuration worksheet tables
      2. 5.1.2 Obtaining configuration information
      3. 5.1.3 Configuring key-based login with OpenSSH
      4. 5.1.4 Preparing the GPFS file system for LTFS EE
      5. 5.1.5 Enabling control paths in the logical library
    2. 5.2 Configuring LTFS EE
      1. 5.2.1 ltfsee_config utility
      2. 5.2.2 Configuring a single node cluster
      3. 5.2.3 Configuring a multiple node cluster
      4. 5.2.4 Modifying the configuration
    3. 5.3 First time start of LTFS EE
  9. Chapter 6. Overview of Linear Tape File System Enterprise Edition commands
    1. 6.1 LTFS EE command summaries
  10. Chapter 7. Operations
    1. 7.1 Overview
      1. 7.1.1 Using the command-line interface
    2. 7.2 Status information
      1. 7.2.1 GPFS
      2. 7.2.2 LTFS LE+ component
      3. 7.2.3 Tivoli Storage Manager for Space Management
      4. 7.2.4 LTFS EE
    3. 7.3 Upgrading components
      1. 7.3.1 GPFS
      2. 7.3.2 LTFS LE+ component
      3. 7.3.3 Tivoli Storage Manager for Space Management
      4. 7.3.4 LTFS EE
    4. 7.4 Starting and stopping LTFS EE
      1. 7.4.1 Starting LTFS EE
      2. 7.4.2 Stopping LTFS EE
    5. 7.5 Tape library management
      1. 7.5.1 Adding tape cartridges
      2. 7.5.2 Removing tape cartridges
      3. 7.5.3 Moving tape cartridges
      4. 7.5.4 Formatting tape cartridges
      5. 7.5.5 Removing tape drives
      6. 7.5.6 Adding tape drives
    6. 7.6 Tape storage pool management
      1. 7.6.1 Creating tape cartridge pools
      2. 7.6.2 Deleting tape cartridge pools
    7. 7.7 Migration
      1. 7.7.1 Managing file migration pools
      2. 7.7.2 Automated migration
      3. 7.7.3 Manual migration
      4. 7.7.4 Replicas and redundant copies
      5. 7.7.5 Migration hints and tips
    8. 7.8 Recall
      1. 7.8.1 Transparent recall
      2. 7.8.2 Selective recall
    9. 7.9 Reconciliation
    10. 7.10 Reclamation
    11. 7.11 Checking and repairing
    12. 7.12 Import and export
      1. 7.12.1 Import
      2. 7.12.2 Export
    13. 7.13 Obtaining the location of files and data
    14. 7.14 Obtaining inventory, job, and scan status
    15. 7.15 Cleaning up a scan or session
    16. 7.16 Monitoring the system with SNMP
      1. 7.16.1 Installing Net-SNMP
      2. 7.16.2 Configuring Net-SNMP
      3. 7.16.3 Starting and stopping the snmpd daemon
      4. 7.16.4 Example of an SNMP traps
  11. Chapter 8. Hints and tips
    1. 8.1 Overlapping GPFS policy rules
    2. 8.2 Preventing migration of the .SPACEMAN and dcache directories
    3. 8.3 Storage pool assignment
    4. 8.4 Tape cartridge removal
      1. 8.4.1 Reclaim tape cartridges before you remove or export them
      2. 8.4.2 Export tape cartridges before physically removing them from the library
    5. 8.5 Reuse of LTFS formatted tape cartridges
      1. 8.5.1 Reformat LTFS tape cartridges via ltfsee standard operation commands
    6. 8.6 Reuse of non-LTFS tape cartridges
    7. 8.7 Moving tape cartridges between pools
      1. 8.7.1 Avoid changing assignments for tape cartridges that contain files
      2. 8.7.2 Reclaim a tape cartridge before changing its tape cartridge pool assignment
    8. 8.8 Offline tape cartridges
      1. 8.8.1 Do not modify the files of offline tape cartridges
      2. 8.8.2 Solving problems
    9. 8.9 Scheduling reconciliation and reclamation
    10. 8.10 GPFS v3.5 versus v3.4 and migration of small files
    11. 8.11 License Expiration Handling
    12. 8.12 Discovering physical tape cartridges after assignment to the logical tape library
    13. 8.13 Disaster Recovery
      1. 8.13.1 Tiers of Disaster Recovery
      2. 8.13.2 Preparing LTFS EE for a Tier 1 Disaster Recovery strategy (Offsite vaulting)
      3. 8.13.3 LTFS EE Tier 1 DR procedure
    14. 8.14 LTFS EE problem determination
    15. 8.15 Collecting LTFS EE logs for support
    16. 8.16 Backing up file systems not managed by LTFS EE
      1. 8.16.1 Considerations
      2. 8.16.2 Backing up a GPFS
      3. 8.16.3 Backing up non-GPFSs
  12. Chapter 9. Use cases
    1. 9.1 Use cases overview
      1. 9.1.1 Use case for archiving
      2. 9.1.2 Use case for backup
      3. 9.1.3 Use case for tiered and scalable storage
      4. 9.1.4 Use case data exchange
    2. 9.2 University of Basel and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
      1. 9.2.1 Business needs
  13. Chapter 10. Troubleshooting
    1. 10.1 Overview
      1. 10.1.1 Quick health check
    2. 10.2 Hardware
      1. 10.2.1 Tape library
      2. 10.2.2 Tape drives
      3. 10.2.3 Tape cartridge
    3. 10.3 Software
      1. 10.3.1 Linux
      2. 10.3.2 SNMP
      3. 10.3.3 GPFS
      4. 10.3.4 LTFS LE+ component
      5. 10.3.5 HSM
      6. 10.3.6 LTFS EE
    4. 10.4 Recovering from system failures
      1. 10.4.1 Power failure
      2. 10.4.2 Mechanical failure
      3. 10.4.3 Inventory failure
      4. 10.4.4 Abnormal termination
  14. Chapter 11. Reference
    1. 11.1 Command line reference
      1. 11.1.1 LTFS EE commands
      2. 11.1.2 GPFS commands
      3. 11.1.3 Tivoli Storage Manager for Space Management commands
    2. 11.2 Data and metadata formats for GPFS to LTFS migrations
    3. 11.3 System calls and IBM tools
      1. 11.3.1 Downloading the IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool
      2. 11.3.2 Using the IBM LTFS Format Verifier
    4. 11.4 LTFS EE interoperability with other LTFS products
  15. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Other publications
    3. Online resources
    4. Help from IBM
  16. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM Linear Tape File System Enterprise Edition V1.1 Installation and Configuration Guide
  • Author(s): Larry Coyne, Chris Hoffmann, Stefan Neff, Khanh Ngo
  • Release date: September 2013
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738438689