7.1 Basic steps to install GPFS

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This section describes the basic steps for installing a GPFS cluster. The goal of this section is not to provide details of all the installation steps, but to give a quick overview of the installation process.

Plan the installation

Before installing any software, it is important to plan the GPFS installation by choosing the hardware, deciding which kind of disk connectivity to use (direct attached or network attached disks), selecting the network capabilities (which depends a lot on the disk connectivity), and, maybe the most important, verifying that your application can take advantage of GPFS.
Install the packages

At this point, the GPFS architecture has been defined and the machines have Linux installed (with or without the CSM product). It is time now to install the packages on all the nodes that will be part of the GPFS cluster.
Create the GPFS cluster

Once the GPFS packages are installed on the nodes, you need to create the GPFS cluster. To create the GPFS cluster, we need a file that contains all of the node host names or IP addresses. Then we have to use the mmcrcluster command to create the cluster. This command will create cluster data information on all nodes chosen to be part of the GPFS cluster. In case a new node needs to be added to an already existing GPFS cluster, the mmaddcluster command can be used.
Create the nodeset(s)

Now that GPFS knows which nodes are part of the cluster, we have to create the nodeset (a GPFS cluster can have multiple nodesets). The mmconfig command will be used to create a nodeset.
Start GPFS

After the nodeset is created, you should start it before defining the disk. Use the mmstartup command to start the GPFS daemons.
Disk definition

All disks used by GPFS in a nodeset have to be described in a file, and then this file has to be passed to the mmcrnsd command. This command gives a name to each described disk and ensures that all the nodes included in the nodeset are able to gain access to the disks with their new name.
Creating the file system

Once the cluster, the nodeset(s), and the disks have been defined, then it is time to create the file system. With GPFS, the mmcrfs command is used for that purpose.

There are many options that can be activated at this time, like file system auto-mounting, file system block size, data or metadata replication, and so on.
Mounting the file system

At last, you have to mount the file system after it is being created. Once the file system had been mounted, it can be used by the nodes for read and write operations.

If you set auto-mounting option, your GPFS file system will be automatically mounted when the nodes reboot.

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