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SAM-QFS 5.3 What Works With What

Brad Blasing - Oracle-OracleJun 23 2015 — edited Jun 30 2015

SAM-QFS 5.3 What Works With What

(Revision 1.5)

April 20, 2015

1. Introduction

SAM-QFS is an integrated hierarchical storage manager (HSM) and storage area network (SAN) file system. SAM is the HSM storage and archive management component. QFS is the SAN scalable high performance file system component. SAM-QFS also has integrated disk volume management and tape volume management. QFS also has a write once, read many times (WORM) file system capability. QFS can be used independently of SAM when just a file system is needed. SAM requires QFS and cannot be used independently of QFS. This "What Works With What" covers the specifics of what works with SAM-QFS.

This What Works With What (WWWW or W4) covers the following products:

  • SAM-QFS 5.3
  • QFS 5.3

The build level for the base 5.3 release is 5.3.2.The build level for the base 5.3-01 patch is 5.3.9.The build level for the base 5.3-02 patch is 5.3.14.The build level for the base 5.3-03 patch is 5.3.18.

2. Supported Products, Configurations, And Features

The following products, configurations, and features are supported with SAM-QFS and QFS.

2.1 Hardware Products

  • All Sun SPARC (64 bit) architecture servers and workstations.
  • All Sun x64 (64 bit) AMD architecture servers and workstations.
  • All Sun x64 (64 bit) Intel architecture servers and workstations.
  • All Sun x86 (32 bit) Intel architecture servers are only supported as Shared QFS clients.
  • All Fujitsu Prime Power SPARC servers.
  • All Sun SCSI, FC, and iSCSI protocols.
  • All Sun SCSI and FC HBAs.
  • All Sun FC switches.
  • All Sun RAID disk arrays (includes StorageTek RAID disk arrays).
  • All Sun hard disk drives (includes the X4500).
  • The tape libraries and tape drives listed at:
    SAM-QFS Tape Library and Drive Support
  • All non-Sun HBAs and switches supported by Sun (includes HBAs and switches listed in the Interop and PreQual Tools as well as via the Get To Yes program).
  • All non-Sun RAID disk arrays supported by Sun (includes RAID disk arrays listed in the Interop and PreQual Tools as well as via the Get To Yes program).

2.2 Software Products

  • Oracle Solaris Operating Systems: See section 4.1 below for certified versions
  • Linux Operating Systems: See section 4.2 below for certified versions
  • ZFS Volume Manager (ZVOLs)
  • Solaris Volume Manager (SVM)
  • Solaris Volume Manager (SVM) OBAN cluster capability with Solaris Cluster
  • Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) with stand-alone SAM-QFS
  • NFS V4 (without delegation for shared file systems)
  • NFS V3
  • SAMBA
  • All StorageTek ACSLS releases through 8.2
  • Solaris Cluster HA-QFS
  • Solaris Cluster HA-SAM (SAM failover). It is only supported in a two host active/passive configuration. There are several configuration restrictions regarding this feature and the SAM Administration Guide should be read prior to using this feature.
  • Solaris Cluster HA-NFS with HA-SAM.  NFS v3 and v4 were tested.  NFS file systems must be exported from the current SAM-QFS MDS.  Minimum code levels for using HA-NFS with HA-SAM are Solaris 11.1 SRU 19.6 and SAM-QFS 5.3.
  • Solaris Cluster HA-Oracle
  • Solaris Cluster Scalable (Shared) QFS with Oracle Real Application Cluster (Oracle RAC)
  • IBM Tivoli SANergy with a Solaris SPARC server. IBM Tivoli SANergy file sharing software may be used to support hosts running different operating systems (heterogeneous support). This software is not supported with Solaris x64 servers, however. This software is now supported by Sun Support Services with IBM serving as backline support.

2.3 Configurations

  • Solaris mixed architecture (SPARC with x64) Shared QFS configurations requires use of EFI disk labels.
  • Shared QFS should be implemented using a private or dedicated ethernet switched network for metadata transmission. Performance problems can occur if this network is not private.
  • For Shared QFS configurations of 10 hosts (nodes) or greater it is recommended that applications not be run on the metadata server to provide more predictable client performance.
  • Sun StorageTek Enterprise Backup to a SAM-QFS file system.
  • Veritas NetBackup to a SAM-QFS file system.
  • Clients outside of Solaris Cluster in Solaris Cluster configurations. This includes clients of mixed architectures (SPARC with x64). This capability is only supported with the ma file system type.

2.4 Virtualization Configurations

  • Zones (containers). Only one non-global zone per file system is supported. There are several configuration restrictions regarding this feature and the QFS Administration Guide should be read prior to using this feature. For Solaris Cluster, Oracle RAC is supported in a Zone Cluster.
  • Oracle VM Server for SPARC (previously known as Sun Logical Domains, or LDOMs) is supported with SAM-QFS, with the following restrictions:
    - Minimum of 4 cores assigned to the domain.
    - Suggested minimum of 24GB of RAM.
    - SAM-QFS MDS must boot from a physical device, and therefore it must have at least 1 PCI root complex.
    - Disk I/O virtualization is not supported for LUNs which are used in a QFS file system.
    - Network virtualization is supported.
    - Tape devices must be attached via non-virtualized PCI slots attached to the SAM-QFS MDS server.
    - QFS clients may boot from a virtualized disk, however they still need a PCI root complex to access file system devices via PCI controllers (FC or SAS etc.)
  • For Solaris Cluster, virtual storage devices used by Shared QFS must be backed by whole SCSI FC LUN disk arrays, and must not be shared with any other guest domain on the same server; virtualized partial LUN disk arrays are not supported.

2.5 Feature Limitations

  • If running SAM with Shared QFS, SAM must be run on the metadata server.
  • A version 1 file system cannot be upgraded to a version 2 file system.
  • SAM-Remote servers and clients must be running the same revision level of SAM-QFS.
  • Remote disk archiving servers and clients must be running the same revision level of SAM-QFS.
  • Shared QFS clients must be running within one software revision of the Shared QFS metadata server. So if the Shared QFS metadata server is at revision level "N", the Shared QFS clients must be at revision level N or N-1. (Note that a Shared QFS client will be at revision level N+1 only when performing the first step of a rolling upgrade where the potential metadata server is upgraded.)
  • Multi-reader servers and clients must be running the same revision of SAM-QFS or QFS software.
  • Mixed architecture (SPARC with x64) metadata servers are not supported for failover purposes.
  • Mixed architecture (SPARC with x64) multi-reader configurations are not supported.
  • Online shrink. Online shrink is only supported for V2A ma file systems. Online shrink now includes support for Solaris Cluster.
  • NFSv4 ACL's supported on Solaris 11 only.

3. Unsupported Products, Configurations, And Features

The following products, configurations, and features are not currently supported with SAM-QFS and QFS.

3.1 Unsupported Software Products

  • Sun StorageTek Enterprise Backup of a SAM file system
  • Veritas NetBackup of a SAM file system
  • Instant Image (II)
  • Sun StorageTek Network Data Replicator (SNDR)
  • NFS V4 delegations with Shared QFS
  • CIFS (Common Internet File System) - Ephemeral ID's are not supported. All Windows identities must have an explicit idmap entry (either directory or name map based)

3.2 Unsupported Configurations

  • Solaris regular zones with Solaris Cluster
  • Solaris Cluster HA-SAM with clients outside of Solaris Cluster

3.3 Unsupported Features

  • Segmented files on a shared file system
  • Memory mapped segmented files
  • Mixed architecture (SPARC with x64) metadata server failover
  • Mixed architecture (SPARC with x64) multi-reader
  • The Linux Shared QFS client doesn't support:
    - access control lists (ACLs)
    - quotas
    - being used as a NFS or Samba server
    - sam-aio driver
    - SAM-QFS Manager (GUI)
    - 32 bit kernels on x64 systems
    - forced unmount (umount -f)
    - mdadm path failover

4. Certified Products And Configurations

The following products and configurations were certified (tested) for SAM-QFS and QFS:

4.1 SAM and QFS

  • Oracle Solaris 11 (base 11.0 release)
  • Oracle Solaris 11.1 (requires SAM-QFS 5.3-01 patch)
  • Oracle Solaris 11.2 (requires SAM-QFS 5.3-03 patch)
  • Oracle Solaris 10 10/08 or later updates of Solaris 10
  • The tape libraries and tape drives listed at:
    SAM-QFS Tape Library and Drive Support

4.2 Linux Shared QFS Clients

The following versions of Linux were certified for Sun x64 64 bit architecture systems:

  • Oracle Linux 5.6 (2.6.18-238.0.0.0.1.el5 kernel)
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 (2.6.18-164.0.0.0.1.el5 kernel)
  • RedHat 5.6 SMP RHEL AS and ES (via OL 5.6)
  • RedHat 5.4 SMP RHEL AS and ES (via OEL 5.4)
  • RedHat 4.5 (2.6.9-55.ELsmp x86_64 kernel) SMP RHEL AS and ES
  • SUSE 11 Service Pack 1 (2.6.32.12-0.7-default kernel) SMP SLES
  • SUSE 10 Service Pack 3 (2.6.16.60-0.54.5-smp kernel) SMP SLES
  • SUSE 10 Service Pack 2 (2.6.16.60-0.21-smp x86_64 kernel) SMP SLES
  • SUSE 9 Service Pack 4 (2.6.5-7.308 x86_64 kernel) SMP SLES

4.2.1 Linux I/O Channel (Path) Failover

Device mapper path failover was tested with RedHat 4, SUSE 10, and SUSE 9 and is supported.mdadm path failover is not supported. This is due to its use of a superblock at the end of each disk slice that Solaris is unaware of.

4.3 Oracle Database

4.3.1 HA-Oracle

The following versions of HA-Oracle were certified with QFS and Solaris Cluster:

  • SPARC Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3, 11.2.0.4 also supported)
  • SPARC Oracle 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.5)
  • x64 Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3)
  • x64 Oracle 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.5)

4.3.2 Oracle Real Application Cluster (Oracle RAC)

The following versions of Oracle RAC were certified with Shared QFS and Solaris Cluster:

  • SPARC Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3, 11.2.0.4 also supported)
  • SPARC Oracle 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.5)
  • x64 Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3)
  • x64 Oracle 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.5)

4.3.3 Oracle Solaris Cluster

The following versions of OSC were certified with Shared QFS:

  • OSC 3.3 U1 with Solaris 10
  • OSC 4.0 with Solaris 11.0
  • OSC 4.1 with Solaris 11.1  (SAM-QFS 5.3-01 or a later patch is required for Solaris 11.1)
  • Clusters configured with Solaris Cluster should all be at the same major level of Solaris.

5. Uncertified Products And Configurations

The following products were not certified or tested with SAM-QFS and QFS and thus the potential exists that a customer may have problems with them:

  • Sun StorageTek Enterprise Backup of a QFS file system
  • Veritas NetBackup of a QFS file system
  • Veritas Cluster Services (VCS)
  • Veritas Cluster Volume Manager (VCVM)
  • Sun StorageTek Resource Management Suite
  • Sun StorADE
  • Any other Solaris Cluster agent with shared QFS configuration that hasn't been previously listed as supported
  • HA-NFS with HA-SAM with code levels less than Solaris 11.1 SRU 19.6 or SAM-QFS 5.3.

Note that backup of QFS file system data should work. Backup products may not be aware of all of the QFS metadata extended attribute information, however, and this should be taken into account when backing up a QFS file system.

Comments

Sounds nice, but what do I do when I have to check 100s or 1000s of servers/VMs? Look at 1000s of HTML pages?

Glynn Foster-Oracle

Sounds nice, but what do I do when I have to check 100s or 1000s of servers/VMs? Look at 1000s of HTML pages?

Great comment! Being able to provide a multi-node compliance solution is pretty critical. Since our compliance solution is based on the industry standard OpenSCAP (Main Page - Openscap), you could write your own tools to achieve something similar. That said, this is something that we're actively working on right now and we'll be taking advantage of Remote Administration Daemon (RAD) to allow multi-node communication with a compliance RAD module. Stay tuned!

artsunixlabs

May I suggest? Try SPLUNK Enterprise to see if it fits your requirement and license it, and get the demo app called "health status" for graphical status. - Is very futuristic far more advanced than ZABBIX or NAGIOS. Currently I am looking for a job but also learning SPLUNK Dashboarding in Solaris11.3 Beta - I have (8)zones "Forwarding" to MASTER/SLAVE "Receiver" and works fine for the Intel Platform - not sure on SPARC. Also you can experiment with Solaris11.3 Beta and ruby2.1(facter) which reports all system information pretty much like INXI linux. (I am working on a "facter" project load to be pushed to Oracle12c for permanent system reporting. - Currently I need help here because the file is too large...

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Added on Jun 23 2015
#documentation, #legacy-documents, #oracle-hsm, #server-storage-systems, #systems-configuration-support
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