High-End Linux Consulting and Security

System Administration

GPFS Administration

Planning, installation and administration of GPFS on Linux.

GPFS is a commercial but very cost-efficient file system from IBM.

It is well-known in the field of high performance computing. It is considered to be the most powerful parallel file system. The features and performance of GPFS range beyond what is usually associated with a file system.

Because GPFS is a parallel file system it can be mounted on several nodes at the same time. It allows (and is optimized for) parallel access to the file system (cluster). Furthermore it can split files (striping) and distribute the parts onto several disk sub-systems. The result is a very high IO performance.

GPFS has more features:
* High scalability
* Replication of data and meta data
* Storage pools, e.g. for performance and reliability
* Automatic association of files with the correct storage pool

The effort for a basic cluster installation without striping is relatively low. The documentation of GPFS is extremly good and detailed.

For reliability and high IO performance in combination with big files and parallel access GPFS is the first choice.

Short overview about GPFS
GPFS homepage at IBM
Documentation for GPFS
GPFS wiki
GPFS forum

All activities around GPFS will be carried out in cooperation with eXstor GmbH, an IBM advanced business partner and storage specialist.