Edit: Some links no longer work.
Originally posted November 24, 2015 on AIXchange
IBM recently published — and just updated — a Redbook that covers IBM Spectrum Scale (formerly GPFS).
This IBM Redbooks publication updates and complements the previous publication: Implementing the IBM General Parallel File System in a Cross Platform Environment, SG24-7844, with additional updates since the previous publication version was released with IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS). Since then, two releases have been made available up to the latest version of IBM Spectrum Scale 4.1. Topics such as what is new in Spectrum Scale, Spectrum Scale licensing updates (Express/Standard/Advanced), Spectrum Scale infrastructure support/updates, storage support (IBM and OEM), operating system and platform support, Spectrum Scale global sharing – Active File Management (AFM), and considerations for the integration of Spectrum Scale in IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (Spectrum Protect) backup solutions are discussed in this new IBM Redbooks publication.
This publication provides additional topics such as planning, usability, best practices, monitoring, problem determination, and so on. The main concept for this publication is to bring you up to date with the latest features and capabilities of IBM Spectrum Scale as the solution has become a key component of the reference architecture for clouds, analytics, mobile, social media, and much more.
If you’re looking for a shorter time investment, check out this introductory video. It provides an overview of Spectrum Scale and its benefits. It runs about 6 minutes. There’s also a 2-part video series that goes into a little more detail. These vids run about 20 minutes each.
Part one covers the concepts and technology:
This is a technical introduction to Spectrum Scale FPO for Hadoop designed for those who are already familiar with HDFS concepts. Key concepts such as GPFS NSDs, Storage Pools, Metadata, and Failure Groups are covered.
Part two shows you how to set up a simple GPFS cluster:
This is a technical introduction to Spectrum Scale FPO for Hadoop designed for those who are already familiar with HDFS concepts. In this video, I show how the concepts from Part 1 can be applied with a demo of setting up a 2-node cluster from scratch.
I’ve actually been looking for an opening to write about this topic, because I’m seeing more customers running Spectrum Scale. If you’ve used it, please share your experiences in comments.