IBM SONAS Best Practices

IBM SONAS Best Practices

Released September 2015
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738439778

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

As IBM® Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) is adopted, it is important to provide information about planning, installation, and daily administration. This IBM Redbooks® publication also describes leading tuning practices information gained by those who implement and support SONAS.

These preferred practices are based on hands-on experience from the field. Monitoring of the SONAS system is included. This IBM Redbooks publication provides information about IBM SONAS features and function at the 1.5.1 level.

This book is the companion to the IBM SONAS Implementation Guide, SG24-7962 IBM Redbooks publication. It is intended for readers who have implemented SONAS and are responsible for daily administration and monitoring.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. IBM Redbooks promotions
  4. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  5. Chapter 1. Planning preferred practices
    1. 1.1 Worksheet-oriented qualification and sizing review
      1. 1.1.1 Environment details
      2. 1.1.2 Performance requirements
      3. 1.1.3 Client applications and use cases
      4. 1.1.4 Client communications protocols
      5. 1.1.5 Authentication requirements
      6. 1.1.6 NFS protocol requirements
      7. 1.1.7 Data protection
      8. 1.1.8 Data center requirements
      9. 1.1.9 Service requirements
    2. 1.2 Staff and training
      1. 1.2.1 Staffing considerations
      2. 1.2.2 Education
    3. 1.3 Environment
      1. 1.3.1 Space requirements
      2. 1.3.2 Power requirements
      3. 1.3.3 Network requirements
    4. 1.4 Sizing
  6. Chapter 2. Authentication
    1. 2.1 Introduction to authentication preferred practices
    2. 2.2 Authentication configuration with asynchronous replication
      1. 2.2.1 Authentication requirements for replication
      2. 2.2.2 Setting up authentication for asynchronous replication
      3. 2.2.3 Consequences of incorrect authentication setup
      4. 2.2.4 Correcting an incorrect configuration
      5. 2.2.5 Preferred practices for an asynchronous replication configuration
    3. 2.3 Preferred practices for migration of data by using the Robocopy tool
      1. 2.3.1 Authentication requirements for replication
      2. 2.3.2 Setting up SONAS for migration by using the Robocopy tool
      3. 2.3.3 Prerequisites for starting migration with the Robocopy tool
      4. 2.3.4 Common issues for Robocopy configuration
    4. 2.4 Preferred practices for plain Active Directory
      1. 2.4.1 ID mapping and range size
      2. 2.4.2 Configuring plain AD
      3. 2.4.3 Common issues for plain AD configurations
    5. 2.5 Preferred practices for AD and Services for UNIX
      1. 2.5.1 Range and Schema Mode parameters in SFU
      2. 2.5.2 Configuring AD + SFU correctly before data is created on SONAS
      3. 2.5.3 Common issues for AD + SFU configurations
    6. 2.6 Preferred practices for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
      1. 2.6.1 Tasks before you get started
      2. 2.6.2 Prerequisites for configuring the IBM SONAS system with LDAP
      3. 2.6.3 Preferred practices for configuring LDAP
      4. 2.6.4 Common issues for LDAP setup
    7. 2.7 Preferred practices for Network Information Service
      1. 2.7.1 Prerequisites for configuring the SONAS system with AD and NIS
      2. 2.7.2 Limitations of configuring the SONAS system with AD and NIS
      3. 2.7.3 Revisiting key parameters for configuring NIS
      4. 2.7.4 Preferred practices when you configure NIS
    8. 2.8 Preferred practices for local authentication
      1. 2.8.1 Limitations for configuring SONAS with local authentication
      2. 2.8.2 Preferred practices for configuring SONAS with local authentication
    9. 2.9 Common authentication issues
      1. 2.9.1 Issue: No services are running after successful configuration of SONAS
    10. 2.10 Troubleshooting authentication issues
      1. 2.10.1 CLI commands to check
      2. 2.10.2 Logs to check
      3. 2.10.3 More logs to collect and check
  7. Chapter 3. Networking
    1. 3.1 Terminology
      1. 3.1.1 Networking terms
      2. 3.1.2 Bonding modes
    2. 3.2 SONAS networking
      1. 3.2.1 Interface node networking
      2. 3.2.2 Understanding your network topology
    3. 3.3 Network bonding overview
      1. 3.3.1 Link Aggregation Control Protocol
      2. 3.3.2 Transmission policies
      3. 3.3.3 Jumbo Frames
      4. 3.3.4 Configuring a system for high availability and throughput
      5. 3.3.5 Bonding examples
    4. 3.4 SONAS networking preferred practices
      1. 3.4.1 Network naming
      2. 3.4.2 Management and data traffic on the same physical network
      3. 3.4.3 Management and data traffic on different subnets
      4. 3.4.4 Management and data traffic on different physical networks
      5. 3.4.5 Using and configuring VLANs
    5. 3.5 SONAS routing
  8. Chapter 4. Storage configuration
    1. 4.1 General Parallel File System
      1. 4.1.1 Overview
      2. 4.1.2 Back-end storage design for performance and redundancy
      3. 4.1.3 Redundancy considerations
      4. 4.1.4 GPFS metadata structures and preferred configurations
    2. 4.2 SONAS supported hardware
      1. 4.2.1 SONAS appliance with DDN storage
      2. 4.2.2 SONAS gateway with XIV (FC 9006)
      3. 4.2.3 SONAS gateway with Storwize V7000 (FC 9007)
      4. 4.2.4 SONAS gateway with DS8000 storage
      5. 4.2.5 SONAS gateway with IBM DCS3700
    3. 4.3 Failure groups and storage pools
      1. 4.3.1 Failure groups
      2. 4.3.2 Storage pools
  9. Chapter 5. File system configuration
    1. 5.1 Getting access to file system content
      1. 5.1.1 Access rights
    2. 5.2 Creating a file system
      1. 5.2.1 File system block size
      2. 5.2.2 Methods to create the file system
      3. 5.2.3 File system options
      4. 5.2.4 File system naming option
      5. 5.2.5 NSD allocations for a balanced file system
      6. 5.2.6 GPFS synchronous replication and failure group definitions
      7. 5.2.7 Placing metadata on SSD
      8. 5.2.8 Block size considerations
      9. 5.2.9 Segment size considerations
      10. 5.2.10 Allocation type
      11. 5.2.11 Quota enablement set with file system creation
      12. 5.2.12 DMAPI enablement
      13. 5.2.13 File system logging
      14. 5.2.14 Snapshot enablement
      15. 5.2.15 inodes and metadata
    3. 5.3 Removing a file system
    4. 5.4 File system performance and scaling
  10. Chapter 6. Shares, exports, and protocol configuration
    1. 6.1 Choices when you are creating a share or export
    2. 6.2 Background information for creating shares and exports
    3. 6.3 Managing authentication and ID mapping
      1. 6.3.1 Authentication server conditions
      2. 6.3.2 Server-side authentication configuration
      3. 6.3.3 Other authentication elements
    4. 6.4 Establishing user and group mapping for client access
      1. 6.4.1 Central ID mapping for users and groups
      2. 6.4.2 Manual ID mapping for users and groups
    5. 6.5 Managing authorization and access control lists
      1. 6.5.1 Access Control List and Access Control Entry
      2. 6.5.2 ACL permissions
      3. 6.5.3 BypassTraversalCheck privilege
      4. 6.5.4 POSIX bits
      5. 6.5.5 Displaying and changing a file system directory’s owner and group
    6. 6.6 Changing shares and exports
      1. 6.6.1 GUI navigation
      2. 6.6.2 CLI usage
    7. 6.7 Working with Common Internet File System (CIFS) shares
      1. 6.7.1 Creating a CIFS share
      2. 6.7.2 CIFS data integrity options
      3. 6.7.3 Connecting by using a CIFS client
      4. 6.7.4 Using substitution variables for CIFS shares
    8. 6.8 Working with Network File System (NFS) exports
      1. 6.8.1 NFS options
      2. 6.8.2 NFSv4 support in SONAS 1.5.1
      3. 6.8.3 Netgroups
      4. 6.8.4 NFS and ID mapping
      5. 6.8.5 Connecting with an NFS client
    9. 6.9 Connecting with other protocols
      1. 6.9.1 Using FTP
      2. 6.9.2 Using Secure Copy Protocol
      3. 6.9.3 Using HTTPS
  11. Chapter 7. Data protection
    1. 7.1 Cluster security
      1. 7.1.1 Protection of the cluster service
      2. 7.1.2 Compliance with security policies
      3. 7.1.3 Protection of the data
      4. 7.1.4 Protection of the access to data
    2. 7.2 Asynchronous replication
      1. 7.2.1 Replication port requirements
      2. 7.2.2 Replication requirements
      3. 7.2.3 Multi-directional replication
      4. 7.2.4 Asynchronous replication preferred practice considerations
      5. 7.2.5 Replication status
      6. 7.2.6 Recovery point objectives
      7. 7.2.7 Replication validation
      8. 7.2.8 Asynchronous replication logs
      9. 7.2.9 Issues and expectations
    3. 7.3 Backup and restore solutions
      1. 7.3.1 Tivoli Storage Manager
      2. 7.3.2 IBM HSM
      3. 7.3.3 Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP)
    4. 7.4 Snapshots
      1. 7.4.1 Managing snapshots
      2. 7.4.2 Traditional backup versions compared to snapshot versions
      3. 7.4.3 Snapshot rule preferred practices
      4. 7.4.4 Snapshot configuration example
    5. 7.5 File clones
      1. 7.5.1 Managing clone files
    6. 7.6 Management node configuration backup tasks
    7. 7.7 External log service
      1. 7.7.1 Log server overview
      2. 7.7.2 Retrieving system log server information by using the CLI
    8. 7.8 Antivirus
      1. 7.8.1 Integration considerations
      2. 7.8.2 Defining files to be scanned
      3. 7.8.3 Defining scan engine pool
      4. 7.8.4 Antivirus preferred practices
      5. 7.8.5 AntiVirus Summary
    9. 7.9 Failover, failback, and disaster recovery
      1. 7.9.1 Disaster recovery
      2. 7.9.2 Disaster recovery testing and high-level process overview
  12. Chapter 8. Monitoring
    1. 8.1 Monitoring daily work
      1. 8.1.1 Daily checks
      2. 8.1.2 Health and system component check
      3. 8.1.3 Monitoring inode use and availability
    2. 8.2 Weekly tasks to add to daily monitoring tasks
      1. 8.2.1 Cluster node root file system capacity
      2. 8.2.2 Audit log review
      3. 8.2.3 Monitoring performance and workload balance
      4. 8.2.4 Performance monitoring with the SONAS GUI
    3. 8.3 Monthly checks for trends, growth planning, and maintenance review
    4. 8.4 Monitoring with IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center
      1. 8.4.1 Summary for monitoring SONAS daily, weekly, and monthly
  13. Chapter 9. Troubleshooting and support
    1. 9.1 Creating PMRs
      1. 9.1.1 Software PMR
      2. 9.1.2 Hardware PMR
    2. 9.2 Network troubleshooting
      1. 9.2.1 Checking network interface availability
      2. 9.2.2 Collecting network data
      3. 9.2.3 Working with the network and protocol trace commands
      4. 9.2.4 Troubleshooting GPFS and file system issues
      5. 9.2.5 Capturing GPFS traces
      6. 9.2.6 Recovering from a failed file system
      7. 9.2.7 Troubleshooting authentication issues
    3. 9.3 Troubleshooting authentication issues
      1. 9.3.1 CLI commands to check
      2. 9.3.2 Logs to check
      3. 9.3.3 More logs to collect and check
      4. 9.3.4 Active Directory users denied access due to mapping entry in NIS
      5. 9.3.5 NFS share troubleshooting
      6. 9.3.6 CIFS share troubleshooting
      7. 9.3.7 Power supply LEDs
  14. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Other publications
    3. Online resources
    4. Help from IBM
  15. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM SONAS Best Practices
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2015
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738439778