Fit to programme

This was a proposed solution answering Task 022: Lustre installation documentation, behind WP 2.3.

Summary

Lustre is a high performance parallel file system used by the majority of large scale computing systems, typically multi-Petabytes in size. It is open source, and currently developed by several companies and research institutions. Very few large-scale accelerated computing sites have the technical capability and confidence to self-install and self-support their Lustre file systems, and so expensive support contracts are used, along with vendor-specific Lustre implementations. Typically when upgrades and expansions are needed, or failures occur, vendors can mandate significant maintenance periods.

Recipes used by self-supporting sites are often not made public, primarily due to a lack of effort, and each Lustre installation is slightly different, on different hardware. This proposal will draw together a number of recipes, designs and instructions from operating installations, including maintenance instructions, describing the hardware configurations and the choices made. Optimisation steps will also be described.

This documentation will include design weaknesses, lessons learned, and considerations taken into account during installation.

Outputs

RTP-focused documentation for Lustre file system specification, installation and configuration.

We will also deliver a talk at a national conference or Lustre User Group meeting.