Performing installation for a remote IBM Spectrum Scale cluster mount

IBM Spectrum Scale allows users shared access to files in either the cluster where the file system was created, or other IBM Spectrum Scale clusters. The ability to access and mount IBM Spectrum Scale filesystems owned by other clusters in a network can be accomplished using the mmauth, mmremotecluster and mmremotefs commands. Each site in the network is managed as a separate cluster, while allowing shared file system access.

The cluster owning the filesystem is responsible for administering the filesystem, and granting access to other clusters on a per-cluster basis. After access to a filesystem has been granted to nodes in another IBM Spectrum Scale cluster, the nodes can mount the file system and perform data operations as if the filesystem were locally owned.

IBM Spectrum Scale Remote Cluster Mount functionality

Figure 1. Sample configuration supported by IBM Storage Enabler for Containers
Sample configuration supported by IBM Storage Enabler for Containers

The diagram depict a sample configuration supported by IBM Storage Enabler for Containers. Cluster A is the ESS or IBM Spectrum Scale cluster having the local filesystems gpfs0 and gpfs1. Cluster B is the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster that is configured to use IBM Spectrum Scale remote cluster mount functionality. gpfs0 filesystem from Cluster A is available on Cluster B via remote cluster mount functionality. The mount point of the remote filesystem to be used for IBM Storage Enabler for Container must be same on both clusters. For example, in this sample setup it is /ibm/gpfs0 on both clusters.

The file system management is done by Cluster A using the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI running on Cluster A. IBM Spectrum Scale GUI must not be running on the kubernetes nodes of Cluster B .
Note: It is not possible to use the local filesystems for IBM Storage Enabler for Container in this setup.
Important: Ensure that your remote mount is set up. For more information on accessing and mounting filesystems, see Accessing & mounting a remote GPFS file system. To install the IBM Storage Enabler for Containers for a remote mount, follow the steps given in Performing Installation. In step 3, ensure that for the ubiquity.spectrumScale.connectionInfo parameter you provide the following remote IBM Spectrum Scale cluster management API(GUI) server details and remote mounted file system information:
ubiquity.spectrumScale.connectionInfo.fqdn
IP/FQDN of IBM Spectrum Scale Management API server (GUI) on Cluster A.
ubiquity.spectrumScale.connectionInfo.port
Communication port of IBM Spectrum Scale Management API server (GUI) on Cluster A.
ubiquity.spectrumScale.connectionInfo.existingSecret
Set this parameter with an existing secret created for IBM Spectrum Scale Management API (GUI ) server credentials of Cluster A.
ubiquity.spectrumScale.backendConfig.defaultFilesystemName
Filesystem name from Cluster A. For example, in this sample setup it is gpfs0.