High Performance Storage System

Linux Platforms

Hardware Vendor Neutral

The HPSS Collaboration agrees that the HPSS software shall remain hardware vendor neutral. HPSS Core Server, HPSS Mover, and client software runs on Linux platform, and supports x86-64 and PPC-64 L.E. servers. Customers run HPSS software on Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo, and other popular enterprise class rack mounted servers.

Technology	Core Server	Mover	Clients	HPSSFS Fuse 2.2
RHEL 7 & 8 (x86-64)	X	X	X	X
RHEL 7 & 8 (PPC-64 L.E.)	X	X	X	X
Ubuntu 18 (x86-64)			X	X
SLES 15 (x86-64)			X	X
RHEL variants (e.g. Rocky Linux)			B.E.	B.E.
HPSS 10.1 RHEL platform compatibility matrix

B.E. = Best Effort Support

• HPSS Support will accept calls for HSI-HTAR software on RHEL variants such as Rocky Linux.
• HPSS Support will not require that the issue be reproduced on a supported platform (e.g. RHEL) before beginning problem determination.
• HPSS Support will be unable to address the call report if it becomes apparent that the issue is due to a defect in the underlying distribution. Problem resolution should then be pursued by the customer within the open source community or distribution provider.

Detailed HPSS Client Interface Compatibility Matrix

Find more details on each user inteface on the "User Interfaces" tab. This table is also duplicated on the "User Interfaces" tab.

OS	Swift	GHI 3.3	HPSSFS Fuse 2.21	pFTP FTP	HSI2 Gateway	API3 PIO4
RHEL 7 & 8 (x86-64)	X	X	X	X	X	X
RHEL 7 & 8 (PPC-64 L.E.)	X	X	X	X	X	X
Ubuntu 18 (x86-64)			X	X		X
SLES 15 (x86-64)			X	X		X
HPSS 10.1 client interface compatibility matrix

1. HPSSFS Fuse servers available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 64-bit kernels.
2. HSI gateway available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 64-bit kernels. HSI and HTAR clients run on a number of platforms
3. HPSS User Interface Client support for operating systems not listed in the table above may be provided by special services. See HPSS Offerings for offering details, and contact us.
4. The PIO API requires the Client API.

Metadata Storage

Metadata describing the files in HPSS are managed by Db2 relational databases. Each relational database has tables and index files, transaction log files, archived transaction log files, and database backup files.

HPSS Metadata Best Practices:

• Store Db2 tables, index files, transaction logs, log archives, and backups on solid state storage.
• NVMe is best for IOPS and bandwidth - IOPS for fast database transactions, and bandwidth for fast backup performance.
• Use two physically-separate RAID-protected pools of storage (the minimum requirement would be two RAID-1 devices using four NVMe drives).
• Expect to allocate about 10 TB of metadata storage per billion files for each high availability copy.
• Integrate the Db2 recovery files into your site backup strategy; it is not acceptable to store the Db2 backups into HPSS.

Optional HPSS Metadata Redundancy

Db2 log shipping is used to replicate HPSS metadata to a second Db2 instance. The second instnace of Db2 can be located in a different rack, room, building, or city; and is often located with the second copy of data on tape. Db2 log shipping is used to reduce downtime caused by hardware failures.

Disk and Tape Storage Hardware

HPSS Disk Cache: HPSS supports raw block storage devices like DDN SFA-12K, NetApp E5600, IBM FlashSystem V7000, IBM V5030 and similar enterprise class block storage units. Additionally, HPSS supports block device files on file systems such as OpenZFS and Spectrum Scale.

HPSS Tape Libraries: HPSS software is tested with IBM, Oracle, Quantum and Spectra Logic tape libraries. Contact us if support for another library vendor is desired.

HPSS Tape Drives: HPSS software is tested with LTO and Enterprise tape drives from the tape library vendors we support.

User Interfaces

HPSS Storage Broker

HPSS Storage Broker is used to store, protect, and error correct project datasets across a wide variety of archive storage including public and private S3 object stores, file systems and HPSS. The limited availability release of HPSS Storage Broker was provided to HPSS customers upon request in 4Q 2020, and will be made generally available in 3Q 2021.

SwiftOnHPSS

SwiftOnHPSS for OpenStack Swift is an S3 interface for HPSS that supports automatic class of service (COS) selection, automatic HPSS end-to-end data integrity support with OpenStack Swift md5 object checks ums, and shared access of Swift objects by other HPSS interfaces.

HPSS for Spectrum Scale (GHI)

Intended for HPC use, HPSS can be coupled with Spectrum Scale (previously named GPFS) to automatically: copy files from Spectrum Scale to HPSS; purge Spectrum Scale files that are not being used when space thresholds are reached; recall files from HPSS when accessed by Spectrum Scale users; and save a point-in-time snapshot of Spectrum Scale. HPSS for Spectrum Scale allows multiple Spectrum Scale file syste ms to be managed by a single HPSS.

HPSSFS Fuse 2.2

Linux applications benefit from a near-POSIX standard read-write file system interface. This interface enables HPSS to be mounted as a Linux file system in user space (Fuse). Customers are using HPSSFS Fuse with Open SSL (encrypted file transfer solution), MinIO (S3 object storage solution), OpenStack (object storage solution), SaMBa (MS Windows file sharing), NFS (POSIX file sharing), DSpace (restful open di gital repository solution), and Bacula (site backup solutions).

pFTP & FTP

The high performance Parallel FTP (PFTP) interface moves files in and out of HPSS at high data rates. Standard FTP and high-performance parallel FTP commands are both supported.

HSI & HTAR

The Hierarchical Storage Interface (HSI) provides a familiar UNIX shell-style interface for managing and transferring files. HPSS parallel file transfers are done automatically. HTAR is a utility for storing groups of files using the POSIX TAR specification and a high performance multithreaded buffering scheme to transfer files directly to and from HPSS. Online documentation for HSI and HTAR is found here.

API & PIO

The Client API is the most powerful interface in terms of control, performance, and rich functionality. The HPSS Client API is the foundation of every HPSS interface, and customers have ported open source applications including:

• NFS Ganesha
• gridFTP
• Secure FTP
• iRODS
• Lustre CopyTool

HPSS Client Interface Compatibility Matrix

OS	Swift	GHI 3.3	HPSSFS Fuse 2.21	pFTP FTP	HSI2 Gateway	API3 PIO4
RHEL 7 & 8 (x86-64)	X	X	X	X	X	X
RHEL 7 & 8 (PPC-64 L.E.)	X	X	X	X	X	X
Ubuntu 18 (x86-64)			X	X		X
SLES 15 (x86-64)			X	X		X
HPSS 10.1 client interface compatibility matrix

1. HPSSFS Fuse servers available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 64-bit kernels.
2. HSI gateway available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 64-bit kernels. HSI and HTAR clients run on a number of platforms
3. HPSS User Interface Client support for operating systems not listed in the table above may be provided by special services. See HPSS Offerings for offering details, and contact us.
4. The PIO API requires the Client API.