Summary of changes

This topic summarizes changes to the IBM Spectrum Scale™ licensed program and the IBM Spectrum Scale library.

Summary of changes
for IBM Spectrum Scale version 4 release 2.3
as updated, June 2018

This release of the IBM Spectrum Scale licensed program and the IBM Spectrum Scale library includes the following improvements:

Added support for OpenStack Mitaka packages

Support for OpenStack Mitaka packages has been added for the object protocol. For more information, see Protocols support overview: Integration of protocol access methods with GPFS.

Authentication considerations changes

The following changes are done:

Authentication support matrix has been divided to separate out the File and object protocols and accordingly, the corresponding explanation is modified.
The matrix is further divided based on the authentication service that is used.
A diagram is added to explain the high-level flow of authentication for File protocols.
"Authentication for file access" topic is renamed to "Authentication and ID mapping for file access".

For more information, see Authentication considerations.

Big data and analytics changes

For information on changes in IBM Spectrum Scale Big Data and Analytics support, see Big Data and Analytics - summary of changes.

Directory preallocation

In environments in which many files are added to and removed from a directory in a short time, you can improve performance by setting the minimum compaction size of the directory. The minimum compaction size is the number of directory slots, including both full and empty slots, that a directory is allowed to retain when it is compacted. For more information, see gpfs_prealloc() subroutine, mmchattr command, and mmlsattr command.

Express Edition no longer available

IBM Spectrum Scale Express Edition is no longer available. For information on migrating from IBM Spectrum Scale Express Edition 4.2.2.x or earlier to IBM Spectrum Scale Standard Edition 4.2.3.x, see Migrating from Express Edition to Standard Edition.

FPO enhancements

FPO performs the following functions:

Provides QoS support for auto recovery
Supports locality-aware data copy
Uses the mmrestripefile command to check whether the replicas of data blocks are matched for one file

Installation toolkit support for gpfs.adv and gpfs.crypto packages

The installation toolkit now supports installation, deployment, and upgrade of gpfs.adv and gpfs.crypto packages.

Installation toolkit support for populating cluster definition file

The installation toolkit now supports populating the cluster definition file with the current cluster state. For more information, see Populating cluster definition file with current cluster state using the installation toolkit.

Installation toolkit support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 and 7.5

The installation toolkit now also supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 and 7.5 on x86_64, PPC64, and PPC64LE architectures. For more information, see Installation prerequisites.

IBM Spectrum Scale GUI changes

The following main changes are made in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI:

Supports mounting and unmounting of file systems on selected nodes or group of nodes using GUI. For more information, see Mounting a file system through GUI and Unmounting a file system through GUI.
Added new Storage > Pools page. The Pools page provides details about configuration, health, capacity, and performance aspects of storage pools.
Added new Files > Active File Management page. This new GUI page helps to view the configuration, health status, and performance of AFM, AFM DR, and gateway nodes.
Added new Monitoring > Tips page. The tip events give recommendations to the user to avoid certain issues that might occur in the future. A tip disappears from the GUI when the problem behind the tip event is resolved.
Added option to select events of type tip in the Settings > Event Notifications > Email Recipients page. You can configure whether to send email to the recipients if a tip event is reported in the system.
Added detailed view in the Files > Filesets page. You can access the detailed view of individual filesets either by double-clicking the individual filesets or by selecting View Details option.
Modified the Storage > NSDs page to list the rack, position, and node of the NSD in an FPO-enabled environment. This helps to sort the NSDs based on these parameters. The failure group definition is also modified to accommodate these new parameters.
Added the Customize the number of replicas option in the Files > Information Lifecycle page to specify the number of replicas in a file placement rule.
Modified the Settings > Event Notifications page to accept both IP address and host name for the email server.
Added Nodes and File Systems tabs in the detailed view that is available in the Files > Transparent Cloud Tiering page.
Added a separate Properties tab in the detailed view that is available in the Monitoring > Nodes , Files > File Systems , and Storage > NSDs pages.

IBM Spectrum Scale functionality to support GDPR requirements

To understand the requirements of EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance that are applicable to unstructured data storage and how IBM Spectrum Scale helps to address them, see the IBM Spectrum Scale functionality to support GDPR requirements technote. End of change

Introduction of IBM Spectrum Scale management API Version 2

The architecture and syntax of IBM Spectrum Scale management API is changed. The new implementation is based on the GUI stack. The GUI server is managing and processing the API requests and commands. Version 2 has the following features:

Reuses the GUI deployment's backend infrastructure, which makes introduction of new API commands easier.
No separate configuration is required as the GUI installation takes care of the basic deployment.
Fixes scalability issues and introduces new features such as filter parameter, field parameter, and paging.
Supports large clusters with thousands of nodes.
All POST, PUT, and DELETE requests are completed asynchronously. A "jobs" object is created immediately when such a request is submitted.
The APIs are driven by the same WebSphere® server and object cache that is used by the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI.
The mmrest command is no longer required for configuring the management API. The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI installation and configuration takes care of the API infrastructure configuration. For more information on how to configure IBM Spectrum Scale management API Version 2, see Installing and configuring IBM Spectrum Scale management API .

As the syntax and architecture are changed for the API, modified the entire set of commands, which were available in the Version 1. New API commands are also added for improved flexibility. For more information about the available commands, see IBM Spectrum Scale management API commands. You can also access the documentation corresponding to each API command from the GUI itself. The API documentation is available in the GUI at: https://<IP address or host name of API server>:<port>/ibm/api/explorer/. For example: https://scalegui.ibm.com:443/ibm/api/explorer.

Linux on Z enhancements

The following changes are made:

IBM Spectrum Scale for Linux on Z now supports Remote Cluster Mount (Multi-cluster).
SLES 12.2 and RHEL 7.3 are now supported by IBM Spectrum Scale for Linux on Z.

mmcallhome command: Addition of --long option to mmcallhome group list command

The --long option displays the long admin node names. For more information, see mmcallhome command.

mmchconfig command: Setting an InfiniBand partition key

The --verbsRdmaPkey attribute specifies an InfiniBand partition key for a connection between a node and an InfiniBand server that is included in an InfiniBand partition. For more information, see mmchconfig command.

mmdiag command: Status and queue statistics for NSD queues

The --nsd parameter displays the status and queue statistics for NSD queues.

For more information, see mmdiag command.

mmfsck command: Severity of errors

The command displays a summary of the errors that were found that includes the severity of each error: CRITICAL, NONCRITICAL, or HARMLESS. You must specify the verbose or semi-verbose parameter to get this output. For more information, see mmfsck command.

mmhealth command: Addition of new options to command

Addition of AFM and THRESHOLD options to the mmhealth node show and mmhealth cluster show commands. The AFM option displays the health status of a gateway node or cluster. The THRESHOLD option monitors whether the node-related thresholds rules evaluation is running as expected, and if the health status has changed as a result of the threshold limits being crossed.

Addition of --clear option to the mmhealth node eventlog command. This option clears the event log's database.

Addition of threshold add and threshold delete option to the mmhealth command. This option allows users to create and delete threshold rule.

Addition of event hide, event unhide, and list hidden options to the mmhealth command. The event hide option hides the specified TIP events, while the event unhide option reveals all TIP events that were previously hidden. The list hidden option shows all the TIP events that are added to the list of hidden events.

Addition of config interval option to the mmhealth command. The config interval option allows you to set the interval for monitoring the whole cluster.

For more information, see mmhealth command and mmdiag command.

mmkeyserv command: Updating a certificate or a connection

You can now get a fresh certificate from an Remote Key Management (RKM) server without rebuilding the connection. You can also temporarily update a connection by adding backup servers, reordering the list of backup servers, or changing the timeout, number of retries, or retry interval. For more information, see mmkeyserv command.

mmlslicense command: Displaying disk and cluster size information

You can now get information about disk and cluster size with the mmlslicense command. For more information, see mmlslicense command.

mmnetverify command: Enhancements

Several enhancements increase the capabilities of the mmnetverify command. Network checks are added to measure the total bandwidth, to check connectivity with the CTDB port, and to check connectivity with servers that are used with the Object protocol. If there are multiple local nodes, the command is run on all the local nodes in parallel. The lists of local nodes and target nodes accept node classes. The --ces-override parameter causes the command to consider all the nodes in the configuration to be CES-enabled. For more information, see mmnetverify command.

mmrestripefile command: Fix inconsistencies between file data and replicas

The -c option compares the data of individual files with their replicas and attempts to fix any inconsistencies. For more information, see mmrestripefile command.

Monitoring of AFM and AFM DR

Using commands:

Functionality added to mmhealth,mmdiag, and mmperfmon.

Using IBM Spectrum Scale GUI:

Added new Files > Active File Management page. This new GUI page helps to view the configuration, health status, and performance of AFM, AFM DR, and gateway nodes.

Mount options specific to IBM Spectrum Scale: syncnfs is now the default on Linux nodes

In the mount options specific to IBM Spectrum Scale, syncnfs is now the default on Linux nodes. On AIX® nodes, nosyncnfs is the default. For more information, see Mount options specific to IBM Spectrum Scale.

Protocol support on remotely mounted file systems

You can create an NFS/SMB export on a file system that is mounted from a remote cluster. For more information, see Using NFS/SMB protocol over remote cluster mounts.

Tip added to event status to inform users when a configuration is not optimal

A new event type TIP is added to system health monitoring. A Tip is similar to a state-changing event, but can be hidden by the user. Like state-changing events, a tip is removed automatically if the problem is resolved. For more information on Tip, see Event type and monitoring status for system health

Quality of Service for I/O operations (QoS): Detailed statistics

You can now display more detailed statistics about IOPS rates for the QoS programs that are running on each node. The statistics are intended to be used as input for programs that analyze and display data. For more information, see mmchqos command and mmlsqos command.

Support for Samba 4.5

Transparent cloud tiering enhancements.

The following changes are done:

Support for configuring and deploying WORM solutions. Your files will remain WORM-compliant, both in the file system and on the cloud object storage. For more information, see Deploying WORM solutions.
Support for configuring Transparent cloud tiering with a proxy server.
Support for configuring cloud retention time, which overrides the default value.
Support for restoring only the file stubs from the cloud storage tier in situations where files are deleted from the local file system.
Support for Power8 Little Endian platform.
Note: This feature is available from 4.2.3.1 onwards.
Substantial improvement in the performance when files are transparently recalled from the storage tier.
Support for manually deleting orphaned cloud objects before retention time expires. For more information, see Deleting cloud objects.
Support for migrating files in the co-resident state, by which applications can directly access data without performing any recall operation. For more information, see Pre-migrating files to the cloud storage tier.

-Y option

Added the -Y option to the following commands:

mmblock
mmcloudgateway
mmdf
mmdiag
mmgetstate

mmhealth
mmkeyserv
mmlscluster
mmlsconfig
mmlsdisk

mmlsfileset
mmlsfs
mmlslicense
mmlsmgr
mmlsmount

mmlsnodeclass
mmlsnsd
mmlspolicy
mmlsquota
mmlssnapshot

mmnetverify
mmnfs
mmrepquota
mmsmb
mmuserauth

Documented commands, structures, and subroutines

The following lists the modifications to the documented commands, structures, and subroutines:

New commands

The following commands are new:

mmclidecode

New structures

There are no new structures.

New subroutines

There are no new subroutines.

Changed commands

The following commands were changed:

mmadquery
mmbackup
mmblock
mmcallhome
mmces
mmcesdr
mmchattr
mmchconfig
mmchqos
mmcloudgateway
mmcrnsd
mmdf
mmdiag
mmfsck
mmgetstate
mmhadoopctl
mmhealth
mmimgbackup
mmimgrestore
mmkeyserv
mmlsattr
mmlscluster
mmlsconfig
mmlsdisk
mmlsfileset
mmlsfs
mmlslicense
mmlsmgr
mmlsmount
mmlsnodeclass
mmlsnsd
mmlspolicy
mmlsqos
mmlsquota
mmlssnapshot
mmnetverify
mmnfs
mmprotocoltrace
mmrepquota
mmsmb
mmuserauth
spectrumscale

Changed structures

The following structures were changed:

gpfs_iattr64_t

Changed subroutines

The following subroutines were changed:

gpfs_prealloc

Deleted commands

mmrest

Deleted structures

There are no deleted structures.

Deleted subroutines

There are no deleted subroutines.

Messages

The following are the new, changed, and deleted messages:

New messages: 6027-1525, 6027-1756, 6027-2392, 6027-2393, 6027-2503, 6027-2504, and 6027-3258
Changed messages: 6027-1023, 6027-1725
Deleted messages: None.

Changes in documentation

Big data and analytics support

Moved the entire big data and analytics support information to a new section. See the topic Big data and analytics support.

Restructured events page

The events page was split up into 19 different pages, with a separate page for each component. See the topic Events.

Renamed REST API to IBM Spectrum Scale management API in the documentation.

List of documentation changes in product guides and respective Knowledge Center sections

The following is a list of documentation changes including changes in topic titles, changes in placement of topics, and deleted topics:

Table 1. List of changes in documentation
Guide	Knowledge center section	List of changes
Concepts, Planning, and Installation Guide	Product overview	Under IBM Spectrum Scale management API Moved the IBM Spectrum Scale management API topics from the Administering section to the IBM Spectrum Scale management API section.
	Planning	Under Planning for protocols → Authentication considerations Changed the title Authentication for file access to Authentication and ID mapping for file access Under Planning for protocols → Planning for SMB The SMB share limitations topic under Administering → Managing protocol data exports → Managing SMB shares has been removed. Limitations from the SMB share limitations topic have been added in the SMB limitations topic.
	Installing and upgrading	Removed Installing the Scale Management server (REST API) section. Moved Manually upgrading pmswift and Manually upgrading the Performance Monitoring tool from Manually installing the Performance Monitoring tool to the Migration, coexistence and compatibility section. Moved Upgrading IBM Spectrum Scale components with the installation toolkit from Using the spectrumscale installation toolkit to perform installation tasks: Explanations and examples to the Migration, coexistence and compatibility section. Created the Upgrading Object packages section: Moved the Upgrading Object packages to version 4.2.2.x from 4.2.2.x topic from Migrating to IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.2.x from IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.0.x or later to the Upgrading Object packages section. Added the Upgrading Object packages to version 4.2.3.x from 4.2.2.x topic.
Administration Guide	Configuring	Removed the Configuring and starting the Scale Management server (REST API) section. Removed the Enabling Cloud services performance monitoring metrics on the GUI topic under the Configuring → Configuring and tuning your system for Cloud services section.
Administration Guide	Administering	Under File Placement Optimizer Added Data locality based copy section. Added mmgetlocation section. Data locality restore section is renamed to Data locality . Added the maintenance steps for IBM Spectrum Scale FPO. Added the performance tuning steps for IBM Spectrum Scale Sharing Nothing Cluster.
Problem Determination Guide	Monitoring	Under Monitoring AFM and AFM DR, renamed the following topics: Fileset states for AFM to Monitoring fileset states for AFM Fileset states for AFM DR to Monitoring fileset states for AFM DR Callback events for AFM and AFM DR to Monitoring callback events for AFM and AFM DR Prefetch to Monitoring prefetch Moved the Monitoring callback events for AFM and AFM DR topic under Monitoring health and events Moved the Monitoring with mmpmon topic under Monitoring performance Restructured the following topics: Monitoring system health by using the mmhealth command This topic has been split into four topics: Monitoring the health of a node Event type and monitoring status for system health Threshold monitoring for system health Use cases Monitoring the IBM Spectrum Scale system by using call home This topic has been split into four topics: Understanding call home Configuring call home to enable manual and automated data upload Monitoring, uploading, and sharing collected data with IBM® Support Use cases List of performance metrics This topic has been split into three topics: Linux metrics GPFS metrics Protocol metrics
Problem Determination Guide	Troubleshooting	Under SMB issues, added a new topic Slow access to SMB caused by contended access to files or directories.
Command and Programming Reference	Command reference	Removed the mmrest command man page.
Command and Programming Reference	Programming reference	Added documentation for each IBM Spectrum Scale management API Version 2 command.

Changes in the Library and related publications section

Under Library and related publications, the following topics were updated:
- Redbooks®, Redpapers™, and Blueprints: Six new links added.
- ISV links
- Applying IBM Spectrum Scale → Using AFM with object
Under AFM-based Disaster Recovery section, the Failback of multiple filesets use case was added.