BeeGFS Bolt On

BeeGFS is a hardware-independent POSIX parallel file system (a.k.a. Software-defined Parallel Storage) developed with a strong focus on performance and designed for ease of use, simple installation, and management.

Pre Requisites before installing BeeGFS client

• If the user intends to use BeeGFS, ensure that a BeeGFS cluster has been set up with beegfs-mgmtd, beegfs-meta, beegfs-storage services running.

  Ensure that the following ports are open for TCP and UDP connectivity:

  Port	Service
  8008	Management service (beegfs-mgmtd)
  8003	Storage service (beegfs-storage)
  8004	Client service (beegfs-client)
  8005	Metadata service (beegfs-meta)
  8006	Helper service (beegfs-helperd)

To open the ports required, use the following steps:

1. firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=<port number>/tcp

2. firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=<port number>/udp

3. firewall-cmd --reload

4. systemctl status firewalld

• Ensure that the nodes in the inventory have been assigned only these roles: manager and compute.

• For RedHat clusters, ensure that RedHat subscription is enabled on all target nodes. Every target node will require a RedHat subscription.

Note

• If the BeeGFS server (MGMTD, Meta, or storage) is running BeeGFS version 7.3.1 or higher, the security feature on the server should be disabled. Change the value of connDisableAuthentication to true in /etc/beegfs/beegfs-mgmtd.conf, /etc/beegfs/beegfs-meta.conf and /etc/beegfs/beegfs-storage.conf. Restart the services to complete the task:

  systemctl restart beegfs-mgmtd
  systemctl restart beegfs-meta
  systemctl restart beegfs-storage
  systemctl status beegfs-mgmtd
  systemctl status beegfs-meta
  systemctl status beegfs-storage
  

Note

BeeGFS with OFED capability is only supported on RHEL 8.3 and above due to limitations on BeeGFS. When setting up your cluster with RDMA support, check the BeeGFS documentation to provide appropriate values in input/storage_config.yml.

• If the cluster runs Rocky, ensure that versions running are compatible:

Rocky OS version	BeeGFS version
Rocky Linux 8.4: no OFED, OFED 5.3, 5.4	7.3.2
Rocky Linux 8.5: no OFED, OFED 5.5	7.3.2
Rocky Linux 8.6: no OFED, OFED 5.6	7.3.2
Rocky Linux 8.4: no OFED, OFED 5.3, 5.4	7.3.1
Rocky Linux 8.5: no OFED, OFED 5.5	7.3.1
Rocky Linux 8.6: no OFED, OFED 5.6	7.3.1
Rocky Linux 8.4: no OFED, OFED 5.3, 5.4	7.3.0
Rocky Linux 8.5: no OFED, OFED 5.5	7.3.0
Rocky Linux 8.4: no OFED, OFED 5.3, 5.4	7.2.8
Rocky Linux 8.5: no OFED, OFED 5.5	7.2.8
Rocky Linux 8.6: no OFED, OFED 5.6	7.2.8
Rocky Linux 8.4: no OFED, OFED 5.3, 5.4	7.2.7
Rocky Linux 8.5: no OFED, OFED 5.5	7.2.7
Rocky Linux 8.6: no OFED, OFED 5.6	7.2.7
Rocky Linux 8.5: no OFED, OFED 5.5	7.2.6
Rocky Linux 8.6: no OFED, OFED 5.6	7.2.6
Rocky Linux 8.4: no OFED, OFED 5.3, 5.4	7.2.5
Rocky Linux 8.4: no OFED, OFED 5.3, 5.4	7.2.4

• Servers running all versions of RHEL support BeeGFS except 8.6. For more info, click here

Installing the BeeGFS client via Omnia

After the required parameters are filled in input/storage_config.yml, Omnia installs BeeGFS on manager and compute nodes while executing the omnia.yml playbook.

Note

• BeeGFS client-server communication can take place through TCP or RDMA. If RDMA support is required, set beegfs_rdma_support should be set to true. Also, OFED should be installed on all target nodes.

• For BeeGFS communication happening over RDMA, the beegfs_mgmt_server should be provided with the Infiniband IP of the management server.