What's new and support matrix

The major changes and support matrix of this release are as follows.

Major changes from earlier releases

Release Major changes
ESS 6.0.2.6
  • ESS 3000
  • ESS 5000
  • IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.5.14
  • New kernel 4.18.0-193.80.1.el8_2
  • New Mpt3sas firmware 38.00.00.00
Start of changeESS 6.0.2.5
  • ESS 3000
  • ESS 5000
End of change		 Start of change
  • IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.5.13
  • New kernel 4.18.0-193.79.1.el8_2
  • New xCAT 2.16.3
  • New Mellanox OFED MLNX_OFED_LINUX-4.9-4.1.7.2
  • New esagent.pLinux-4.5.-7.1
  • Systemd systemd-239-31.el8_2.8.x86_64.rpm
  • New support rpm gpfs.gnr.support-ess3200-1.0.0-2.noarch.rpm
  • New platform rpm gpfs.ess.platform.ess3k-6.0.2-5.x86_64
  • New IPR 19512c00
  • glibc glibc-2.17-325.el7_9.ppc64le.rpm
  • Boot drive for ESS 5000 9F23
  • Boot drive for ESS Legacy E700
End of change
ESS 6.0.2.4
  • ESS 3000
  • ESS 5000
  • IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.5.11
  • New kernel 4.18.0-193.70.1.el8_2
  • New xCAT 2.16.3
  • New Mellanox OFED MLNX_OFED_LINUX-4.9-4.1.1.1
  • New esagent.pLinux-4.5.-6.1
Start of changeESS 6.0.2.3
  • ESS 3000
  • ESS 5000
End of change		 Start of change
  • IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.5.10 efix1
  • New kernel (Red Hat 7 and Red Hat 8)
  • New Systemd
  • New network manager
  • New firmware rpm
  • New Ansible
End of change
ESS 6.0.2.2
  • ESS 3000
  • ESS 5000
  • Spectrum Scale 505 PTF8
  • New kernel (Red Hat 7 and Red Hat 8)
  • New Systemd
  • Updated ESS 3000 boot drive firmware
  • New Mellanox OFED
  • New Power 8 firmware level

Support matrix

Release OS Runs on Can upgrade or deploy
ESS 3000 (6.0.2.x)
  • Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 7.9 (PPC64LE)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 (x86_64)
  • POWER8® EMS
  • POWER9™ EMS
  • ESS 3000 nodes
  • POWER8 EMS
  • POWER9 EMS
  • POWER8 protocol nodes
  • POWER9 protocol nodes
ESS 5000 (6.0.2.x)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9 (PPC64LE)
  • POWER9 EMS
  • ESS 5000 nodes
  • POWER9 EMS
  • POWER9 protocol nodes

Support notes, rules, and best practices

  • Multiple EMS nodes are not supported in the same cluster. If you are adding a POWER9 EMS to an existing cluster run by a POWER8 EMS, the POWER9 EMS must be the only one used for management functions such as GUI, performance monitoring collector, etc.
  • Multiple GUI instances are not supported in the same cluster.
  • One collector node must be run at a time in the cluster. This must be on the same node as the GUI.
  • You cannot mix major IBM Spectrum® Scale versions in the storage cluster. All nodes must be updated to the latest level.
  • ESA/Call home must be running on the EMS.
  • If possible, run the client nodes in a separate cluster than the storage.