Installing the SAN File System software on a Linux client

This topic describes how to install version 2.2 of the SAN File System on a Linux™ client

Prerequisites

You can install the SAN File System client on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 (RHEL) or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 (SLES8) distribution.

Steps

  1. Navigate to the directory where the client installation package is located.
  2. Install the client package.
    rpm -ihv sfs.client.linux_RHEL2.2.1-n
    or
    rpm -ihv sfs.client.linux_SLES82.2.1-n
  3. Make sure that the master metadata server is running.
  4. Configure and start the client. Run the setup command.
    /usr/tank/client/bin/setupstclient -prompt
    You are prompted to enter values for the client configuration, as shown in Table 1. In most cases, you can accept the defaults.
    Table 1. Linux client configuration prompts
    Parameter Default Description
    devices pat=/dev/sd*[a-z] The SAN File System client determines which disks to use as SAN File System user data volumes by searching a list of disks, called device candidates. The device candidate list can be specified as a pattern or directory: pat=<pattern> dir=<directory path>.
    clientname hostname The name can be any string, but must be unique among all SAN File System clients.
    server_ip No default The SAN File System client must connect to one of the metadata servers in the cluster. After the client establishes a connection to the server, the server notifies the client of any other servers in the cluster.
    server_port 1700 The SAN File System client must connect to the client-server port on the metadata server. Running the command sfscli statserver –netconfig <server_name> on the server displays the client-server port.
    mount_point /mnt/sanfs The client setup utility mounts the SAN File System to a specified mount point (directory) and creates the file system image. If the specified mount point does not exist, it is created.
    Attention: Do not enter the mount point or directory of any general directories that are used by the base operating system of the client. For example, /, /root, /var, /etc, /usr. Doing this might cause the client operating system to stop performing basic functions. If you do mount the client at a standard directory, call the IBM® Support Center for assistance.
    readonly No If you mount the SAN File System as read-only, data and metadata in the file system can be viewed, but not modified.
    convertertype ISO-8859-1 The NLS converter tells the metadata server how to convert strings from the SAN File System client into Unicode. Refer to the International Components for UNICODE Web site noted in Web sites for a list of supported converters.
    nettype tcp The transport protocol determines how the SAN File System client connects to the metadata server. Specify either tcp or udp.
    etc_mtab Yes By default, when the file system mount succeeds, the client setup utility adds an entry for the file system image to /etc/mtab. Enter No if you do not want an entry added to /etc/mtab.
    always_empty No By default, the number of blocks reported as free blocks by statfs() is actually the number of blocks in partitions that are not assigned to a fileset. Some programs might mistakenly report that there is no free space left in partitions assigned to the fileset, when there is actually free space available.

    This option forces statfs() to report the number of free blocks as being one less than the number of blocks in the file system.

    verbose No By default, the client setup utility runs quietly, suppressing informational messages generated by the commands. You can display these messages by entering Yes.
    Tip: If you have installed SDD on the client, you should use the following device pattern when prompted for storage devices:
    pat=/dev/vpath*[a-z]

Parent topic: Installing SAN File System on a Linux client

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