Redp 5458

Front cover
Monitoring and Managing

IBM Spectrum Scale Using
the GUI
Markus Rohwedder
Alexander Wolf-Reber
Stefan Roth
Liju Jose
Przemyslaw Podfigurny
Redpaper
International Technical Support Organization
Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using

the GUI
October 2019
REDP-5458-01
Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on
page xi.
Second Edition (October 2019)
This edition applies to IBM Spectrum Scale version 5.0.3.
This document was created or updated on October 18, 2019.
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2017, 2019. All rights reserved.
Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule
Contract with IBM Corp.
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Now you can become a published author, too! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Stay connected to IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Chapter 1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.1 GUI node requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Role-based access control with GUI users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 High-availability with multiple GUI nodes in a cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Integration hub for configuration, health, and performance data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 Support matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5.1 Operating system levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5.2 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI software requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter 2. Installing and configuring the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.1 Installing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI by using the installation toolkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Manually installing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.1 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.2 Installation steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Enabling performance tools in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.1 Checking the GUI and performance tool status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4 Manually upgrading the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4.1 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.5 Securing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5.1 Firewall recommendations and supported ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5.2 Creating and using an HTTPS certificate to secure communications between GUI
web server and web browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.5.3 Root privilege considerations for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.6 Configuring the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI to use sudo wrappers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.7 Ensuring high availability of the GUI service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.8 Node classes used for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.9 Modifying the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI property file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.10 Distributed GUI preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 3. Understanding the GUI options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.1 Login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2 Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 Header area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.4 Assistance for understanding the features associated with a GUI page . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Chapter 4. Monitoring options available in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . 29

4.1 Monitoring performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.1 Display options in the Statistics page of the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.1.2 Display options in performance charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. iii

4.1.3 Select performance and capacity metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1.4 Create customized performance charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.2 Using the dashboard to view performance charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.2.1 Custom Dashboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2.2 Display options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2.3 Widget options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.3 Monitoring waiters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.4 Monitoring capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.4.1 Capacity data obtained from the GPFS quota database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.4.2 Capacity data collected through the performance monitoring tool . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.4.3 Capacity information for file systems, pools, NSDs, and filesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.4.4 Viewing the capacity for licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.5 Monitoring system health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.6 Monitoring nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.6.1 Nodes tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.6.2 Performance monitoring of nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.6.3 Creating and managing user-defined node classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.7 Monitoring Transparent Cloud Tiering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.8 Monitoring Active File Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.9 Monitoring file systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.10 Monitoring filesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.11 Monitoring pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.12 Monitoring NSDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.13 Monitoring networks by using GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.14 Monitoring remote cluster through GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.15 Monitoring thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.16 Monitoring command audit log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Chapter 5. Configuring and managing tasks by using the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI. 65
5.1 Creating file systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.2 Mounting a file system through the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.3 Unmounting a file system by using the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.4 Creating filesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.5 Creating and managing snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.5.1 Scheduling snapshot creation by using snapshot rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.5.2 Example scenario for retention policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.6 Deleting snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.7 Configuring quota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.8 Information lifecycle management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.8.1 Creating and applying policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.8.2 Editing a policy by using the text editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.8.3 Defining the policy run settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.8.4 Log files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.9 Managing storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.10 Managing access control lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.11 Managing Object Storage, SMB shares, and NFS exports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.12 Managing IBM services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.12.1 GPFS daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.12.2 CES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.12.3 CES network and CES IPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.12.4 NFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.12.5 SMB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.12.6 Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
iv Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI

5.12.7 File authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.12.8 Object Authentication section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.12.9 Hadoop connector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.12.10 GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.12.11 Performance monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.12.12 File auditing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.12.13 Message queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.13 Configuring role-based access for GUI users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.13.1 Managing GUI users locally in the IBM Spectrum Scale system . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.13.2 Assigning roles to user groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.13.3 Managing GUI administrators in an external authentication server . . . . . . . . . . 83
Chapter 6. Troubleshooting options in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

6.1 Monitoring events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.1.1 Event deduplication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.1.2 Event Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.1.3 Marking events as read. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.1.4 Running fix procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.2 Monitoring tip events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.3 Configuring event notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.4 Configuring email notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.5 Configuring SNMP manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.5.1 Understanding the SNMP OID ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.5.2 Example for SNMP traps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.5.3 SNMP MIBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.6 Collecting diagnostic data by using the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.6.1 GUI logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.7 Configuring IBM Call Home by using GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.8 Directed maintenance procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.9 Troubleshooting issues with capacity data displayed in the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Appendix A. Current limitations for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Contents v
vi Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI
Preface
The IBM® Spectrum Scale GUI provides an easy way to configure and monitor various
features that are available with the IBM Spectrum® Scale system. It is a web application that
runs on common web browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. The IBM Spectrum
Scale GUI uses Java Script and Ajax technologies to enable smooth and desktop-like
interfacing.
This IBM Redpaper publication provides a broad understanding of the architecture and
features of the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI. It includes information about how to install and
configure the GUI and in-depth information about the use of the GUI options. The primary
audience for this paper includes experienced and new users of IBM Spectrum Scale.
Authors
This paper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the
International Technical Support Organization, Tucson Center.
Markus Rohwedder is an IT Architect at IBM Research™ and Development in Kelsterbach,

Germany. He joined IBM in 1999 after acquiring a PhD in Physics. At IBM, Markus has
focused on data-centric projects, such as design and administration of a large, continuously
available data warehouse for production support, and implementation of a searchable tape
archive for structured data or benchmarking clustered databases. Since 2008, he has worked
on creating graphical user interfaces for storage systems, such as Information Archive,
IBM Storwize® V7000 Unified, and IBM Spectrum Scale.
Alexander Wolf-Reber is an IT Architect in IBM Research and Development Kelsterbach,

Germany. His current role is technical lead for the GUI and REST-API components of IBM
Spectrum Scale. He joined IBM in 1999 and worked on various storage products, such as
IBM SAN Volume Controller, IBM Enterprise Storage Server®, and tape libraries. Since 2007,
his focus is on clustered file systems. During his career, he also contributed to standardization
bodies, such as the Storage Networking Association and the Java Community Process. He
holds a PhD degree in Physics from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt,
Germany.
Stefan Roth is a Software Engineer in IBM Research and Development in Kelsterbach,

Germany. He works with the IBM Spectrum Scale development team on the graphical user
interface. He joined IBM in 1996, and in the first years he developed software for IBM disk
drives and semiconductor factories. Since 2008, he worked on graphical user interfaces for
various IBM storage products, such as Scale Out Network Attached Storage, V7000 Unified,
IBM Spectrum Scale, and Elastic Storage Server. He holds a technical college degree in
Electrical Engineering from University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt.
Liju Jose is an Information Developer with the IBM ISDL ID team. He is responsible for
writing and editing the customer-facing documentation for various storage products, such as
IBM Spectrum Scale, IBM Elastic Storage® Server, and IBM Storwize V7000 Unified. He has
been with IBM for the last five years and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and a Master’s
degree in Electronics Science from the Mahatma Gandhi University.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. vii

Przemyslaw Podfigurny is a Software Engineer in IBM Research and Development in
Kelsterbach, Germany. He joined IBM in 2015 and worked as a developer on IBM Spectrum
Scale GUI Backend, REST API components and build setup. His primary interests include
Java technologies, databases, distributed Linux environment, and big data. He holds a
Master’s degree in Software Engineering from the Wrocław University of Science and
Technology.
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
Larry Coyne
International Technical Support Organization
Sandeep Ramesh
Dietmar Fischer
Andreas Koeninger
Alifiya A Lohawalla
Dharmendra Rai
IBM Systems
Now you can become a published author, too!

Here’s an opportunity to spotlight your skills, grow your career, and become a published
author—all at the same time! Join an ITSO residency project and help write a book in your
area of expertise, while honing your experience using leading-edge technologies. Your efforts
will help to increase product acceptance and customer satisfaction, as you expand your
network of technical contacts and relationships. Residencies run from two to six weeks in
length, and you can participate either in person or as a remote resident working from your
home base.
Find out more about the residency program, browse the residency index, and apply online at:
ibm.com/redbooks/residencies.html
Comments welcome
Your comments are important to us!
We want our papers to be as helpful as possible. Send us your comments about this paper or
other IBM Redbooks® publications in one of the following ways:
򐂰 Use the online Contact us review Redbooks form found at:
ibm.com/redbooks
򐂰 Send your comments in an email to:
[email protected]
򐂰 Mail your comments to:
IBM Corporation, International Technical Support Organization
Dept. HYTD Mail Station P099
2455 South Road
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-5400
viii Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI
Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
򐂰 Find us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/IBMRedbooks
򐂰 Follow us on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/ibmredbooks
򐂰 Look for us on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2130806
򐂰 Explore new Redbooks publications, residencies, and workshops with the IBM Redbooks
weekly newsletter:
https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/subscribe?OpenForm
򐂰 Stay current on recent Redbooks publications with RSS Feeds:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/rss.html
Preface ix
x Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI
Notices
This information was developed for products and services offered in the US. This material might be available
from IBM in other languages. However, you may be required to own a copy of the product or product version in
that language in order to access it.
IBM may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in other countries. Consult
your local IBM representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area. Any
reference to an IBM product, program, or service is not intended to state or imply that only that IBM product,
program, or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program, or service that does not
infringe any IBM intellectual property right may be used instead. However, it is the user’s responsibility to
evaluate and verify the operation of any non-IBM product, program, or service.
IBM may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter described in this document. The
furnishing of this document does not grant you any license to these patents. You can send license inquiries, in
writing, to:
IBM Director of Licensing, IBM Corporation, North Castle Drive, MD-NC119, Armonk, NY 10504-1785, US
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION “AS IS”

WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in
certain transactions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you.
This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made
to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of the publication. IBM may make
improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time
without notice.
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in any
manner serve as an endorsement of those websites. The materials at those websites are not part of the
materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk.
IBM may use or distribute any of the information you provide in any way it believes appropriate without
incurring any obligation to you.
The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual
performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions.
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of those products, their published
announcements or other publicly available sources. IBM has not tested those products and cannot confirm the
accuracy of performance, compatibility or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the
capabilities of non-IBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products.
Statements regarding IBM’s future direction or intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and
represent goals and objectives only.
This information contains examples of data and reports used in daily business operations. To illustrate them
as completely as possible, the examples include the names of individuals, companies, brands, and products.
All of these names are fictitious and any similarity to actual people or business enterprises is entirely
coincidental.
COPYRIGHT LICENSE:
This information contains sample application programs in source language, which illustrate programming
techniques on various operating platforms. You may copy, modify, and distribute these sample programs in
any form without payment to IBM, for the purposes of developing, using, marketing or distributing application
programs conforming to the application programming interface for the operating platform for which the sample
programs are written. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. IBM, therefore,
cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs. The sample programs are
provided “AS IS”, without warranty of any kind. IBM shall not be liable for any damages arising out of your use
of the sample programs.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. xi

Trademarks
IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines
Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be
trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at “Copyright
and trademark information” at http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml
The following terms are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation,
and might also be trademarks or registered trademarks in other countries.
AIX® IBM Research™ Storwize®
Enterprise Storage Server® IBM Spectrum® Tivoli®
IBM® Redbooks® WebSphere®
IBM Elastic Storage® Redbooks (logo) ®
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States,
other countries, or both.
Java, and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its
affiliates.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
xii Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI
1
Chapter 1. Overview
The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI provides an easy way to configure and monitor various features
that are available with the IBM Spectrum Scale system. The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI is a
web application that runs on common web browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. It
uses Java Script and Ajax technologies to enable smooth and desktop-like interfacing.
Therefore, no client-side installation is required to use the GUI.
This chapter provides a basic overview of the GUI and includes the following topics:
򐂰 1.1, “IBM Spectrum Scale GUI architecture” on page 2
򐂰 1.2, “Role-based access control with GUI users” on page 3
򐂰 1.3, “High-availability with multiple GUI nodes in a cluster” on page 3
򐂰 1.4, “Integration hub for configuration, health, and performance data” on page 3
򐂰 1.5, “Support matrix” on page 4
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. 1

1.1 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI architecture
The architecture for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI is shown in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI architecture
The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI runs on an IBM WebSphere® Liberty application server on one
or more cluster nodes. The application servers provides the infrastructure for the GUI and
REST API. Configuration information from the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster is cached in a
database because some commands are resource intense and user interaction with the GUI
should not always trigger data refresh activities from the cluster. The GUI includes interfaces
to many components in the cluster.
One GUI manages a single IBM Spectrum Scale cluster, but it can also contact GUI nodes
from other clusters to exchange monitoring information through REST.
1.1.1 GUI node requirements

The GUI can be installed on any cluster node, including client nodes. The GUI node does not
need any specific license. It is not possible to install the GUI on a node that is not part of a
cluster. The GUI can be installed on Linux operating system versions that are supported by
the core IBM Spectrum Scale. Refer to the support matrix in IBM Knowledge Center for
supported operating systems.
The resource consumption of the GUI service is considerably low. The memory consumption
of the application server is limited to 512 MiB, and the memory limit of the GUI including all
child processes is set to 2 GiB.
The GUI node also acts as the collector node for performance data. The collector process
uses memory that is based on the number of elements, such as nodes or disks, and depends
on collection frequency.
2 Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI

Network requirements
The GUI nodes must contact all nodes in the cluster. To connect to other clusters, you must
establish an HTTPS connection among the local node with remote cluster nodes. The
application server assumes that port 443 is available on the GUI node.
Use cases for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI are described next.
1.2 Role-based access control with GUI users

The GUI offers a role-based access model, which is not present in the core IBM Spectrum
Scale system. Different roles are available to limit access to certain functions, from a
read-only monitor role to a security administrator with full access on all GUI functions.
GUI users are separate from the Operating System users. The GUI includes a built-in user
database that allows you to register and manage users. It is also possible to configure the
GUI to use an external authentication system, such as LDAP or AD to authenticate the GUI
users. The GUI users are also used for the IBM Spectrum Scale management API (REST
API) access.
For more information about GUI user management, “Configuring role-based access for GUI
users” on page 81.
1.3 High-availability with multiple GUI nodes in a cluster

Up to three nodes can be running the GUI in a cluster. All of these nodes are active GUI
nodes, but some services, such as GUI-based email notifications, run on a single node only.
For more information, see 2.7, “Ensuring high availability of the GUI service” on page 19.
1.4 Integration hub for configuration, health, and performance

data
You can perform the following important tasks through the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI:
򐂰 Monitor the performance of the system based on various aspects
򐂰 Monitor system health
򐂰 Create and manage file systems
򐂰 Create and manage filesets
򐂰 Create, manage, and schedule snapshots
򐂰 Create rules and policies for information lifecycle management
򐂰 Monitor active file management
򐂰 Monitor storage pools
򐂰 Monitor NSDs
򐂰 Monitor thresholds
򐂰 Monitor command audit logs
򐂰 Monitor file audit logs
Chapter 1. Overview 3
򐂰 Monitor remote clusters
򐂰 Monitor nodes and networks in the cluster
򐂰 Manage IBM Spectrum Scale services
򐂰 Manage SMB service and SMB shares
򐂰 Manage NFS service and NFS exports
򐂰 Display and modify NFSv4 ACL for files and directories
򐂰 Create users and define roles for the GUI users
򐂰 Configure authentication method for NFS and SMB users
򐂰 Configure authentication method for GUI users
򐂰 Create and manage node classes
򐂰 Define default, user, group, and fileset quotas
򐂰 Monitor the capacity details at various levels, such as file system, pools, filesets, users,
and user groups
򐂰 Configure event notifications through emails and SNMP
򐂰 Collect diagnostic data to find the root cause and troubleshoot an issue reported in the
system
򐂰 Monitor events
򐂰 Perform directed maintenance procedures to fix certain issues or to optimize the system
򐂰 Enable and configure call home feature in the cluster
򐂰 Monitor Transparent Cloud Tiering service
򐂰 Manage Object Storage, and create object users and roles
1.5 Support matrix

In this section, we describe the operating systems and IBM Spectrum Scale release levels on
which the GUI is supported.
1.5.1 Operating system levels

The GUI supports all Linux operating system variations, which are supported by spectrum
scale, on all supported platforms. The GUI can also run on virtual nodes. The GUI does not
run on Windows or IBM AIX® nodes.
The GUI nodes in the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster can be on any of the supported operating
systems or hardware platforms. That is, an intermix of GUI nodes on various operating
systems and hardware platforms are supported in a cluster.
For more information about the supported operating system and other software versions, see
this IBM Knowledge Center web page.

1.5.2 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI software requirements
IBM Spectrum Scale software includes the following requirements for GUI:
򐂰 The GUI is supported on the cluster that runs on IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.3 or later. Issue
the mmlsconfig command to see the value that is set for the minReleaseLevel attribute.
The cluster must have a minimum release level of 4.2.0.
򐂰 All IBM Spectrum Scale packages that are installed on a GUI node must be of the same
release. For example, do not mix the IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.3 GUI rpm with a 5.0.2 base
rpm. However, GUI PTFs and fixes often can be applied without installing the
corresponding PTF or fix of the base package. This feature is helpful if you want to resolve
a GUI issue without changing anything on the base layer.
Note: It is recommended to move to the latest PTF level that is available for the
underlying IBM Spectrum Scale release.
򐂰 The minimum release level of the cluster must be on the latest release level to display the
latest GUI features.
Chapter 1. Overview 5
2
Chapter 2. Installing and configuring the

IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
You can install the management GUI by using the following methods:
򐂰 The installation toolkit
򐂰 Manual installation
This chapter describes both the methods and includes the following topics:
򐂰 2.1, “Installing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI by using the installation toolkit” on page 8
򐂰 2.2, “Manually installing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI” on page 8
򐂰 2.3, “Enabling performance tools in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI” on page 11
򐂰 2.4, “Manually upgrading the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI” on page 14
򐂰 2.5, “Securing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI” on page 16
򐂰 2.6, “Configuring the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI to use sudo wrappers” on page 18
򐂰 2.7, “Ensuring high availability of the GUI service” on page 19
򐂰 2.8, “Node classes used for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI” on page 21
򐂰 2.9, “Modifying the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI property file” on page 21
򐂰 2.10, “Distributed GUI preferences” on page 22

2.1 Installing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI by using the
installation toolkit
The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI is installed on a node where the node is specified as a GUI
server in the cluster definition with the -g option:
./spectrumscale node add gpfsnode3 –g
The GUI server node must be added as an administrator node by using the -a flag:
./spectrumscale node add gpfsnode3 -a
If no nodes are specified as GUI servers, the GUI is not installed. Generally, have at least two
GUI interface servers and a maximum of three for redundancy.
The GUI is installed on specified GUI servers when you run the ./spectrumscale installation
command.
At the end of a successful IBM General Parallel File System (IBM GPFS) installation or
protocol deployment, you can access the GUI through a web browser with the following node
address:
https://<GUI server IP or host name>
Note: After the installation, you must create the first GUI user to log in to the GUI and
create other GUI administrative users who perform system management and monitoring
tasks. When you start the GUI for the first time after the installation, the GUI welcome page
provides options to create the first GUI user from the command-line prompt by using the
/usr/lpp/mmfs/gui/cli/mkuser <user_name> -g SecurityAdmin command.
2.2 Manually installing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI

You can install the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI by manually installing the required packages.
2.2.1 Prerequisites
The prerequisites for installing the IBM Spectrum Scale system are applicable for GUI
installations as well. For more information about the prerequisites for installation, see IBM
Spectrum Scale Installation prerequisites.
The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI package is also part of the installation package. You must
extract this package to start the installation. The performance tool packages are also required
to enable the performance monitoring tool that is integrated into the GUI. The following
packages are required for performance monitoring tools in GUI:
򐂰 The performance tool collector package. This package is placed on the collector nodes
only. By default, every GUI node is also used as the collector node to receive performance
details and display them in the GUI.
򐂰 The performance tool sensor package. This package is applicable for the sensor nodes, if
not already installed. It is recommended to install the sensor package on all nodes of the
cluster to monitor their performance in the GUI.

Note: The GUI must be a homogeneous stack. That is, all packages must be of the same
release. For example, do not mix the 5.0.03 GUI rpm with a 4.2.35.0.2 base rpm. However,
GUI PTFs and efixes often can be applied without installing the corresponding PTF or efix
of the base package. This feature is helpful if you want to remove a GUI issue without
changing anything on the base layer.
The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI and performance tool packages that are required for different
platforms are listed in Table 2-1.
Table 2-1 GUI packages that are required for each platform
Platform GUI package name
RHEL 7.x gpfs.gui-5.0.3-0.noarch.rpm

gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.x86_64.rpm
gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.ppc64.rpm
gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.ppc64le.rpm
gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.s390x.rpm
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 gpfs.gui-5.0.3-0.noarch.rpm

gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.x86_64.rpm
gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.ppc64le.rpm
gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.s390x.rpm
Ubuntu 16 and 18 gpfs.gui_5.0.3-0_all.deb

gpfs.java_5.0.3-0_amd64.deb
gpfs.java_5.0.3-0_s390x.deb
gpfs.java_5.0.3-0_ppc64el.deb
Performance monitoring tool platform Performance monitoring tool rpms
RHEL 7.x X86 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.x86_64.rpm

gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el7.x86_64.rpm
RHEL 7 s390x gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el7.s390x.rpm

gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.s390x.rpm
RHEL 7.x ppc64 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.ppc64.rpm

gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el7.ppc64.rpm
RHEL 7.x ppc64 LE gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.ppc64le.rpm

gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el7.ppc64le.rpm
RHEL6 s390x gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el6.s390x.rpm

gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el6.s390x.rpm
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 X86 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.SLES12.x86_64.rpm

gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES12.X86_64.rpm
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1 gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES12.1.s390x.rpm

s390x gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.SLES12.1.s390x.rpm
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 ppc64 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.SLES12.ppc64.rpm

gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES12.ppc64.rpm
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 ppc64 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.SLES12.ppc64le.rpm

LE gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES12.ppc64le.rpm
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 ppc64 gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES11.ppc64.rpm

(sensor only)
Chapter 2. Installing and configuring the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI 9

Platform GUI package name
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 s390x gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES11.s390x.rpm

(sensor only)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS sensor and collector gpfs.gss.pmsensors_5.0.3-0.U16.04_amd64.deb

packages gpfs.gss.pmcollector_5.0.3-0.U16.04_amd64.deb
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS sensor and collector gpfs.gss.pmsensors_5.0.3-0.U18.04_amd64.deb

packages gpfs.gss.pmcollector_5.0.3-0.U18.04_amd64.deb
Note: Ensure that the performance tool collector runs on the same node as the GUI.
Yum repository setup

You can use the yum repository to manually install the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI .rpm files.
This method of installation is preferred because yum checks the dependencies and
automatically installs the missing platform dependencies, such as the postgres module, which
is required but not included in the package.
2.2.2 Installation steps

You can install the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI by using the package manager (yum or zypper
commands) or by issuing the rpm commands individually.
Installing by using the package manager (yum or zypper commands)

Generally, use the package manager to install the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI because it
checks the dependencies and automatically installs the missing platform dependencies. To
use this method to install the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI, issue the following commands:
򐂰 Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
yum install gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el7.<arch>.rpm
yum install gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.<arch>.rpm
yum install gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.<arch>.rpm
yum install gpfs.gui-5.0.3-0.noarch.rpm
򐂰 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server:
zypper install gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES12.<arch>.rpm
zypper install gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.SLES12.<arch>.rpm
zypper install gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.<arch>.rpm
zypper install gpfs.gui-5.0.3-0.noarch.rpm
Installing by using RPMs

Issue the following commands for RHEL and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server platforms:
rpm -ivh gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.<arch>.rpm
rpm -ivh gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el7.<arch>.rpm
rpm -ivh gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.<arch>.rpm
rpm -ivh gpfs.gui-5.0.3-0.noarch.rpm
The sensor rpm must be installed on any other node that you want to monitor. All sensors
must point to the collector node.

Installing management GUI on Ubuntu by using dpkg and apt-g
Issue the following commands for Ubuntu platform:
dpkg -i gpfs.java_5.0.3-0_<arch>.deb
dpkg -i gpfs.gss.pmsensors_5.0.3-0.<os>_<arch>.deb
dpkg -i gpfs.gss.pmcollector_5.0.3-0.<os>_<arch>.deb
apt-get install postgresql
dpkg -i gpfs.gui_5.0.3-0_all.deb
2.3 Enabling performance tools in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI

The performance tool consists of sensors that are installed on all nodes that must be
monitored. It also consists of one or more collectors that receive data from the sensors.
The GUI expects that a collector runs on a GUI node. The GUI also queries the collector on
the same node for performance and capacity data. The following process uses the automated
approach to configure and maintain performance data collection by using the mmperfmon CLI
command.
Note: Manually editing the /opt/IBM/zimon/ZIMonSensors.cfg file is not compatible with

this configuration mode.
To enable performance tools, complete the following steps:

1. Install the necessary software packages.
Install the collector software package, gpfs.gss.pmcollector, on all GUI nodes. Install the
sensor software packages, gpfs.gss.pmsensors, on all nodes that are supposed to send
the performance data.
2. Initialize the performance collection. Use the following command to create an initial
performance collection setup on the selected nodes:
mmperfmon config generate --collectors [node list]
The GUI nodes must be configured as collector nodes. Depending on the installation type,
this configuration might be completed before. However, verify the existing configuration.
When several collectors are defined, the system automatically configures these collectors
as peers. When one of the collectors are queried, the collector contacts its peers to gather
data that might be on a peer only. Automatic peer configuration was is available from IBM
Spectrum Scale 5.0.2. In earlier releases, a manual peer configuration was necessary.
3. Enable the nodes for performance collection. You can enable nodes to collect
performance data by issuing the following command:
mmchnode --perfmon -N [SENSOR_NODE_LIST]
In this command, [SENSOR_NODE_LIST] is a comma-separated list of sensor node host
names or IP addresses. The sensor node host name or IP address must be a GPFS node
or a daemon IP address, not any other node IP.
You can also use a node class. Depending on the type of installation, nodes might be
configured for performance collection. Review the perfmon designation of nodes in the
mmlscluster command output to verify whether the node is configured for performance
data collection.

4. Configure aggregation configuration for the collectors.
The collector configuration is stored in the /opt/IBM/zimon/ZIMonCollector.cfg file. The
performance collection tool includes predefined rules about how data is aggregated after it
gets older. By default, the following aggregation domains are created:
– A raw domain that stores the metrics uncompressed
– A first aggregation domain that aggregates data to 30-second averages
– A second aggregation domain that stores data in 15-minute averages
– A third aggregation domain that stores data in 6-hour averages
In addition to the aggregation that is done by the performance collector, the GUI might
request aggregated data depending on the zoom level of the chart.
5. Configure the sensors.
Several GUI pages display performance data that is collected with the help of performance
monitoring tools. If data is not collected, the GUI shows error messages, such as “No Data
Available” or “Objects not found” in the performance charts. Installation by using the IBM
Spectrum Scale installation toolkit manages the default performance monitoring
installation and configuration. The GUI context-sensitive help that is available on various
pages shows performance metric information. The GUI context-sensitive help also lists the
sensor names.
The Services → Performance Monitoring page provides option to configure the sensor
and provide hints for collection periods and restriction of sensors to specific nodes.
You can also use the mmperfmon config show command to verify the sensor configuration.
Use the mmperfmon config update command to adjust the sensor configuration to match
your requirement.
The /opt/IBM/zimon/ZIMonSensors.cfg local file can be different on every node, and the
system updates this file whenever a configuration change is made. Therefore, this file must
not be edited manually when using the automated configuration mode. During the distribution
of the sensor configuration, the restrict clause is evaluated and the period for all sensors is
set to 0 in the /opt/IBM/zimon/ZIMonSensors.cfg file on the nodes that did not match the
restrict clause. You can check the local file to confirm that a restrict clause worked as
intended.
Configuring capacity-related sensors to run on a single-node

Several capacity-related sensors must run on a single node only as they collect data for a
clustered file system; for example, GPFSDiskCap, GPFSFilesetQuota, GPFSFileset, and
GPFSPool.
It is possible to automatically assign restrict these sensors to a single node. In IBM Spectrum
Scale 5.0.1 and later, the capacity-related sensors are configured to automatically elect a
single node where the capacity collection occurs.
Use the Services → Performance Monitoring page to set appropriate periods for these
sensors.
The GPFSDiskCap sensor includes a recommended period of 86400, which means once per
day. As the GPFSDiskCap sensor runs mmdf command to get the capacity data, it is not
recommended to use a value less than 10800 (every 3 hours).
To show fileset capacity information, quota must be enabled for all file systems where fileset
capacity must be monitored. For more information about enabling quota, see the -q option in
the mmchfs command and mmcheckquota command.

2.3.1 Checking the GUI and performance tool status
To check the GUI and performance tool status, complete the following steps:
1. Issue the systemctl status gpfsgui command to determine the GUI status, as shown in
Example 2-1.
Example 2-1 Determining the GUI status using the systemctl status gpfsgui command
systemctl status gpfsgui
gpfsgui.service - IBM_Spectrum_Scale Administration GUI
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/gpfsgui.service; disabled; vendor
preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2017-04-11 16:09:23 CEST; 1 day 22h ago
Main PID: 1430 (java)
Status: "GSS/GPFS GUI started"
CGroup: /system.slice/gpfsgui.service
••1430 /usr/lpp/mmfs/java/jre/bin/java
-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Dcom.ibm.gpfs.platf...
2. Issue the systemctl status pmcollector and systemctl status pmsensors commands to
determine the status of the performance tool.
You can also check whether the performance tool backend can receive data by using the
GUI or alternative by using a command line performance tool that is called zc. This tool is
available in the /opt/IBM/zimon folder. Example 2-2 shows some sample output.
Example 2-2 Sample output of the zc tool

echo "get metrics cpu_user last 1 bucket_size 60"|/opt/IBM/zimon/zc localhost
1: node1.localnet.com|CPU|cpu_user
Row Timestamp cpu_user cpu_user cpu_user
1 2017-04-13 14:50:00 4.328333 null 2.343333
2 2017-04-13 14:51:00 3.492500 null 3.305000
This example output shows that the performance data is collected from node1 and node3,
whereas no data is available from node2. The sensor on node2 is not started or
misconfigured.

2.4 Manually upgrading the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
You can upgrade the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI to the latest version to get the latest features.
You can upgrade one GUI node at a time without shutting down IBM Spectrum Scale on other
nodes to ensure high availability.
2.4.1 Prerequisites
Ensure that you are aware of the following details before you start the upgrade process:
򐂰 If an external authentication server, such as AD or LDAP, is used to authenticate the GUI
users, connections to AD and LDAP systems are stored in the
/opt/ibm/wlp/usr/servers/gpfsgui/server.xml file. This file is overwritten during the
upgrade. Ensure that you save the edited server.xml file to make the similar changes on
the replaced file after the upgrade.
Note: This step is required only if you are upgrading the GUI from a version older than
5.0.1.
򐂰 Local users, user groups, user roles, and snapshot rules are not affected with an upgrade
because they exist in the cluster configure repository (CCR).
򐂰 Data in the postgres database is retained.
򐂰 All IBM Spectrum Scale packages must be of the same release on the GUI node. For
example, do not mix the 5.0.3 GUI rpm with a 5.0.2 base rpm. However, GUI PTFs and
fixes can usually be applied without having to install the corresponding PTF or fix of the
base package. This method is helpful if you want to resolve a GUI issue without changing
anything on the base layer.
򐂰 Release levels can be different among GUI nodes and other nodes of the cluster.
However, the minimum release level of the cluster must be 4.2.0.0 or later for the GUI to
function.
򐂰 The scalemgmt user ID must not be used because the GUI requires this user ID to run the
IBM Spectrum Scale GUI WebSphere Java process.
򐂰 The ports 443, 47080, and 47443 must not be used by other processes.
򐂰 You can directly upgrade the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI from 4.2.0.0 or later to the latest
version.
Complete the following steps to upgrade the management GUI from 4.2.1.x or later to 4.2.2.x
or later:
1. Stop the GUI services on the node by issuing the systemctl stop gpfsgui command.
Ensure that the latest packages are available at the required location. For more
information about the latest packages that are required for different platforms, see 2.2,
“Manually installing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI” on page 8.
For more information about the location of the extracted installation packages, see IBM
Knowledge Center.
2. Upgrade the GUI package. For upgrading the previously installed package, use the rpm
-Fvh or rpm -Uvh options. The rpm -Fvh option upgrades the existing installed package,
and the rpm -Uvh option installs the package and upgrades the package as well.

For upgrading on Ubuntu, use dpkg -i. By issuing the dpkg -s gpfs.gui command, you
can check more properties about your management GUI installation. If the status in the
command output is install ok installed, the upgrade was performed successfully.
Consider the following points:
– On RHEL or SLES, issue the following command:
rpm -Fvh gpfs.gui-5.0.3-0.noarch.rpm
– On Ubuntu, issue the following command:
dpkg -i gpfs.gui_5.0.3-0_all.deb
3. If a new Java version is available, upgrade the package as shown in the following example:
rpm -Fvh gpfs.java-5.0.3-0.x86_64.rpm
Java packages are platform-dependent. For more information about the latest Java
package that is required for each platform, see 2.2, “Manually installing the IBM Spectrum
Scale GUI” on page 8.
4. If the minimum release level set for IBM Spectrum Scale is not same as the GUI version,
the new GUI features might not be available. You can change the release level by issuing
the mmchconfig release=LATEST command.
Because changing the minimum release level affects the cluster behavior, see the
mmchconfig command man page and other related topics before you make this
configuration change. For more information, see IBM Knowledge Center.
5. Start the GUI by issuing the systemctl start gpfsgui command.
6. To ensure that the GUI and performance tool are started on the boot process, issue the
following commands:
systemctl enable gpfsgui.service
systemctl enable pmsensor.service
systemctl enable pmcollector.service
7. Issue the systemctl status gpfsgui command to verify the GUI service status.
8. Issue the systemctl status pmcollector and systemctl status pmsensors commands to
verify the status of the performance tool.

2.5 Securing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
You can secure access to the GUI by using firewalls and HTTPS certificates, as described in
this section.
2.5.1 Firewall recommendations and supported ports

Dedicating certain ports for firewalls helps to secure IBM Spectrum Scale management and
installation GUIs. Different ports are used for securing the installation GUI and management
GUI. The ports that must be used to secure the GUI are listed in Table 2-2.
Table 2-2 Firewall recommendations for the GUI

Port number Function Protocol
47080 Management GUI HTTP, localhost only
47443 Management GUI HTTPS, localhost only

IBM Spectrum Scale management API
80 Management GUI HTTP
443 Management GUI HTTPS

IBM Spectrum Scale management API
4444 Management GUI Localhost only
4739, 9085, and 9084 Performance monitoring collector N/A
If multiple GUI nodes are available in a cluster, the communication among those GUI nodes is
carried out through the port 443.
The port 80 is open only to receive events if an older version than 4.2.3 of GPFS is used. It
cannot be used to access the GUI or REST API. Ports 443 is internally forwarded to 47443,
and port 80 is internally forwarded to 47080. This forwarding is done automatically by an
iptables rule. The iptables rules are added when the gpfsgui service is started and are
removed when it is stopped. Therefore, to access the GUI, ports such as 443, 47443, and
47080 must be opened.
The update mechanism for iptables can be disabled by setting the variable UPDATE_IPTABLES
to false, which is stored at: /etc/sysconfig/gpfsgui. You must restart the GUI for the
changes to take effect.
The iptables rules that are necessary for the port forwarding and to bind the non-root users to
the privileged ports, are automatically checked every time when the GUI is started through
the systemctl start gpfsgui command. The user does not have to configure anything
manually for this process.
Note: The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI ports are not configurable. The GUI cannot coexist
with a web server that uses the same ports.
The management GUI uses ZIMon to collect performance data. ZIMon collectors are
normally deployed with the management GUI and sometimes on other systems in a federated
configuration. Each ZIMon collector uses three ports, which can be configured in
ZIMonCollector.cfg. The default ports are 4739, 9085, and 9084. The GUI is sending its
queries on the ports 9084 and 9085 and these ports are accessible only from the localhost.

2.5.2 Creating and using an HTTPS certificate to secure communications
between GUI web server and web browsers
The IBM Spectrum Scale system GUI supports self-signed and trusted certificates that are
provided by a certificate authority (CA) to secure communications between the server and
web browser.
During the GUI installation, an initial self-signed certificate is created to use for secure
connections between the GUI web servers and web browsers. Based on the security
requirements for your system, you can create a new self-signed certificate or install a signed
certificate that is created by the CA. Self-signed certificates can generate web browser
security warnings and might not comply with organizational security guidelines.
The trusted certificates are created by a third-party CA. These CAs ensure that certificates
include the required security level for an organization based on purchase agreements.
Trusted certificates often feature higher security controls for data encryption and do not cause
browser security warnings. Trusted certificates are also stored in the WebSphere Liberty SSL
keystore.
Major web browsers trust the CA-certified certificates by default; therefore, they can confirm
that the certificate was received by the GUI server can be trusted. You can buy a signed
certificate from a trusted third-party authority or create your own certificate and get it certified.
You can use self-signed and trusted certificates. However, the use of a trusted is the preferred
method because the browser trusts this certificate automatically without any manual
interventions.
You can use the Services → GUI page in the GUI to install and use the certificates (see
Figure 2-1).
Figure 2-1 Services page
You can use the Services → GUI page in the GUI to perform the following tasks:
򐂰 Generate a self-signed certificate by using the Install Self-Signed Certificate option.
򐂰 Generate a certificate request and install it after getting it certified by the CA by using the
Create Certificate Request option.
Note: You can use new attributes for Subject Alternative Names, if the OpenSSL
version on the GUI node is 1.1.1 or later.
򐂰 Install an issued certificate by using the Import Certificate option.

򐂰 View the details of the certificate that is applied on the local GUI node by using the View
Certificate option.

When you export the certificate, the certificate is shown while accessing the GUI in the
browser through HTTPS as shown in Figure 2-2.
Figure 2-2 SSL certificate
2.5.3 Root privilege considerations for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3 or later no longer runs the GUI WebSphere Java process as “root”
but as a user named scalemgmt. This method provides improved security because web
applications running as root are vulnerable to security threats. The scalemgmt user is set up
as a system account with no login privileges.
The GUI user still requires root privileges to perform the following tasks at the backend:
򐂰 Issue IBM Spectrum Scale CLI commands.
򐂰 Bind to the privilege ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS). The iptables rule that is used
internally in the system forwards port 80 to 47080 and port 443 to 47443.
The system automatically creates the scalemgmt user. It does not require any configuration to
be performed by the user.
Enabling the scalemgmt user to monitor and manage the system

through the GUI
Because the root privileges are not available to the GUI user, the system enables the
scalemgmt user to run the CLI commands. The GUI uses sudo wrappers to run the CLI
commands. The GUI installation adds the /etc/sudoers.d/scalemgmt_sudoers file, which
allows the scalemgmt user to run commands that match the /usr/lpp/mmfs/bin/mm wildcard.
2.6 Configuring the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI to use sudo

wrappers
The GUI can be configured to run on a cluster where remote root access is disabled and sudo
wrappers are used. On such a cluster, the GUI process still runs as root, but it issues SSH to
other nodes by using a user name, for which sudo wrappers were configured.
Make the following configuration changes to use the IBM Spectrum Scale management GUI
on a cluster where sudo wrappers are used:
1. Issue the mmchconfig sudoUser=gpfsadmin command to configure the user name.

2. Issue /usr/lpp/mmfs/gui/cli/runtask DAEMON_CONFIGURATION to refresh GUI
configuration.
Passwordless SSH is set up between the root user on the node where the GUI is running on
all the remote nodes in the cluster. The SSH calls are equivalent to SSH
gpfsadmin@destination-node. Therefore, it is not necessary to set up passwordless SSH
between gpfsadmin users on any two nodes.
The root user of the node where the GUI is running can do passwordless SSH to any other
node using the gpfsadmin user login. Therefore, unidirectional access from the GUI node to
the remote nodes as gpfsadmin user is sufficient.
Note: If sudo wrappers are enabled on the cluster but GUI is not configured for it, the
system raises an event.
2.7 Ensuring high availability of the GUI service

Multiple GUI nodes must be configured in the system to ensure high availability of the GUI
service. You also must set up a CCR when you plan to configure multiple GUI nodes in the
cluster. The CCR is used to store certain important configuration details that must be shared
among all GUI nodes.
A GUI high availability configuration with two GUI nodes is shown in Figure 2-3.
Figure 2-3 GUI high availability configuration
When configured for high availability, GUI nodes include the following main aspects:
򐂰 The GUI nodes are configured in the active/active configuration. Up to three GUI nodes
can be configured in a cluster. All GUI nodes are fully functional and can be used in
parallel.

򐂰 Each GUI has its own local configuration cache in PostgreSQL and collects configuration
changes individually.
򐂰 One GUI node is elected as the master node. This GUI instance exclusively performs tasks
that must be run only once in a cluster, such as running snapshot schedules and sending
email and SNMP notifications.
If services that are run on the master GUI node are configured, the environment for all the
GUI nodes must support these services on all nodes. For example, ensure that access to
SMTP and SNMP servers is possible from all GUI nodes and not only from the master GUI
node.
You can use the utility function that is shown in Example 2-3, which displays the current
master GUI node.
Example 2-3 Master GUI node

[root@gpfsgui-11 ~]# /usr/lpp/mmfs/gui/cli/lsnode
Hostname IP Description Role Product version Connection status GPFS status Last updated
gpfsgui-11.novalocal 10.0.100.12 Master GUI Node management,storage 4.2.4.0 HEALTHY HEALTHY 7/10/17 10:19 AM
gpfsgui-12.novalocal 10.0.100.13 storage,ces 4.2.4.0 HEALTHY HEALTHY 7/10/17 10:19 AM
gpfsgui-13.novalocal 10.0.100.14 storage,ces 4.2.4.0 HEALTHY HEALTHY 7/10/17 10:19 AM
򐂰 All GUI nodes are equal from the user’s perspective. If a GUI node fails, the user must
manually connect to the other GUI. The master role fails over automatically, but no failover
exists for the IP address of the other GUI server.
򐂰 Data that cannot be gathered from GPFS is stored in CCR as shared-cluster repository.
This type of data includes GUI users, groups and roles, snapshot schedules, email
notification settings, policy templates, and ACL templates.
򐂰 All GUI nodes must run on the same software level.
򐂰 If an external authentication method is used to store the GUI user details and authenticate
them, such as AD or LDAP, the AD/LDAP configuration must be done on all GUI nodes to
ensure high availability. If an internal authentication method is used, the GUI nodes get the
user information from the CCR.
򐂰 To display the performance monitoring information, a performance monitoring collector
must be installed on each GUI node, and these collectors must be in the federated mode.
The data collection from the sensors can be configured in such a way that the details are
sent to all collectors or only to a single collector.
You can configure the collector redundancy by modifying the colRedundancy option in
/opt/IBM/zimon/defaults/ZIMonSensors.cfg. For more information about how to ensure
collector redundancy, see IBM Knowledge Center.
򐂰 The Mark as Read operation can be performed on events that are stored locally on the
GUI node. The changes that are made to the events are not visible through the other GUI
node.
򐂰 Each GUI has its own local configuration cache and collects configuration changes
individually.
򐂰 A corrupted cache database affects only the local GUI; other GUIs continue working. Most
of the configuration changes are simultaneously reported in the GUIs. Some configuration
changes are gathered through the individually scheduled refresh tasks, which might result
in displaying unsynchronized information.

2.8 Node classes used for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI automatically creates the following node classes during the
installation:
򐂰 GUI_SERVERS: Contains all nodes with a server license and all the GUI nodes.
򐂰 GUI_MGMT_SERVERS: Contains all the GUI nodes.
Each node on which the GUI services are started is added to these node classes.
Note: These node classes must not be modified manually because the GUI regularly
checks and possibly updates the node class members.
2.9 Modifying the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI property file

The GUI stores some settings that can be adjusted in the following properties file:
/usr/lpp/mmfs/gui/conf/gpfsgui.properties
The properties file is not maintained over upgrades; therefore, modifications to this file must
be reapplied when the GUI is upgraded. Typically, this file does not need to be updated.
The important settings that can be modified in the properties file are listed in Table 2-3.
Table 2-3 Setting in the properties file

Setting Description
KEEP_LOG_INTERVAL=168 Defines the number of hours the logs must be kept

before they are discarded.
JDBC_DB_URL=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/postgres Sets the URL of the GUI owned postgres database.
MAX_ALLOWED_TIME_DIFF=60 Defines the maximum time difference (in seconds) that

is allowed between the GUI node and any other cluster
node before an event is triggered.
It is important to synchronize the time across the cluster

to ensure proper functioning of various features that are
configured in the system. You can use NTP or some
other similar function to synchronize time across the
cluster.
ZIMonAddress=localhost, ZIMonPort=9084 Sets the host name and port where the performance
collector service is running. The only supported
configuration is hosting the collector on the node where
the GUI is running.
GPFS_ADMIN=root Specifies the current GPFS admin user. On a system

with sudo wrappers enabled, it is automatically
changed to a selected sudoUser.

2.10 Distributed GUI preferences
In contrast to the GUI properties file, the GUI preferences are shared between two GUIs
through CCR and persist even after uninstalling or upgrading the GUI. These GUI preference
files start with “_gui” and can be viewed by using the mmccr flist command. The local
version of the GUI preferences is stored at /var/lib/mmfs/gui.
The distributed preferences contain various information that are needed in the distributed
environment such as user repository, LDAP and certificate settings, user account templates,
policies, and thresholds.
Note: Distributed GUI preferences must not be edited manually.
You can also use the Preferences tab in the Services → GUI page to set the following
options for the GUI node:
򐂰 Login message
A message that can be displayed in the login page of the management GUI. Usually, this
message is used to display some important information that must be shared with other
users. For example, “Do not alter snapshot configuration”, “To get access to the system,
please contact…… “, and so on. You can specify only up to 160 characters in the
message.
򐂰 Session timeout
The system automatically logs out the user after a specified period of inactivity.
򐂰 Display cluster name on the banner
You can enter a name for the cluster and display it on the banner.
Note: The settings that are made under the Preferences tab are stored centrally in
CCR. Therefore, the settings that are made for one GUI node are applicable to all GUI
nodes of the cluster.

3
Chapter 3. Understanding the GUI options

This chapter provides an overview of the basic options that are available in the IBM Spectrum
Scale GUI and includes the following topics:
򐂰 3.1, “Login” on page 24
򐂰 3.2, “Navigation” on page 25
򐂰 3.3, “Header area” on page 26
򐂰 3.4, “Assistance for understanding the features associated with a GUI page” on page 28

3.1 Login
The users who are created by using the Services → GUI → Users page can log in to the
GUI. When you log in for the first time after the installation, the GUI log in window guides you
through the process of how to create the first GUI user.
Figure 3-1 shows the login window.
Figure 3-1 Login window

3.2 Navigation
You can navigate to the various GUI pages by using the navigation menu on the left side of
the GUI window (see Figure 3-2). Each GUI page features a unique URL that you can use to
directly access the page, bookmark pages, and start the GUI in-context.
Figure 3-2 Navigation menu of the GUI
Note: The Object and Protocols menus are displayed only when these features are
enabled in the cluster.
Chapter 3. Understanding the GUI options 25

3.3 Header area
The header area provides the following details:
򐂰 A list of events of type tips, which provides recommendations to avoid certain issues in the
future (see Figure 3-3).
Figure 3-3 Type “tips”
򐂰 The health status of various services, which displays only events that are in the Warning or
Critical status (see Figure 3-4).
Figure 3-4 Health status of even (Warning or Critical status only)
򐂰 A link to the context-sensitive help page (see Figure 3-5). This help file provides a detailed
explanation of the features that are associated with the page. The context-sensitive help
files are available in the Help menu, which is in the upper-right corner of the GUI page.

Figure 3-5 Link to the context-sensitive help page
򐂰 A link to the IBM Spectrum Scale Knowledge Center is also available in the Help menu,
which is in the upper-right corner of the GUI page.
򐂰 The currently logged in user name, log out, and provide feedback options are available in
the user menu (see Figure 3-6).
Figure 3-6 Login information
򐂰 Connection indicators that show active data transfers between browser and the GUI
server (blue light indicates, “Loading”) and connection issues (yellow light indicates,
“Disconnected”), as shown in Figure 3-7.
Figure 3-7 Connection indicators
Chapter 3. Understanding the GUI options 27

3.4 Assistance for understanding the features associated with
a GUI page
The following levels of assistance are available for the GUI users:
򐂰 Hover help
When you hover the mouse over the tiny question mark next to the field label, the system
displays a brief description of the feature that is associated with that field. Hover help is
available only for the important and complex fields.
򐂰 Context-sensitive help
Provides a detailed explanation of the features that are associated with the page. The
context-sensitive help files are available in the Help menu, which is in the upper right
corner of the GUI page.
򐂰 IBM Spectrum Scale Knowledge Center
The IBM Knowledge Center provides the entire details of the product. A link to IBM
Spectrum Scale Knowledge Center is also available in the help menu, which is in the
upper-right corner of the GUI page.

4
Chapter 4. Monitoring options available in

the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
This chapter describes the various monitoring options that are available with the IBM
Spectrum Scale GUI and includes the following topics:
򐂰 4.1, “Monitoring performance” on page 30
򐂰 4.2, “Using the dashboard to view performance charts” on page 35
򐂰 4.3, “Monitoring waiters” on page 36
򐂰 4.4, “Monitoring capacity” on page 36
򐂰 4.5, “Monitoring system health” on page 39
򐂰 4.6, “Monitoring nodes” on page 41
򐂰 4.7, “Monitoring Transparent Cloud Tiering” on page 44
򐂰 4.8, “Monitoring Active File Management” on page 45
򐂰 4.9, “Monitoring file systems” on page 48
򐂰 4.10, “Monitoring filesets” on page 50
򐂰 4.11, “Monitoring pools” on page 51
򐂰 4.12, “Monitoring NSDs” on page 52
򐂰 4.13, “Monitoring networks by using GUI” on page 53
򐂰 4.14, “Monitoring remote cluster through GUI” on page 55
򐂰 4.15, “Monitoring thresholds” on page 58
򐂰 4.16, “Monitoring command audit log” on page 63

4.1 Monitoring performance
You can use the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI to monitor the status and historical trends of key
indicators. You can then use this data to help make decisions more quickly and efficiently.
Table 4-1 lists the performance monitoring options that are available in the IBM Spectrum
Scale GUI.
Table 4-1 Performance monitoring options

GUI page Function
Monitoring → Statistics Displays the performance of system resources and file and
Object Storage in various performance charts. You can
select the required charts and monitor the performance
based on the filter criteria. You can also pan and zoom charts
with detailed metrics and display past intervals.
Monitoring → Dashboards Provides an easy-to-read and real-time user interface that

shows a graphical representation of the status and historical
trends of key performance indicators. This view helps users
make more efficient decisions.
Nodes Provides an easy way to monitor the performance, health

status, and configuration aspects of all available nodes in the
IBM Spectrum Scale cluster.
Cluster → Network Provides the performance details, health status, and

configuration aspects of network components.
Files → File Systems Provides a detailed view of the performance, capacity, and
health aspects of individual file systems.
Storage → NSDs Provides a detailed view of the performance, capacity, and

health aspects of individual Network Shared Disks (NSDs).
Storage → Pools Provides a detailed view of the performance, capacity, and

health aspects of storage pools.
Files → Active File Management Provides a detailed view of the configuration, performance,
and health status of AFM cache relationship, AFM disaster
recovery (AFMDR) relationship, and gateway nodes.
Files → Filesets Provides a detailed view of the fileset and its capacity details.
Files → Transparent Cloud Tiering Provides insight into health, performance, and configuration
of the Transparent Cloud Tiering feature.
Protocols → NFS Exports Provides an overview of the performance aspects of the NFS
export.
Protocols → SMB Shares Provides an overview of the performance aspects of the SMB
shares.
The performance and capacity data are collected with the help of the following components:
򐂰 Sensors: The sensors are placed on all the nodes, and they share the data with the
collector. The sensors run on any node that is required to collect metrics.
򐂰 Collector: The collector collects data from the sensors. The metric collector must run at
least on one node to gather metrics from all the nodes that are running the associated
sensors. The metrics are stored in a database on the collector node.

The collector ensures aggregation of data when data gets older. The collector can run on
any node in the system. You can configure multiple collectors in the system. To configure
performance monitoring through the GUI, you must configure a collector on each GUI
node.
The performance monitoring configuration for the GUI is shown in Figure 4-1.
Figure 4-1 Performance monitoring configuration for the GUI
You can use the Services → Performance Monitoring page to configure sensors. You can
also use the mmperfmon command to configure the performance data collection through the
CLI. The GUI displays a subset of the available metrics that are available in the performance
monitoring tool.
The performance monitoring tool installation can have a single collector, or can consist of
multiple collectors to increase the scalability or the fault-tolerance of the performance
monitoring system. This latter configuration is referred to as “federation”.
You can configure the system to monitor the performance of the following functional areas in
the system:
򐂰 Network
򐂰 InfiniBand network
򐂰 System resources
򐂰 NSD server
򐂰 IBM Spectrum Scale client
򐂰 NFS
򐂰 SMB
򐂰 Object
򐂰 CTDB
򐂰 Transparent Cloud Tiering
򐂰 AFM
򐂰 Waiters
Note: The functional areas, such as NFS, SMB, Object, CTDB, and Transparent Cloud
Tiering, are available only if the feature is enabled in the system.
Chapter 4. Monitoring options available in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI 31

4.1.1 Display options in the Statistics page of the GUI
The Monitoring → Statistics page is used for selecting the attributes based on which
aspects of the performance of the system are monitored and comparing the performance
based on the selected metrics. You can monitor the performance aspects of local cluster and
remote clusters.
You can also use this page to monitor capacity. The customized charts that are marked as
favorite charts can be selected n when you add widgets in the dashboard. You can display
either or two charts at a time in the Statistics page.
The predefined performance charts and metrics help in investigating every node or any
specific node that is collecting the metrics. Figure 4-2 shows various configuration options
that are available in the Statistics page of the GUI.
Figure 4-2 Statistics page in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
Predefined charts can be selected from a predefined chart list. You can add charts to the
predefined list by clicking the Favorites button.
4.1.2 Display options in performance charts

The charting section displays the performance details based on various aspects. The GUI
provides a rich set of controls to view performance charts. You can use these controls to
perform the following actions on the charts that are displayed in the page:
򐂰 Zoom-in the chart by using the mouse wheel or resizing the timeline control. The y-axis is
automatically adjusted during zooming.
򐂰 Drag the chart or the timeline control at the bottom. The y-axis is automatically adjusted
during panning.

򐂰 Compare charts side by side. You can synchronize the y-axis and bind the x-axis. To
modify the x and y axes of the chart, click the configuration symbol that is next to the title
Statistics and select the wanted options.
򐂰 Link the timelines of the two charts together by using the display options that are available.
The Dashboard page helps to access all charts, which are predefined or custom-created
favorites.
4.1.3 Select performance and capacity metrics

To monitor the performance and capacity of the system, use the predefined charts or select
the appropriate metrics and create a chart, as shown in Figure 4-3.
Figure 4-3 List of predefined charts in the Statistics page

4.1.4 Create customized performance charts
Complete the following steps to create customized performance charts:
1. Click Edit in the menu to view the modification options. The performance and capacity
options appear, as shown in Figure 4-4.
Figure 4-4 Options to create a performance chart on the Statistics page
The performance metrics are grouped under the combination of resource types and
aggregation levels. The resource types determine the area from which the data is taken to
create the performance analysis and aggregation level determines the level at which the
data is aggregated.

The aggregation levels that are available for selection varies based on the resource type.
2. Select whether you need to monitor performance of the local cluster or remote cluster from
the Cluster field.
3. Select the required resource type from the Resource type field.
4. Select the aggregation level from the Aggregation level field.
5. Select the resource that you want to monitor.
6. Select the time frame for the performance data display.
7. Select the metrics that you want to be displayed on the performance chart.
8. Click Apply to apply the changes or Close to cancel the process.
4.2 Using the dashboard to view performance charts

The Monitoring → Dashboard page provides an easy-to-read, single-page, and real-time
user interface that provides a quick overview of the system performance. The dashboard
consists of several dashboard widgets and the associated favorite charts that can be
displayed within a chosen layout.
The following important widget types are available in the dashboard:

򐂰 Statistics
򐂰 File system capacity by fileset
򐂰 System health events
򐂰 System overview
򐂰 Filesets with the largest growth rate in last week
򐂰 Timeline
Figure 4-5 highlights the configuration options that are available in edit mode of the
dashboard.
Figure 4-5 Dashboard page in edit mode

4.2.1 Custom Dashboards
Select the Create Dashboard and Delete Dashboard options from the menu in the
upper-right corner of the Dashboard page to create and delete dashboards. The dashboards
are stored centrally in the cluster configuration repository (CCR). If several GUI nodes are
configured in a cluster, all the saved dashboards are available to all GUI users on all nodes.
When you open the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI after the installation or upgrade, you can see
the default dashboards that are included with the product. You also can modify or delete the
default dashboards to suit your requirements.
4.2.2 Display options

Select Display Options from the menu that is available in the upper-right corner of the
Dashboard GUI page to change the display options.
4.2.3 Widget options

Several dashboard widgets can be added in a selected dashboard layout. Select the Edit
Widgets option from the menu that is available on the upper-right corner of the Dashboard
GUI page to edit or remove widgets in the dashboard. You can also modify the size of the
widget in the edit mode. Use the Add Widget option that is available in the edit mode to add
widgets to the dashboard.
The widgets with type Performance list the charts that are marked as favorite charts in the
Statistics page of the GUI. Favorite charts (along with the predefined charts) can be selected
when you add widgets in the dashboard.
To create favorite charts, click the Star icon next to the chart title on the Monitoring →
Statistics page.
4.3 Monitoring waiters

The metrics that are related to waiters are collected on the cluster level. Different wait time
thresholds, such as 0.1s, 0.2s, 0.5s, 1s, 30s, and 60s can be selected. You can create charts
to monitor the waiters by selecting Waiters as the resource type in the Monitoring →
Statistics page.
4.4 Monitoring capacity

You can monitor the capacity of file system, pools, filesets, users, and user groups.
The capacity details that are displayed in the GUI are obtained from the following sources:
򐂰 GPFS quota database. The system collects the quota details for users, groups, and
filesets daily and stores them in the postgres database.
򐂰 Performance monitoring tool. The GUI queries the performance monitoring capacity and
displays capacity data in various pages in the GUI.
Based on the source of the capacity information, different procedures must be performed to
enable capacity and quota data collection.

For GPFS quota database and performance monitoring tool-based capacity and quota
collection, use the Files → Quotas page to enable quota data collection per file system and
enforce quota limit checking. If quota is not enabled for a file system, the following results can
occur:
򐂰 No capacity and inode data is collected for users, groups, and filesets.
򐂰 Quota limits for users, groups, and filesets cannot be defined.
򐂰 No alerts are sent, and the data writes are not restricted.
To enable capacity data collection from the performance monitoring tool, the
GPFSFilesetQuota sensor must be enabled. For more information about how to enable the
performance monitoring sensor for capacity data collection, see Manual installation of IBM
Spectrum Scale GUI in IBM Spectrum Scale: Concepts, Planning, and Installation Guide.
4.4.1 Capacity data obtained from the GPFS quota database

The capacity and quota information that is collected from the GPFS quota database is
displayed on the Files → Quotas and Files → User Capacity pages in the management
GUI:
򐂰 Files → Quotas page
Use quotas to control the allocation of files and data blocks in a file system. You can create
default, user, group, and fileset quotas on the Quotas page.
A quota is the amount of disk space and the amount of metadata that is assigned as upper
limits for a specified user, group of users, or fileset. Use the Actions menu to create or
modify quotas. The management GUI allows you to manage only capacity-related quota.
The inode-related quota management is possible in the command-line interface only.
You can specify a soft limit, a hard limit, or both. When you set a soft limit quota, a warning
is sent to the administrator when the file system is close to reaching its storage limit. A
grace period starts when the soft quota limit is reached. Data is written until the grace
period expires, or until the hard quota limit is reached. Grace time resets when used
capacity falls below the soft limit.
If you set a hard limit quota, you cannot save data after the quota is reached. If the quota
is exceeded, you must delete files or raise the quota limit to store more data.
Note: Consider the following points:

򐂰 User or user group quotas for filesets are supported only if the Per Fileset option is
enabled at the file system level. Use the command-line interface to set the option.
For more information, see the man pages of mmcrfs and mmchfs commands.
򐂰 You must unmount a file system to change the quota enablement method from per
file system to per fileset or vice versa.
You can set default user quotas at the file system level rather than defining user quotas
explicitly for each user. Default quota limits can be set for users. You can specify the
general quota collection scope, such as per file system or per fileset to define whether the
default quota must be defined at file system level or fileset level and set the default user
quota. After this value is set, all child objects that are created under the file system or
fileset are configured with the default soft and hard limits. You can assign a custom quota
limit to individual child objects, but the default limits remain the same unless changed at
the file system or fileset level.
After reconfiguring quota settings, it is recommended to run the mmcheckquota command
for the affected file system to verify the changes.

For more information about how to manage quotas, see the “Managing GPFS quotas”
section of IBM Spectrum Scale: Administration Guide.
Capacity data from users, groups, and filesets with no quota limit set are not listed in the
Quotas page. Use the Files → User Capacity page to see capacity information of such
users and groups. Use the Files → Filesets page to view current and historic capacity
information of filesets.
򐂰 Files → User Capacity page
The Files → User Capacity page provides predefined capacity reports for users and
groups. Although capacity information of file systems, pools, and filesets is available in the
respective areas of the GUI, the Files → User Capacity page is the only place where
information about used capacity per user or group is available.
The User Capacity page depends on the quota accounting method of the file system. You
must enable quota for a file system to display the user capacity data. If quota is not
enabled, you can follow the fix procedure in the Files → Quotas page or use the mmchfs
<Device> -Q yes CLI command to enable quota.
Even if the capacity limits are not set, the User Capacity page shows data when the quota
accounting is enabled, and users can start writing the data. This feature is different in the
Quotas page, where only users and groups with quota limits that are defined are listed.
The user and group capacity quota information is automatically collected once per day by
the GUI.
For users and user groups, you can see the total capacity and whether quotas are set for
these objects. You can also see the percentage of soft limit and hard limit usage. When
the hard limit is exceeded, no other files that belong to the respective user, user group, or
fileset can be written. However, exceeding the hard limit allows a certain grace period
before disallowing more file writes. Soft and hard limits for disk capacity are measured in
units of kilobytes (KiB), megabytes (MiB), or gigabytes (GiB). Use the Files → Quotas
page to change the quota limits.
4.4.2 Capacity data collected through the performance monitoring tool

The historical capacity data collection for file systems, pools, and filesets depend on the
correctly configured data collection sensors for fileset quota and disk capacity. When the IBM
Spectrum Scale system is installed through the installation toolkit, the capacity data collection
is configured by default. In other cases, you need to enable capacity sensors manually.
If capacity data collection is not configured correctly, you can use mmperfmon CLI command or
the Services → Performance Monitoring → Sensors page.
The Services → Performance Monitoring → Sensors page allows to view and edit the
sensor settings. By default, the collection periods of capacity collection sensors are set to
collect data with a period of up to one day. Therefore, it might take a while until the data is
refreshed in the GUI.
The following sensors are collecting capacity-related information and are used by the GUI:
GPFSDiskCap NSD, Pool, and File System level capacity. Uses the mmdf command in
the background and typically runs once per day because it is
resource-intensive. Should be restricted to run on a single node only.
GPFSPool Pool and file system level capacity. Requires a mounted file system
and typically runs every 5 minutes. Should be restricted to run on a
single node only.

GPFSFilesetQuota Fileset capacity based on the quota collection mechanism. Typically,
runs every hour. Should be restricted to run only on a single node.
GPFSFileset Inode space (independent fileset) capacity and limits. Typically runs
every 5 minutes. Should be restricted to run only on a single node.
DiskFree Overall capacity and local node capacity. Can run on every node
4.4.3 Capacity information for file systems, pools, NSDs, and filesets
The Monitoring → Statistics page helps to create customized capacity reports for file
systems, pools, and filesets. You can store these reports as favorites and add them to the
dashboard.
The dedicated GUI pages combine information about configuration, health, performance, and
capacity in one place. The following GUI pages provide the corresponding capacity views:
򐂰 Files → File Systems
򐂰 Files → Filesets
򐂰 Storage → Pools
򐂰 Storage → NSDs
The Filesets grid and details depend on quota that is obtained from the GPFS quota database
and the performance monitoring sensor GPFSFilesetQuota. If quota is disabled, the system
displays a warning message in the Filesets page.
4.4.4 Viewing the capacity for licensing

You can use capacity-based licensing to license IBM Spectrum Scale based on the storage
capacity that is managed in an IBM Spectrum Scale cluster. The storage capacity to be
licensed is the capacity in terabytes (TiB) under all NSDs in the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster.
You can view the cluster capacity for licensing by selecting the About option from the menu
that is available in the upper-right corner of the management GUI.
4.5 Monitoring system health

The system health monitoring options that are available in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI are
listed in Table 4-2.
Table 4-2 System health monitoring options available in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
GUI page Function
Monitoring → Events Lists the events that are reported in the system. You can monitor and
troubleshoot errors on your system on the Events page.
Monitoring → Tips Lists the events of type tips, which provide recommendations about
certain events that might occur in the future.
Home Provides the overall system health of the IBM Spectrum Scale system.
Monitoring Displays the health status of nodes and lists the events that are reported
at the node level.
Cluster → Network Displays health status and configuration aspects of all available networks
and interfaces that are part of the networks.

GUI page Function
Files → File Systems Displays the health status of file systems and lists the events that are
reported at the file system level.
Files → Filesets Displays the health status of filesets and lists the events that are reported
at the fileset level.
Files → Transparent Cloud Tiering Lists the events that are reported for the Transparent Cloud Tiering
service. The GUI displays this page only if the Transparent Cloud Tiering
feature is enabled in the system.
Files → Active File Management Displays health status and lists events that are reported for AFM cache
relationship, AFM disaster recovery (AFMDR) relationship, and gateway
nodes.
Storage → Pools Displays health status and lists events that are reported for storage
pools.
Storage → NSDs Displays health status of NSDs and lists the events that are reported at
the NSD level.
Monitoring → Command Audit Log Displays a record of various actions that are performed on the system.
This information helps the system administrator to audit the commands
and tasks that are performed by the administrators. These logs can also
be used to troubleshoot issues that are reported in the system.
Health indicator (available in the Displays the number of events with warning and critical status that are
upper-right corner of the GUI) specific to each component.
System overview widget in the Displays the number of events that were reported against each
Monitoring → Dashboard page component.
System health events widget in the Provides an overview of the warning and error events that are reported
Monitoring → Dashboard page in the system.
Timeline widget in the Monitoring → Displays the events that are reported in a selected time frame on the
Dashboard page selected performance chart.

4.6 Monitoring nodes
The Nodes page provides options to monitor the performance, health status, and
configuration aspects of the respective components that are shown in Figure 4-6.
Figure 4-6 Nodes page
The properties of a node display the status of various CES services, such as Object, NFS,
and SMB and the authentication status of these services if they are enabled. It also displays
other details, such as network status and information about attached NSDs and file systems.
4.6.1 Nodes tables

The following nodes tables provide a prefiltered view on nodes, each with specific information:
򐂰 All nodes
Shows all nodes in the cluster and provides information about node roles, services, node
health, and basic performance information about system and IBM Spectrum Scale client
level.
򐂰 NSD server nodes
Shows all nodes that are NSD servers with specific performance information that is related
to NSDs. If no NSD servers are in the cluster, this table is not displayed.
򐂰 Protocol nodes
Shows all protocol nodes. Specific performance and health information that is related to
protocol services is displayed in this table. If no protocol nodes are in the cluster, this table
is not displayed.
You can customize the nodes tables individually by adding or removing columns by using the
Customize Columns feature.
You can use the Set Attributes option that is available in the Actions menu to set the node
attributes, such as site, room, and rack on any of the views. You can set attributes of multiple
nodes at a time. The attributes can be used to filter nodes in the nodes view.

The health status information of each service and component can have the following values:
򐂰 Healthy: The component is working as expected.
򐂰 Disabled: The component is not enabled.
򐂰 Suspended: When a CES is in the suspended state, most components also report as
suspended.
򐂰 Starting: The component (or monitor) was recently started. This transient state is updated
after the startup is complete.
򐂰 Unknown: Something is preventing the monitoring from determining the state of the
component.
򐂰 Stopped: The component was intentionally stopped. This situation might occur briefly if a
service is restarted because of a configuration change. It might also occur if a user issues
the mmces service stop protocol command for a node.
򐂰 Degraded: A problem occurred with the component that is not a complete failure. This
state does not cause the CES addresses to be reassigned.
򐂰 Failed: The monitoring detected a significant problem with the component that means it is
unable to function correctly. This state causes the CES addresses of the node to be
reassigned.
򐂰 Dependency failed: This state implies that a component has a dependency that is in a
failed state; for example, an NFS or SMB service shows Dependency failed if
authentication is failed.
4.6.2 Performance monitoring of nodes

The Nodes page provides the following options to analyze the performance of nodes:
򐂰 A quick view gives the number of nodes in the system and the overall performance of
nodes based on CPU and memory usages. You can access this view by selecting the
Expand button that is next to the title of the page. You can close this view if not required.
Many graphs in the overview show the three nodes that feature the highest average
performance metric over a past period. These graphs are refreshed regularly. The refresh
intervals of the top three entities are depended on the displayed time frame:
– Every minute for the 5-minute time frame
– Every 15 minutes for the 1-hour time frame
– Every six hours for the 24-hour time frame
– Every two days for the 7-day time frame
– Every seven days for the 30-day time frame
– Every four months for the 365-day time frame
򐂰 A nodes table displays many different performance metrics. To find nodes with extreme
values, you can sort the values that are displayed in the nodes table by different
performance metrics. Click the performance metric in the table header to sort the data
based on that metric.
You can select the time range that determines the averaging of the values that are
displayed in the table and the time range of the charts in the overview from the time range
selector. This control is in the upper right corner. The metrics in the table do not update
automatically. Use the Refresh button that is above the table to refresh the table content
with more recent data.
򐂰 A detailed view of the performance and health aspects of individual nodes is available on
the Nodes page. Select the node for which you need to view the performance details and
select View Details. The system displays various performance charts in the right pane.

The detailed performance view helps to drill-down to various performance aspects. The
following performance details can be obtained from each tab of the performance view:
򐂰 The Overview tab provides a performance chart for the following information:
– Client IOPS
– Client data rate
– Server data rate
– Server IOPS
– Network
– CPU
– Load
– Memory
򐂰 The Events tab can be used to monitor the events that are reported in the node. Similar to
the Events page, you can also perform the operations like marking events as read and
running fix procedure from the Events tab. Only the current issues are displayed in this
view. The Monitoring → Events page displays the entire set of events that are reported in
the system.
򐂰 The File Systems tab provides performance details of the file systems that are mounted on
the node. The file system’s read or write throughput, average read or write transactions
size, and file system read or write latency are also available.
You can also mount or unmount individual file systems or multiple file systems on the
selected node. For more information, see 5.2, “Mounting a file system through the GUI” on
page 66 and 5.3, “Unmounting a file system by using the GUI” on page 67.
򐂰 The NSD tab provides the status of the disks that are attached to the node. The NSD tab
is displayed only when the node is configured as an NSD server.
򐂰 The SMB and NFS tabs provide the performance details of the SMB and NFS services
that are hosted on the node. These tabs appear in the chart only when the node is
configured as a protocol node.
򐂰 The Network tab displays the network performance details.
򐂰 The AFM tab displays the details of the AFM and AFM DR relationships for which the node
is configured as a gateway node.
򐂰 The Properties tab provides an overview of the node-related attributes. You can also use
the Prevent file system mounts option to allow or prevent file systems from mounting the
node.
4.6.3 Creating and managing user-defined node classes

Node classes are used to group nodes. It helps you to select only the required set of nodes
when you want to limit the scope of certain administrative tasks. The following types of node
classes can be defined in the IBM Spectrum Scale system:
򐂰 System node classes
򐂰 User-defined node classes
The system node classes are hardcoded, but you can create user-defined node classes by
using the Nodes → Node Classes → Create Node Class option in the IBM Spectrum
Scale GUI. While creating a node class, consider the following points:
򐂰 The name of the new node class must be different from the name of the existing nodes or
node classes.
򐂰 You can add individual nodes and other existing node classes in a new node class from
the All Nodes and Node Classes tabs of the Create Node Class window.

򐂰 When you add a node class in the new node class, the nodes that are part of the existing
node class become part of the new node class. When nodes are added or removed in the
existing node class later, those changes also are applied to the new node class.
Use the Modify option to change the node class name and nodes and node classes that are
part of a node class. You cannot modify system node classes.
Use the Delete option to delete the user-defined node class. You cannot delete the system
node classes.
4.7 Monitoring Transparent Cloud Tiering

Transparent Cloud Tiering is a separately installable feature of IBM Spectrum Scale that
provides a native cloud storage tier. It allows data center administrators to free on-premises
storage capacity by moving out cooler data to the cloud storage. Freeing storage capacity
helps to reduce capital and operational expenditures.
The Transparent Cloud Tiering feature uses the ILM policy query language semantics. The
system administrators can define policies to tier data to a cloud storage.
On an IBM Spectrum Scale cluster with multiple storage tiers configured, this external cloud
storage can be used as the cooler storage tier to store infrequently accessed data from a cool
storage pool. Because of performance reasons, avoid moving any active or hot data to this
external storage pool because it drives excessive data traffic that results in delays and
application timeouts.
Transparent Cloud Tiering service features the following core functions:

򐂰 Migrate: Migrates the specified files or filesets to the cloud storage tier.
򐂰 Recall: Recalls the specified files or filesets from the cloud storage tier.
򐂰 Remove: Deletes the cloud storage tier.
The Files → Transparent Cloud Tiering page (see Figure 4-7) provides performance and
health information charts about the Transparent Cloud Tiering service.
Figure 4-7 Transparent Cloud Tiering page

The following tabs are available on this page:
򐂰 Overview: Displays the aggregated data of all file systems and nodes that are associated
with a particular cloud provider.
򐂰 Events: Displays events that are associated with the Transparent Cloud Tiering service.
򐂰 Nodes: Lists the node on which the cloud services are installed. The cloud services, such
as Transparent Cloud Tiering, cloud data sharing, or both, can be activated on this node.
򐂰 File Systems: Displays the details of the file systems that are mapped with the Transparent
Cloud Tiering service.
You can select a line chart or a bar chart to display the details. The line chart shows an
average rate, whereas the bar chart shows aggregated data. For example, the aggregate
view can be used by administrators to see how much data was transferred in one day.
4.8 Monitoring Active File Management

The Files → Active File Management page provides an easy way to monitor the
performance, health status, and configuration aspects of the Active File Management and
Active File Management disaster recovery relationships in the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster. It
also provides details of the gateway nodes that are part of the Active File Management or
Active File Management disaster recover relationships.
The GUI combines the following sources on the cache or primary side:
򐂰 Active File Management sensors from the performance monitoring tool
򐂰 Health status and events from the mmhealth component
򐂰 Active File Management configuration information
The Active File Management GUI architecture is shown in Figure 4-8.
Figure 4-8 Active File Management GUI architecture

The Active File Management page of the GUI is shown in Figure 4-9.
Figure 4-9 The Active File Management GUI
The following options are available to monitor Active File Management and Active File
Management disaster recovery relationships and gateway nodes:
򐂰 A quick view gives the details of top relationships between cache and home sites in an
Active File Management or Active File Management disaster recovery relationship. It also
provides the performance information for gateway nodes that are by used memory and the
number of queued messages. The graphs that are displayed in the quick view are
refreshed regularly. The refresh intervals depend on the following selected time frame:
– Every 6 hours for the 24-hour time frame
򐂰 Different performance metrics and configuration details display in the tabular format. The
following tables are available:
– Cache
Provides the information about configuration, health, and performance of the Active
File Management feature that is configured for data caching and replication.
– Disaster Recovery
Provides information about configuration, health, and performance of Active File
Management disaster recovery configuration in the cluster.
– Gateway Nodes
Provide details of the nodes that are designated as the gateway node in the Active File
Management or Active File Management disaster recovery configuration.
To find an Active File Management or Active File Management disaster recovery
relationship or a gateway node with extreme values, sort the values that are displayed on
the table by different attributes. Click the performance metric in the table header to sort the
data based on that metric.

selector, which is placed in the upper right corner. The metrics in the table do not update
automatically. You can refresh the table with more recent data by clicking the Refresh
button that is above the table.
򐂰 A detailed view of the performance and health aspects of the individual Active File
Management or Active File Management disaster recovery relationship or gateway node is
available. To see the detailed view, double-click the row that lists the relationship or
gateway node of which you need to view the details, or select the item from the table and
click View Details.
The following details are available for each item:
– Cache:
• Overview: Provides the number of available cache inodes and displays charts that
show the amount of data that is transferred, data backlog, and memory that is used
for the queue.
• Events: Provides details of the system health events that are reported for the Active
File Management component.
• Snapshots: Provides details of the snapshots that are available for the Active File
Management fileset. The snapshots are taken for backup purposes. The snapshot
that is taken in the Active File Management cache relationship is called a peer
snapshot. It functions in the same way as the GPFS snapshots. When a snapshot is
taken on the cache site, it also propagates the request to take a snapshot of the
home.
• Gateway Nodes: Provides details of the nodes that are configured as gateway node
in the Active File Management configuration.
– Disaster recovery:
• Overview: Provides the number of available primary inodes and displays charts that
show the amount of data that is transferred, data backlog, and memory that are
used for the queue.
• Events: Provides details of the system health events that are reported for the Active
File Management component.
• Snapshots: Provides details of the snapshots that are available for the AFM fileset.
The snapshots that are taken in the Active File Management disaster recover are
called recovery point objective (RPO) snapshots. These peer snapshots are taken
at the same time on the primary and the secondary sites.
• Gateway Nodes: Provides details of the nodes that are configured as gateway node
in the Active File Management configuration.
– Gateway Nodes:
The details of gateway nodes are available under the following tabs. The same details
are available in the Nodes page.
The Overview tab provides performance chart for the following information:
• Client IOPS
• Client data rate
• Server data rate
• Server IOPS
• Network
• CPU
• Load
• Memory

The Events tab provides details of the events that are reported in the node. Similar to
the Events page, you can perform the operations, such as marking events as read and
running fix procedures from this events view. Only current issues are shown in this
view. The Monitoring → Events page displays the entire set of events that are
reported in the system.
The File Systems tab provides performance details of the file systems that are
mounted on the node. The file systems’ read or write throughput, average read or write
transactions size, and file system read or write latency are also available. Use the
Mount File System or Unmount File System option to mount or unmount individual
file systems or multiple file systems on the selected node. The nodes on which the file
system are mounted or unmounted can be selected individually from the list of nodes
or based on node classes.
The NSD tab provides status of the disks that are attached to the node. The NSD tab
appears only if the node is configured as an NSD server.
The SMB and NFS tabs provide the performance details of the SMB and NFS services
that are hosted on the node. These tabs appear in the chart only if the node is
configured as a protocol node.
The AFM tab provides details of the configuration and status of the Active File
Management and Active File Management disaster recovery relationships for which the
node is configured as the gateway node.
The Network tab displays the network performance details.
The Properties tab displays the basic attributes of the node. You can use the Prevent
file system mounts option to specify whether you can prevent file systems from
mounting on the node.
4.9 Monitoring file systems

The Files → File Systems page (see Figure 4-10) provides options to monitor the
performance, health status, and configuration aspects of the all available file systems in the
Figure 4-10 File Systems page

The following options are available to analyze the file system performance:
򐂰 A quick view gives the number of protocol nodes, NSD servers, and NSDs that are part of
the available file systems that are mounted on the GUI server. It also provides overall
capacity and total throughput details of these file systems. You can access this view by
selecting the Expand button next to the title of the page. You can close this view if it is not
required.
The graphs displayed in the quick view are refreshed regularly. The refresh intervals are
depend on the following displayed time frames:
– Every six hours for the 24-hour time frame
򐂰 A file systems table displays many different performance metrics. To find file systems with
extreme values, you can sort the values that are displayed in the file systems table by
using the different performance metrics. Click the performance metric in the table header
to sort the data based on that metric.
selector. This control is in the upper-right corner. The metrics in the table do not update
automatically. You can use the Refresh button that is above the table to refresh the table
with more recent data.
򐂰 A detailed view of the performance and health aspects of individual file systems is
available. To see the detailed view, double-click the file system for which you need to view
the details, or select the file system and click View Details.
The detailed performance view allows you to drill down to various performance aspects.
The following performance details can be obtained from each tab of the performance view:
– Overview: Provides an overview of the file system performance.
– Events: System health events that are reported for the file system.
– NSDs: Details of the NSDs that are part of the file system.
– Pools: Details of the pools that are part of the file system.
– Nodes: Details of the nodes on which the file system is mounted. You can also perform
the tasks, such as mount file system, unmount file system, and specify whether to
automatically mount file system if GPFS daemon starts or prevent any mounts of this
file system on selected nodes.
– Filesets: Details of the filesets that are part of the file system.
– NFS: Details of the NFS exports that were created in the file system.
– SMB: Details of the SMB shares that were created in the file system.
– Object: Details of the IBM Spectrum Scale Object Storage on the file system.
– Properties: Provides details of the file system attributes. You can also use the
Automatic mount option to configure the automatic mount mode of the file system.

4.10 Monitoring filesets
The Files → Filesets page (see Figure 4-11) provides an easy way to monitor the
performance, health status, and configuration aspects of all available filesets in the IBM
Spectrum Scale cluster.
Figure 4-11 Filesets page in the detailed view
The following options are available to view the fileset details:

򐂰 A fileset table displays the details of the filesets that are available in the system. You can
sort the values that are displayed in the filesets table by different attributes. Click the
column header in the table to sort the data based on that attribute.
򐂰 An overview section that displays the fileset size and growth rates in graphical format. If
you enabled quota accounting and the GPFSFilesetQuota sensor is active, you can view
reports on fileset size distribution, absolute and relative growth, and growth rates by size
range. You can change the observed time frame from the upper right corner of the display.
The fileset display interacts with the filesets table so that selection in the graphical display
correlates to the selection in the table.
򐂰 A detailed view of the performance and health aspects of individual filesets is available. To
see the detailed view, double-click the fileset for which you need to view the details, or
select the fileset and click View Details.
The detailed view allows you to drill down to various performance, health, and
configuration aspects. The following details can be obtained from each tab of the
performance view:
– Overview: Provides an overview of the fileset capacity, inodes, and quota limits.
– Events: System health events that are reported for the fileset.
– NFS: Details about the NFS exports that were created in the fileset.
– SMB: Details about the SMB shares that were created in the fileset.
– Object: Details of the Object Storage policy that is mapped to the fileset. When objects
are uploaded to a container, they are stored in the fileset that is associated with the
container’s storage policy.
– Properties: Provides details of the fileset attributes.

4.11 Monitoring pools
The Storage → Pools page (see Figure 4-12) provides options to monitor the performance,
health status, and configuration aspects of the all available pools in the IBM Spectrum Scale
cluster. The GUI shows a table of all internal pools in a cluster.
Figure 4-12 Pools page in the detailed view
The systems pools contain metadata for the entire file system. Therefore, the GUI shows
separate lines for the system pool, depending on the usage type of the NSDs in the system
pool. If the system pool of a file system is used only for storing metadata, the GUI shows one
row of details. If the system pool consists of NSDs that are of type metadataOnly and
dataOnly, the GUI shows two rows with separate data. The detailed views for this pool also
show separate performance and capacity information in the overview and NSD sections.
The following options are available to analyze the pools performance:

򐂰 A pools table displays many different performance metrics. To find pools with extreme
values, you can sort the values that are displayed in the pools table by different
performance metrics. Click the performance metric in the table header to sort the data
based on that metric.
selector. This control is in the upper right corner. The metrics in the table do not update
automatically. You can refresh the table with more recent data by clicking the Refresh
button that is above the table.
򐂰 A detailed view of the performance and health aspects of individual pools is available. To
see the detailed view, double-click the pool for which you need to view the details, or select
the pool and click View Details.
The detailed performance view allows you to drill down to various performance aspects.
The following performance details can be obtained from each tab of the performance view:
– Overview: Provides an overview of the pools performance.
– Events: Provide details of the system health events reported for the file system.
– NSDs: Gives details of the NSDs that are part of the file system.
– Properties: Provides an overview of the pool’s properties.

4.12 Monitoring NSDs
The Storage → NSDs page (see Figure 4-13) provides an easy way to monitor the
performance, health status, and configuration aspects of the all NSDs that are available in the
Figure 4-13 NSDs page
An NSD is a logical grouping of storage disks in a network on file storage systems. It provides
a method for cluster-wide disk naming and high-speed access to data for applications that are
running on nodes that do not have direct access to the disks.
The NSDs in the cluster might be physically attached to all nodes or serve their data through
an NSD server that provides a virtual connection. You can specify up to eight NSD servers for
each NSD. If one server fails, the next server in the list takes control from the failed node.
Each NSD server must have physical access to the same NSD. However, different servers
can serve I/O to different non-intersecting sets of clients. The subnet functions in IBM
Spectrum Scale determine which NSD server must serve a particular IBM Spectrum Scale
client.
The following options are available in the NSDs page to analyze the NSD performance, health
status, and configuration details:
򐂰 An NSD table displays the available NSDs and many different performance metrics. To
find NSDs with extreme values, you can sort the values that are displayed in the table by
different performance metrics. Click the performance metric in the table header to sort the
data based on that metric.
displayed in the table from the time range selector. This control is in the upper-right corner.
The metrics in the table are refreshed based on the selected time frame. You can refresh it
manually to view the latest data.
򐂰 A detailed view of the performance and health aspects of individual NSDs is also available
in the NSDs page. Select the NSD for which you need to view the performance details and
click View Details. The system displays details of the NSD on the right pane.
The detailed view allows you to drill down to various performance and configuration
aspects. The following details can be obtained from each tab of the detailed view:
– Overview: Provides an overview of the NSD performance details.
– Events: Reports system health events for the NSD.

– Nodes: Gives details of the nodes that serve the NSDs.
– Properties: Provides an overview of the NSD-related attributes. This tab does not
provide any performance details.
Note: NSD performance metrics are not collected if the client is running on the NSD
server. Therefore, the GUI does not display all SAN environments or workload from local
clients.
4.13 Monitoring networks by using GUI

The Cluster → Network page (see Figure 4-14) provides an easy way to monitor the
performance, health status, and configuration aspects of all available networks and interfaces
that are part of the networks.
Figure 4-14 Network page
A dedicated network is used within the cluster for certain operations. For example, the system
uses the administration network when an administration command is issued. It is also used
for sharing administration-related information. This network is used for node-to-node
communication within the cluster.
The daemon network is used for sharing file system or other resources data. Remote clusters
also establish communication path through the daemon network. Similarly, the dedicated
network types like CES network and external network can also be configured in the cluster.
The performance of network is monitored by monitoring the data transfer managed through
the respective interfaces. The following types of network interfaces can be monitored through
the GUI:
򐂰 IP interfaces on Ethernet and InfiniBand adapters.
򐂰 Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) interfaces on InfiniBand adapters with Open
Fabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) drivers.

The GUI retrieves performance data from the performance monitoring tool. The
IP-adapter-based metrics are taken from the Network sensor and the RDMA metrics are
taken from the InfiniBand sensor. If no performance data appears in the GUI, verify that the
monitoring tool is correctly set up and that these two sensors are enabled.
The Network page also exposes adapters and IPs that are not bound to a service to provide a
full view of the network activity on a node.
The details of the networks and their components can be obtained both in graphical and
tabular formats. The Network page provides the following options to analyze the performance
and status of networks and adapters:
򐂰 A quick view that gives graphical representation of overall IP throughput, overall RDMA
throughput, IP interfaces by bytes sent and received, and RDMA interfaces by bytes sent
and received. You can access this view by selecting the expand button that is next to the
title of the page. You can close this view if not required.
Graphs in the overview are refreshed regularly. The refresh intervals of the top three
entities are depended on the following displayed time frames:
– Every minute for the 5-minutes time frame
– Every 6 hours for the 24-hour time frame
If you click a block in the IP interfaces charts, the corresponding details are displayed in
the IP interfaces table. The table is filtered by the IP interfaces that are part of the selected
block. You can remove the filter by clicking the link that appears above the table header
row.
򐂰 A table that provides the following performance metrics that are available under the
following tabs of the table:
– IP Interfaces: Shows all network interfaces that are part of the Ethernet and InfiniBand
networks in the cluster. To view performance details in graphical format or to see that
the events reported against the individual adapter, select the adapter in the table and
then select Actions → View Details.
– RDMA Interfaces: Shows the details of the InfiniBand RDMA networks that are
configured in the cluster. To view performance details in graphical format or to see that
the events reported against the individual adapter, select the adapter in the table and
then select Actions → View Details.
The system displays the RDMA Interfaces tab only if there are RDMA interfaces
available.
– Networks: Shows all networks in the cluster and provides information on network
types, health status, and number of nodes and adapters that are part of the network.
– IP Addresses: Lists all IP addresses that are configured in the cluster.
To find networks or adapters with extreme values, you can sort the values that are
displayed in the tables by different performance metrics. Click the performance metric in
the table header to sort the data based on that metric. You can select the time range that
determines the averaging of the values that are displayed in the table and the time range
of the charts in the overview from the time range selector, which is in the upper right
corner. The metrics in the table do not update automatically. Click the Refresh button that
is above the table to refresh the table content with more recent data.

򐂰 A detailed view of performance aspects and events reported against each adapter. To
access this view, select the adapter in the table and then select Actions → View Details.
The detailed view is available for both IP and RDMA interfaces.
4.14 Monitoring remote cluster through GUI

The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI can monitor and manage a single cluster. Cluster setups exist
in which multiple clusters exchange data through AFM or cross cluster mounts. To provide
consolidated monitoring of multiple clusters by using the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI,
monitoring information can be exchanged among GUI nodes of different clusters.
By establishing a connection between the GUI nodes, both the clusters can monitor the other
cluster. To enable remote monitoring capability among clusters, the release-level of the GUI
nodes that are communicating with each other must be 5.0.0 or later.
To establish a connection with the remote cluster, complete the following steps:
1. Complete the following steps on the local cluster to raise the access request:
a. Click Cluster → Remote Connections.
b. Select the Request Access option that is available under the Outgoing Requests tab
to raise the request for access.
c. In the Request Remote Cluster Access dialog, enter an alias for the remote cluster
name and specify the GUI nodes to which the local GUI node must establish the
connection.
d. If you know the credentials of the security administrator of the remote cluster, you can
also add the user name and password of the remote cluster administrator and skip step
2.
e. Click Send to submit the request.
2. Complete the following steps on the remote cluster to grant access:
a. When the request for connection is received in, the GUI displays the details of the
request in the Cluster → Remote Connections → Incoming Requests page.
b. Select Grant Access to grant the permission and establish the connection.
Now, the requesting cluster GUI can monitor the remote cluster. To enable both clusters to
monitor each other, repeat the procedure with reversed roles through the respective GUIs.
Note: Only the GUI user with Security Administrator role can grant access to the remote
connection requests.
You can see the details of the connections established with the remote clusters under the
Remote Cluster tab.

The remote cluster monitoring options that are available in the GUI are listed in Table 4-3.
Table 4-3 Remote cluster monitoring options available in GUI

GUI option Description
Home The Remote clusters grouping shows the

following details:
򐂰 Number of remote clusters that are
connected to the resource cluster.
򐂰 Number of file systems that are mounted on
the local nodes.
򐂰 Number of local nodes on which the remote
file systems are mounted.
Files → File Systems The grid view provides the following remote
cluster monitoring details:
򐂰 Whether the file system is mounted on a
remote cluster.
򐂰 Capacity information.
򐂰 Number of local nodes on which the file
system is mounted.
򐂰 Performance details.
򐂰 Pools, NSDs, filesets, and snapshots.
Files → File Systems → View Details → Provides the details of the remote cluster nodes
Remote Nodes where the local file system
Files → Filesets The Remote Fileset column in the filesets grid

shows whether the fileset belongs to a remote file
system.
The fileset table also displays the same level of

details for both remote and local filesets; for
example, capacity, parent file system, inodes,
AFM role, and snapshots.
Files → Active File Management When remote monitoring is enabled, you can
view the following AFM details:
򐂰 On home and secondary, you can see the
AFM relationships configuration, health
status, and performance values of the Cache
and Disaster Recovery grids.
򐂰 On the Overview tab of the detailed view, the
available home and secondary inodes are
available.
򐂰 On the Overview tab of the detailed view, the
details such as NFS throughput, IOPs, and
latency details are available, if the protocol is
NFS.
Files → Quotas When remote monitoring is enabled, you can

view quota limits, capacity, and inode information
for users, groups, and filesets of a file system that
is mounted from a remote cluster. The user and
group name resolution of the remote cluster is
used in this view. It is not possible to change
quota limits on a file system that is mounted from
a remote cluster.

GUI option Description
Cluster → Remote Connections Provides the following options:

򐂰 Send a connection request to a remote
cluster.
򐂰 Grant or reject the connection requests
received from remote clusters.
򐂰 View the details of the remote clusters that
are connected to the local cluster.
Monitoring → Statistics and Monitoring → You can create customized performance charts
Dashboard to monitor the remote cluster performance. For
more information, see “Monitoring performance
of the remote cluster”.
Monitoring performance of the remote cluster

You can monitor the performance of the remote cluster with the help of performance
monitoring tools that are configured in the remote and local clusters. The performance details
that are collected in the remote cluster is shared with the local cluster by using REST APIs.
After establishing the connection with the remote cluster by using the Cluster → Remote
Connections page, you can access the performance details of the remote cluster from the
following GUI pages:
򐂰 Monitoring → Statistics
򐂰 Monitoring → Dashboard
To monitor performance details of the remote cluster in the Statistics page, you must create
customized performance charts by completing the following steps:
1. Access the edit mode by clicking the icon that is available in the upper right corner of the
performance chart and select Edit.
2. In the edit mode, select the remote cluster to be monitored from the Cluster field. You can
select the local cluster or remote cluster from this field.
3. Select Resource type. The data is taken from this area to create the performance
analysis.
4. Select Aggregation level. This level determines the level at which the data is aggregated.
The aggregation levels that are available for selection varies based on the resource type.
5. Select the entities that must be graphed. The table lists all entities that are available for the
chosen resource type and aggregation level. When a metric is selected, you can also see
the selected metrics in the same grid and use methods, such as sorting, filtering, or
adjusting the time frame to select the entities that you want to select.
6. Select Metrics. These metrics are the type of data that must be included in the
performance chart. The list of metrics that is available for selection varies based on the
resource type and aggregation type.
7. Click Apply to create the customized chart.
After creating the customized performance chart, you can mark it as favorite charts so that
they are displayed on the Dashboard page.
If a file system is mounted on the remote cluster nodes, the performance details of such
remote cluster nodes are available in the Remote Nodes tab of the detailed view of file
systems in the Files → File Systems page.

4.15 Monitoring thresholds
You can configure the IBM Spectrum Scale to raise events when certain thresholds are
reached. Use the Monitoring → Thresholds page to define or modify thresholds for the
data that is collected through the performance monitoring sensors.
You can set the following types of threshold levels for data collected through performance
monitoring sensors:
򐂰 Warning level
When the data that is monitored reaches the warning level, the system raises an event
with severity Warning. When the observed value exceeds the current threshold level, the
system removes the warning.
򐂰 Error level
When the data that is monitored reaches the error level, the system raises an event with
severity Error. When the observed value exceeds the current threshold level, the system
removes the error state.
Certain types of thresholds are predefined in the system. The following predefined thresholds
are available:
򐂰 Inode utilization at the fileset level
򐂰 Data pool capacity utilization
򐂰 Metadata pool capacity utilization
򐂰 Free memory utilization
Apart from the predefined thresholds, you can create user-defined thresholds for the data that
is collected through the performance monitoring sensors.
You can use the Monitoring → Thresholds page in the GUI and the mmhealth command to
manage predefined and user-defined thresholds.

Defining thresholds
Use the Create Thresholds option (see Figure 4-15) to define user-defined thresholds or to
modify the predefined thresholds.
Figure 4-15 Create Threshold dialog
You can use the Use as Template option that is available in the Actions menu to use a
defined threshold as the template to create a threshold. You can specify the following details
in a threshold rule:
򐂰 Metric category
Lists all performance monitoring sensors that are enabled in the system and thresholds
that are derived by performing certain calculations on certain performance metrics. These
derived thresholds are referred as measurements. The measurements category provides
the flexibility to edit certain predefined threshold rules. The following measurements are
available for selection:
– Fileset_inode
Inode capacity utilization at the fileset level. This level is calculated as shown in the
following example:
(sum(gpfs_fset_allocInodes)-sum(gpfs_fset_freeInodes))/sum(gpfs_fset_maxInod
es)
– DataPool_capUtil
Data pool capacity utilization, which is calculated as shown in the following example:
(sum(gpfs_pool_total_dataKB)-sum(gpfs_pool_free_dataKB))/sum(gpfs_pool_total
_dataKB)

– MetaDataPool_capUtil
Metadata pool capacity utilization, which is calculated as shown in the following
example:
(sum(gpfs_pool_total_metaKB)-sum(gpfs_pool_free_metaKB))/sum(gpfs_pool_total
_metaKB)
– FsLatency_diskWaitRd
File system latency for the read operations. Average disk wait time per read operation
on the IBM Spectrum Scale client:
sum(gpfs_fs_tot_disk_wait_rd)/sum(gpfs_fs_read_ops)
– FsLatency_diskWaitWr
File system latency for the write operations. Average disk wait time per write operation
on the IBM Spectrum Scale client:
sum(gpfs_fs_tot_disk_wait_wr)/sum(gpfs_fs_write_ops)
– SMBNodeLatency_read
SMB read latency at the node level:
avg(op_time)/avg(op_count)
– SMBNodeLatency_write
SMB write latency at the node level:
avg(op_time)/avg(op_count)
– NFSNodeLatency_read
NFS read latency at the node level:
sum(nfs_read_lat)/sum(nfs_read_ops)
– NFSNodeLatency_write
NFS write latency at the node level:
sum(nfs_write_lat)/sum(nfs_write_ops)
򐂰 Metric name
The list of performance metrics that are available under the selected performance
monitoring sensor or the measurement.
򐂰 Name
User-defined name of the threshold rule.
򐂰 Filter by
Defines the filter criteria for the threshold rule.
򐂰 Group by
Groups the threshold values by the selected grouping criteria. If you select a value in this
field, you must select an aggregator criterion in the Aggregator field. By default, there is
no grouping, which means that the thresholds are evaluated based on the finest available
key.
򐂰 Warning level
Defines the threshold level for warning events to be raised for the selected metric. When
the warning level is reached, the system raises an event with severity Warning. You can
customize the warning message to specify the user action that is required to fix the issue.

򐂰 Error level
Defines the threshold level for error events to be raised for the selected metric. When the
error level is reached, the system raises an event with severity “Error”. You can customize
the error message to specify the user action that is required to fix the issue.
򐂰 Aggregator
When grouping is selected in the Group by field, an aggregator must be chosen to define
the aggregation function. When the Rate aggregator is set, the grouping is automatically
set to the finest available grouping.
򐂰 Sensitivity
Defines the sample interval value. If a sensor is configured with interval period greater
than 5 minutes, the sensitivity is set to the same value as sensors period. The minimum
value allowed is 120 seconds. If a sensor is configured with interval period less than 120
seconds, the --sensitivity is set to 120 seconds.
򐂰 Hysteresis
Defines the percentage of the observed value that must be under or over the current
threshold level to switch back to the previous state. The default value is 0 percent.
Hysteresis is used to avoid frequent state changes when the values are close to the
threshold. The level must be set according to the volatility of the metric.
򐂰 Direction
Defines whether the events and messages are sent when the value that is being
monitored exceeds or goes below the threshold level.
You can also edit and delete a threshold rule.
Threshold configuration: A scenario

The user wants to configure a threshold rule to monitor the maximum disk capacity usage.
The values against each field of the Create Threshold dialog and their respective functionality
are listed in Table 4-4.
Table 4-4 Threshold rule configuration: A sample scenario

GUI fields Value and functions
Metric Category GPFSDiskCap
Specifies that the threshold rule is going to be defined for the metrics that
belong to the GPFSDiskCap sensor.
Metric name Total Capacity
The threshold rule is going to be defined to monitor the threshold levels of

total capacity usage.
Name Total capacity threshold
By default, the performance monitoring metric name is used as the

threshold rule name. Here, the default value is overwritten with “Total
capacity threshold”.
Filter by Cluster
The values are filtered at the cluster level.

GUI fields Value and functions
Group by: File System
Groups the selected metric by file system.
Aggregator Maximum
When maximum capacity exceeds the threshold level, the system raises the
event. If the following values are selected, the nature of the threshold rule
changes:
򐂰 Sum: When the sum of the metric values exceeds the threshold levels,
the system raises the events.
򐂰 Average: When the average value exceeds the average, the system
raises the events.
򐂰 Maximum: When the maximum value exceeds maximum level, the
system raises the events.
򐂰 Minimum: When the minimum value exceeds the sum of or goes below
the threshold levels, the system raises the events.
򐂰 Rate: When the rate exceeds the threshold value, the system raises
the events. Rate is only added for the “finest” group by clause. If we
wanted to get a rate for a “partial key”, this function is not supported;
that is, when Rate is selected, the system automatically selects the
best possible values in the grouping field.
Warning level 9 GiB
The system raises an event with severity Warning when the total capacity
usage exceeds 9 GiB.
Error level 10 GiB
The system raises an event with severity level Error when the total capacity
usage exceeds 10 GiB.
Sensitivity 24 hours
The threshold value is being monitored once in a day.
Hysteresis 50%
If the value is reduced below 4.5 GiB, the warning state is removed.
Similarly, if the value is reduced below 5 GiB, the error state is removed.
Direction High
When the value that is being monitored exceeds the threshold limit, the
system raises an event.

4.16 Monitoring command audit log
The audit log maintains a record of various actions that are performed on the system. This log
helps the system administrator to audit the commands and tasks that are performed by the
administrators. These logs can also be used to troubleshoot issues that are reported in the
system.
You can monitor the command audit log from the Monitoring → Command Audit Log page.
You can use the Copy Command and Arguments option from the Actions menu to copy the
command and arguments that are used in an operation.

5
Chapter 5. Configuring and managing tasks

by using the IBM Spectrum Scale
GUI
This chapter lists various configuring and managing tasks that can be completed by using the
IBM Spectrum Scale GUI and includes the following topics:
򐂰 5.1, “Creating file systems” on page 66
򐂰 5.2, “Mounting a file system through the GUI” on page 66
򐂰 5.3, “Unmounting a file system by using the GUI” on page 67
򐂰 5.4, “Creating filesets” on page 68
򐂰 5.5, “Creating and managing snapshots” on page 68
򐂰 5.6, “Deleting snapshots” on page 71
򐂰 5.7, “Configuring quota” on page 71
򐂰 5.8, “Information lifecycle management” on page 72
򐂰 5.9, “Managing storage” on page 75
򐂰 5.10, “Managing access control lists” on page 75
򐂰 5.11, “Managing Object Storage, SMB shares, and NFS exports” on page 76
򐂰 5.12, “Managing IBM services” on page 77
򐂰 5.13, “Configuring role-based access for GUI users” on page 81

5.1 Creating file systems
After you create NSDs, a GPFS file system can be created. Use the Create File System
option that is available in the Files → File Systems page to start the wizard that assists you
to create a file system.
Note: You cannot create file system from the GUI in an FPO-enabled environment. In an
FPO environment, the Create File System option is disabled.
You can specify the following details while creating the file system by using the GUI:
򐂰 File system name.
򐂰 Storage pools that provide storage for the file system. You can create a system pool and
multiple data pools for a file system. Storage pools provide storage for the file system. You
can create a system pool and multiple data pools for a file system. A system pool can be
used for storing metadata, data, or both. The data pool can be used only for storing data.
򐂰 Size of each inode.
򐂰 Maximum number of inodes for the root fileset.
򐂰 Data and metadata block size.
򐂰 Default replication policy for the file system by specifying the number of data and metadata
copies that are required. You can later change the number of copies of data and metadata
through the CLI by using the mmchfs command.
򐂰 NSDs that provide storage to the pools that are defined for the file system.
򐂰 Failure groups of NSDs and certain attributes that are important for the failure group
definition.
򐂰 Round-robin order in which data must be written to the NSDs in a pool.
򐂰 Maximum number of IBM Spectrum Scale client nodes that can access the file system
concurrently.
򐂰 Whether to enable quota for the file system. If yes, whether the user and group quota
definitions must be set at the file system level or at the individual fileset level.
򐂰 Whether to enable DMAPI for the file system.
򐂰 The IBM Spectrum Scale release with which the file system features are compatible.
򐂰 Mount point and automatic mount mode of the file system.
5.2 Mounting a file system through the GUI

You can use the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI to mount individual file systems or multiple file
systems on the selected nodes. Use one of the following pages in the GUI to mount a file
system:
򐂰 Files → File Systems → View Details → Nodes
򐂰 Nodes → View Details → File Systems
The GUI has the following options that are related to mounting the file system:
򐂰 Mount local file systems on nodes of the local IBM Spectrum Scale cluster.
򐂰 Mount remote file systems on local nodes.

򐂰 Select individual nodes, protocol nodes, or nodes by node class while selecting nodes on
which the file system needs to be mounted.
򐂰 Prevent or allow file systems from mounting on individual nodes.
To prevent file systems from mounting on a node, complete the following steps:
a. Go to Nodes, and select the node on which you need to prevent or allow file system
mounts.
b. Click Actions → Prevent Mounts.
c. Select the required option, and click Prevent Mount or Allow Mount based on the
selection.
򐂰 Configure the automatic mount option.
The automatic mount option determines whether to automatically mount file system on
nodes when the GPFS daemon starts or when the file system is accessed for the first
time. You can also specify whether to exclude individual nodes while enabling the
automatic mount option.
To enable automatic mount, complete the following steps:
a. Go to Files → File Systems, and select the file system for which you need to enable
automatic mount.
b. Click Actions → Configure Automatic Mount.
c. Select the required option from the list of automatic mount modes.
d. Click Configure.
Note: You can configure automatic mount option for a file system only after the file
system is unmounted from all nodes; that is, you need to stop I/O on this file system to
configure this option. However, you can include or exclude the individual nodes for
automatic mount without unmounting the file system from all nodes.
5.3 Unmounting a file system by using the GUI

You can use the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI to unmount individual file systems or multiple file
systems on the selected nodes. Use the following pages in the GUI to unmount a file system:
򐂰 Files → File Systems → View Details → Nodes
򐂰 Nodes → View Details → File Systems
The following unmount features are supported in the GUI:

򐂰 Unmount the local file system from local nodes and remote nodes.
򐂰 Unmount the remote file system from the local nodes. When a local file system is
unmounted from the remote nodes, the remote nodes can no longer be seen in the GUI.
The Files → File Systems → View Details → Remote Nodes page lists the remote
nodes that currently mount the selected file system. The selected file system can be a
local or a remote file system, but the GUI allows you to unmount only local file systems
from the remote nodes.
򐂰 Select individual nodes, protocol nodes, or nodes by node class while selecting nodes
from which the file system needs to be unmounted.
Chapter 5. Configuring and managing tasks by using the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI 67
򐂰 Specify whether to force unmount. Selecting the Force unmount option while unmounting
the file system unmounts the file system, even if it is still busy performing the I/O
operations. Forcing the unmount operation affects the outstanding operations and causes
data integrity issues. The IBM Spectrum Scale system relies on the native unmount
command to conduct the unmount operation.
The semantics of forced unmount are platform-specific. On certain platforms, such as
Linux, even when forced unmount is requested, the file system cannot be unmounted if it
is still being referenced by the system kernel. To unmount a file system in such cases,
identify and stop the processes that are referencing the file system. You can use system
utilities like lsof and fuser for this process.
5.4 Creating filesets

Use the Files → Filesets page (see Figure 5-1) to create, manage, and monitor filesets.
Figure 5-1 Filesets page
Use the Files → Filesets → Create Fileset option to create a fileset. You can create an
independent or dependent fileset. You can specify the maximum number of inodes and the
allocated number of inodes for an independent fileset. You can also specify access control
lists for the fileset.
When Quota data collection is enabled, the GUI also provides information on fileset size and
growth rates.
5.5 Creating and managing snapshots

Use the Files → Snapshots page to manage snapshots through the GUI. Snapshots can be
used in environments where multiple recovery points are necessary. A snapshot can be taken
of file system or fileset data, and then the data can be recovered from the snapshot if the
production data becomes unavailable.

Note: Snapshots are read-only. You can change only the normal and active files and
directories, not the snapshot.
When a snapshot of an independent fileset is taken, only nested dependent filesets are
included in the snapshot.
5.5.1 Scheduling snapshot creation by using snapshot rules

You can manually create the snapshots or snapshot rules to automate the snapshot creation
and retention.
To manually create a snapshot, complete the following steps:

1. Click Create Snapshot in the Snapshots page.
2. Enter the required details under the Manual tab of the Create Snapshot window.
3. Click Create after providing the details.
You can automate the snapshot creation and retention by creating a snapshot rule. That is, in
a snapshot rule, you can specify a frequency at which the snapshots must be created and the
number of snapshots that must be retained for a period. The system determines which
snapshots are retained based on the retention policy. The retention policy helps to avoid
unwanted storage of snapshots that result in the waste of storage resources.
The retention policy includes the following parameters:

򐂰 Frequency of snapshot creation.
򐂰 Number of most recent snapshots to be retained. The most recent snapshot is identified
based on the frequency of snapshot creation.
򐂰 Number of days for which you must keep the latest snapshot of each day.
򐂰 Number of weeks for which you must keep the latest snapshot of each week.
򐂰 Number of months for which you must keep the latest snapshot of each month.
5.5.2 Example scenario for retention policy

Table 5-1 provides an example for the values that are specified against these parameters.
Table 5-1 Example for retention period

Snapshot Frequency Minutes # of most Keep latest snapshot for...
deletion recent
time snapshots
Hours Days Weeks Months
2:30 AM Hourly 1 2 2 6 2 3
Based on this retention rule, the snapshots that are shown in Table 5-2 are created and
retained on 20 March 2016 at 06:10 AM.
Table 5-2 Time stamp of snapshots that are retained based on the retention policy
Time stamp Condition based on which snapshot is retained
December 31 (Thursday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 3 months
Time stamp Condition based on which snapshot is retained
January 31 (Sunday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 3 months
February 29 (Monday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 3 months
March 5 (Saturday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 2 weeks
March 12 (Saturday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 2 weeks
March 14 (Monday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 6 days
March 15 (Tuesday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 6 days
March 16 (Wednesday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 6 days
March 17 (Thursday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 6 days
March 18 (Friday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 6 days
March 19 (Saturday, 23:01 AM) Keep the latest snapshot for last 6 days
March 20 (Sunday, 1:01 AM) Keep two most recent snapshots.
March 20 (Sunday, 2:01 AM) Keep two most recent snapshots
According to this rule, 13 snapshots are retained on 20 March 2016 at 06:10 AM.
To schedule snapshot creation and retention, complete the following steps:

1. Go to Files → Snapshots, and click Create Snapshot.
2. In the Create Snapshot window, enter the path of the file system or independent fileset for
which you need to create snapshots.
3. In the Snapshot name field, enter the name of the snapshot.
4. Click Snapshot Rules.
5. Click Create Rule to schedule the snapshot creation and retention. The system displays
the Create Snapshot Rule window.
6. In the Name field, enter the name of the snapshot scheduling rule.
7. In the Frequency field, select the frequency at which you need to create snapshot. You
must enter some more details based on the value that is selected in the Frequency field.
For example, if the selected value is Multiple Times an Hour, select the minutes of the
hour in which you need to create snapshots.
8. In the Retention fields, specify the number of snapshots that must be retained in a time
period.
9. In the Prefix field, specify a prefix to be added with the name of the snapshots that are
created with this rule.
10.Click OK to save the changes.
Important naming information: If you do not specify a name for the snapshot, the default
name is provided. The default snapshot ID is generated at creation time by using the
format @GMT-yyyy.MM.dd-HH.mm.ss. If this option is provided and the @GMT-date-time format
is omitted, this snapshot is not identifiable by Windows VSS, and the file restore is not
possible by using that method.
Avoid white spaces, double and single quotation marks, parentheses (), the star (*),
forward slash /, and backward slash \.

5.6 Deleting snapshots
To manually delete the snapshots, right-click the snapshot from the Files → Snapshots page
and select Delete. The snapshots that are automatically created based on the snapshot
creation rule are deleted automatically based on the retention period specified in the rule.
When the condition for deletion is met, the GUI immediately starts to delete the snapshot
candidates.
Note: Snapshot capacity usage is not collected automatically because it can negatively
affect the performance of the system. If you are trying to determine overall file system
capacity, you must consider the capacity that is used by snapshot and manually aggregate
the overall capacity usage.
5.7 Configuring quota

Use the Files → Quotas page to control the allocation of files and data blocks in a file
system. You can create default, user, group, and fileset quotas by using the Quotas page.
You can also enable quota on file systems, set grace time defaults, and trigger a quota
database repair action.
You can create new quotas and modify existing ones. A quota is the amount of disk space
and the amount of metadata that is assigned as upper limits for a specified user, group of
users, or fileset. Use the Actions menu to create or modify quotas. The management GUI
allows you to manage the capacity-related quota only. The inode-related quota management
is possible in the command-line interface only.
You can specify a soft limit, a hard limit, or both. When you set a soft limit quota, a warning is
sent to the administrator when the file system is close to reaching its storage limit. A grace
period starts when the soft quota limit is reached. Data is written until the grace period
expires, or until the hard quota limit is reached. Grace time resets when the used capacity
goes below the soft limit.
If you set a hard limit quota, you cannot save data after the quota is reached. If the quota is
exceeded, you must delete the files or raise the quota limit to store more data. The grace
period can be modified per device by using the mmsetquota command.
Note: User or user group quotas for filesets are supported only if the Per Fileset option is
enabled at the file system level.
You must unmount a file system to change the quota enablement method from per file
system to per fileset, or vice versa.
You can set the default user quotas at the file system level rather than defining user quotas
explicitly for each user. Default quota limits can be set for users. You can specify the general
quota collection scope, such as per file system or per fileset to define whether the default
quota must be defined at file system level or fileset level and set the default user quota.
After this value is set, all child objects that are created under the file system or file set are
configured with the default soft and hard limits. You can assign a custom quota limit to
individual child objects, but the default limits remain the same unless changed at the file
system or fileset level.
5.8 Information lifecycle management
The information lifecycle management (ILM) feature that is available in the IBM Spectrum
Scale system facilitates automated tiered storage management. As part of the ILM, you must
create a set of policies and rules that automatically determine where to physically store your
data, regardless of its placement in the logical directory structure. The proper management of
files ensures the efficient use and balance of premium and less expensive storage resources.
Use the Files → Information Lifecycle page (see Figure 5-2) in the IBM Spectrum Scale
GUI to manage ILM rules and policies.
Figure 5-2 Information Lifecycle page
Policies and the rules are used to assign files to specific file system pools. A file system pool
typically contains a set of volumes that provide a specific quality of service for a specific use,
such as storing frequently accessed files on a premium or a pool with high performance and
the non-frequently accessed files on a less expensive pool.
A policy is a set of rules that describes the lifecycle of user data that is based on the file’s
attributes. Each rule defines an operation or definition, such as placing new files into different
pools or migrating files from one pool to another pool. A policy rule is an SQL-like statement
that tells the file system what to do with a file in a specific file system pool if the file meets
specific criteria. A rule can apply to any file within a file system or only to files within a specific
fileset or group of filesets.
ILM rules include the following main functions:

򐂰 Initial file placement
򐂰 File management activities, such as migration of files from one storage pool to another
pool, automatic file deletion, file compression, and file encryption

򐂰 File restoration
The active policy of a file system is available on the Files → Information Lifecycle → Active
Policy page. Use the GUI to create more policies for a file system manually by editing the
existing active policy, or by creating a policy and applying it as the active policy for the file
system.
5.8.1 Creating and applying policy

Select Policy Repository to create a policy and define rules for it. You can also modify the
created policies and apply a policy as the active policy for a file system. You must select
Active Policy to see the active policy for a file system. You can also modify the active policy
based on the requirement.
To create and apply a policy, complete the following steps:

1. Go to Files → Information Lifecycle, and select Policy Repository.
2. Click Create Policy and specify the required details.
The policy is created. Next, you must add rules in the policy that manages the files in the
system.
3. Click Add Rule in the Policy Repository and define rules with the required rule types.
You can create multiple rules in a policy. You can drag the rules in the rules list to change
the order in which the rules are applied in a policy. The Add Rule option supports only
adding placement, migration, file compression, or deletion rules, or defining an external
pool. To add encryption, exclusion, or list rules, you must modify the policy text by using
the text editor.
Optionally, you can use the text editor to edit policy text. Click Policy Text that is available
in the upper-right corner of the GUI page to start the text editor. To work with list rules or
less-frequently used policy rule syntax constructs, the policy text must be modified by
using the text editor.
4. After editing the policy details, click Apply Changes.
5. If you want to apply a policy as the active policy for a file system, select the policy from the
Policy Repository and then, select Actions → Apply as Active Policy. You can also
change the active policy of the file system.
5.8.2 Editing a policy by using the text editor

To define or modify file placement, migration, file compression, deletion, or external pool
rules, the GUI provides an easy to use graphical editing mode. For working with rules, such
as encryption, exclusion, and list, you must manually edit the SQL policy text by using the text
editor.
If only one rule is in the policy and it is not supported in the graphical editing mode, the entire
policy can be displayed or modified by using the policy text editor.
5.8.3 Defining the policy run settings

You can define some of the policy run parameters that are used every time the ILM policy is
run from the Information Lifecycle page in the GUI.
Note: The policy run settings that you set in the GUI are applicable when the policy
execution is triggered by the default threshold callback or when using the Run Policy action
in the GUI. These parameters are not applicable when a custom callback script is
registered or when you run the policy by using the mmapplypolicy command in the CLI.
You can specify the following details that determine the policy run characteristics:
򐂰 Node that run the policies
The ILM policy can run parallel on multiple nodes. The following types of nodes are
available:
– Nodes of a node class.
– Default helper nodes. Nodes can be marked as helper nodes by using the
defaultHelperNodes parameter of the mmchconfig command.
– Manager nodes. These nodes are the nodes from which file system managers and
token managers are selected.
– Individual nodes.
򐂰 Local work directory
The directory to be used for temporary storage during policy execution. This local
directory, such as /tmp, is used on each helper node. A significant amount of temporary
storage is required if the file system or directories contain many files.
򐂰 Global work directory
A global directory to be used for temporary storage during policy execution. The specified
directory must exist within a shared file system. It must also be mounted and available for
writing and reading from each of the nodes. The use of a global work directory causes
high performance and fault-tolerant protocols during policy execution.
򐂰 File selection algorithm. The following algorithm types are available:
– Exact: Sorts all the candidate files by weight, then serially considers each file from the
highest weight to the lowest weight by choosing feasible candidates for migration,
deletion, or listing according to any applicable rule LIMITs and current storage-pool
occupancy.
– Fast: Uses a combination of statistical, heuristic, and parallel computing methods to
favor higher weight candidate files, but the set of chosen candidates might be different
than the exact method.
– Best: Chooses the optimal method based on the rest of the input parameters.
򐂰 Average number of CPU cores per node.
The number of threads and sort pipelines that each node runs during the parallel inode
scan and policy evaluation.
򐂰 Number of threads per policy scan.
The number of threads are created and dispatched within each mmapplypolicy process
during the directory scan phase. The default is 24.
򐂰 Number of threads for policy execution.
The number of threads that are created and dispatched within each mmapplypolicy
process during the policy execution phase. The default value is 24.

򐂰 Maximum number of files per batch.
Specifies how many files are passed for each invocation of the EXEC script. The default
value is 100. If the number of files exceeds the value that is specified, the use of the
mmapplypolicy command starts the external program multiple times.
5.8.4 Log files

The policy executions that are started by using the Run Policy action log the details in the
/var/log/cnlog/ilm directory.
The policy executions can also be triggered based on a threshold that is managed by the
callback handler, which is installed on the GUI node. Such policy execution details are logged
in the /var/adm/ras directory and /var/adm/ras/mmfs.log file.
5.9 Managing storage

You can monitor and manage pools and NSDs of the IBM Spectrum Scale system by using
the GUI options that are listed in Table 5-3.
Table 5-3 Storage management options

GUI option Function
Storage → Pools Provides an easy way to monitor the performance, health status,
and configuration aspects of all of the pools that are available in the
Storage → NSDs Provides an easy way to monitor the performance, health status,
and configuration aspects of all of the NSDs that are available in
the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster.
5.10 Managing access control lists

Use the Files → File System ACL page to create access control lists (ACLs) for the files or
directories in a file system. Access to the files and directories is managed through ACLs. It
ensures that only authorized users can access directories and files. The IBM Spectrum Scale
ACLs are stored in the NFSV4 ACL format.
An ACL is a list of permissions that are associated with a directory or file. It defines which
users are allowed to access a particular directory or file. An access control entry in the ACL
defines the permissions for a user or a group of users. An ACL usually consists of multiple
entries. Each ACL has an owner that is associated with it who owns the file or directory for
which the ACL is defined. Owners usually have full access to the files or directories that they
own. If the directory contains files or subdirectories, the owner, owning group, and ACL
cannot be modified.
You can define ACL templates to help the users to set default access control permissions for
files and directories. The use of ACL template helps to save time and ensures that the correct
standard and values for each ACL entry are used. You can use any of the predefined ACL
templates to set the access rights to files and directories.
Only users with the DataAccess role can modify ACLs of files and directories on the Files →
File System ACL page.
Users with the Administrator, SecurityAdmin, and DataAccess roles can edit ACL templates.
Users with the DataAccess role can modify the ACL of non-empty file system, filesets, and
exports path by using the Edit Access Control option in the corresponding GUI pages.
Users with the Administrator and SecurityAdmin role are allowed to modify only the ACLs of
file system root path, fileset link path, and export paths if they are empty.
5.11 Managing Object Storage, SMB shares, and NFS exports

The options that are available to configure, monitor, and manage the data exports through the
NFS, SMB, and Object protocols are listed in Table 5-4.
Table 5-4 GUI options available for monitoring and managing protocol data exports
GUI page Function
Protocols → NFS Exports Create and manage NFS exports and add NFS clients.
Protocols pages are displayed in the GUI only when the
protocol feature is enabled on the cluster.
Services → NFS Specify NFS server settings and start or stop NFS services.
Protocols → SMB Shares Create and manage SMB shares. Protocols pages are
displayed in the GUI only when the protocol feature is enabled
on the cluster.
Services → SMB Specify SMB server settings and start or stop SMB services.
Object → Accounts Create and manage accounts and containers in the Object
Storage. Object pages are displayed in the GUI only when the
object feature is enabled on the cluster.
Object → Users Create object users.
Object → Roles Define roles for the object users.
Services → Object View and change the object service status. You can define
object administrator who can manage accounts in the object
storage.

5.12 Managing IBM services
An IBM Spectrum Scale setup comprises various services. You can monitor, configure, and
manage them through the newly introduced Services page (see Figure 5-3) in the IBM
Spectrum Scale 5.0.3 management GUI. This page acts as the single place where you can
view all the supported services, health status of each service. It also provides certain
configuration options for some of the services.
Figure 5-3 Services page to manage IBM Spectrum Scale services
The following sections describe the IBM Spectrum Scale services that can be managed
through the Services page in the GUI.
5.12.1 GPFS daemon

The GPFS daemon performs all I/O operations and buffer management for GPFS. You can
perform the following actions from the GPFS Daemon section:
򐂰 Start and shut down the GPFS services on the nodes.
򐂰 Monitor the status of GPFS service and the nodes on which the GPFS service is
configured.
򐂰 Monitor the events that are raised against the GPFS service.
5.12.2 CES
The cluster export service (CES) provides highly available file and object services by using
NFS, SMB, and Object protocols. The nodes that support these protocol services are referred
as CES nodes. You can perform the following actions from the CES section:
򐂰 Stop CES service on a node when you are suspending the node.
򐂰 Start CES service on a node when you are resuming the node.
򐂰 Suspend and resume CES nodes.
򐂰 Monitor the status of the CES nodes and the protocol services hosted on the node.
򐂰 Monitor the events that are raised against the CES service.
5.12.3 CES network and CES IPs
Provides the details of the nodes that are part of the CES network. You can perform the
following actions from the CES network section:
򐂰 View all the nodes that are part of the CES network.
򐂰 Add CES IP addresses by using the Add CES IP option that is available under the
Addresses section.
򐂰 Monitor the events that are raised against the CES network service.
򐂰 Select the distribution policy to be used for assigning the CES IP address.
5.12.4 NFS
The NFS services must be configured on the system to use NFS protocol for data transfer
between client and the IBM Spectrum Scale system. You can use NFSv3, NFSv4, or both to
use for communication between server and client. You can perform the following actions from
the NFS section:
򐂰 Start and Stop NFS service
򐂰 Monitor the health status of the NFS service that is configured on the CES nodes
򐂰 View the events that are raised against the NFS service
򐂰 Configure the lease lifetime, domain, and NFS protocol version at the NFS server level
5.12.5 SMB
You can monitor the SMB service and change global SMB configuration parameters from the
GUI.
The following options are available under the respective tabs in the SMB section:
򐂰 SMB Service Status
View the details and health status of the SMB service that is configured in the CES nodes.
You can also start and stop the SMB service.
򐂰 Events
Displays the events that are raised against the SMB service.
򐂰 Settings
Provides options to configure the disk free quota, specify server description, set SMB
server encryption node, and specify whether to restrict anonymous access.
5.12.6 Object
You must enable and start the object services to use the Object Storage facility.
You can monitor start, and stop object service on all or individual CES nodes, from the Object
section in the Services page. In addition, object specific events and object administrator
credential settings can be managed from this section.

5.12.7 File authentication
Use the File Authentication section to configure an authentication method or view the
authentication method that is used for NFS and SMB users. You can also view the events that
are reported against the authentication configuration.
The following file user authentication methods can be used to authenticate the user:
򐂰 Active Directory
Uses Microsoft Active Directory as the authentication server. This method is used if you
must authenticate SMB users to access the data through SMB shares. When you select
AD as the authentication server, you must configure an ID mapping method to map the
user IDs from the external domain with a set of internal user IDs.
򐂰 LDAP
Uses an LDAP server to authenticate users. This method is the ideal method to use to
authenticate the NFS protocol users to access the data through the NFS exports.
򐂰 NIS
The NIS-based authentication is useful in NFS-only environment where NIS acts as an ID
mapping server and is used for netgroups. When file access is configured with NIS, SMB
access cannot be enabled.
򐂰 User-defined
The user can select the authentication and ID mapping methods of their choice. It is the
responsibility of the administrator of the client system to manage the authentication and ID
mapping for file access to the IBM Spectrum Scale system.
5.12.8 Object Authentication section

The Object Authentication section shows the object user authentication configuration details
and the events that are raised against the object authentication service in the cluster.
5.12.9 Hadoop connector

The IBM Spectrum Scale system provides access to the Hadoop Distributed File System
Transparency (HDFS) clients. You can monitor the status of the HDFC transparency service
from the Hadoop Connector section of the Services page.
5.12.10 GUI
The GUI service manages the GUI and REST APIs that are used to configure, monitor, and
manage the IBM Spectrum Scale system. You can perform the following actions from the GUI
section:
򐂰 Monitor the GUI node configuration in the cluster
򐂰 Configure a login message. This message appears in the login page of the GUI, which is
typically used to display some important information that must be shared with the users
who are attempting to log in.
򐂰 Configure session timeout.
򐂰 Create SSL certificate request.
򐂰 Install a self-signed certificate or a certificate that is issued by the certificate authority.
򐂰 View the certificate information of the GUI node.
򐂰 View the issues that are raised against the GUI service in the cluster.
򐂰 Manage GUI users, groups, and their password policy.
򐂰 Assign user roles for the GUI users.
򐂰 Configure an LDAP-based external configuration method for the GUI users.
For more information about the GUI user management, see “Configuring role-based access
for GUI users” on page 81.
5.12.11 Performance monitoring

The performance monitoring tool collects metrics from various components of the IBM
Spectrum Scale system and provides performance information.
The Performance Monitoring section of the Services page organizes the monitoring and
configuration aspects of performance monitoring under the following tabs:
򐂰 Nodes
Provides the nodes on which performance monitoring is enabled. You can also see the
health status of these nodes and the performance monitoring sensors that are enabled on
the node.
򐂰 Sensors
Lists all the sensors that are available with the IBM Spectrum Scale system and provides
the option to edit the sensor configuration. By clicking the Edit option, you can modify the
data collection intervals and the scope of data collection. The data can be collected at all
nodes, node group, or individual node level.
򐂰 Collectors
Provides the health status of the performance monitoring collector that is configured in the
system.
򐂰 Events
Lists all events that are raised against the performance monitoring component.
5.12.12 File auditing

The file auditing logs data access to the files. Each file operation is generated as a local event
on the node that serves the file operation.
The following details are available in the File Auditing section:

򐂰 Nodes: Provides file auditing service status per node.
򐂰 File Systems: Provides file auditing service status per file system and node.
򐂰 Events: Lists the events that are reported against the file auditing service.
5.12.13 Message queue

The message queue collects and stores events that are published by the producers that are
running on nodes in an IBM Spectrum Scale cluster. This message queue provides a scalable
infrastructure for file auditing services.

5.13 Configuring role-based access for GUI users
GUI administrators of the IBM Spectrum Scale system can monitor, configure, and manage
the IBM Spectrum Scale system and are distinguished from the data users.
You can manage GUI users locally within the system and in an external authentication server,
such as Microsoft Active Directory (AD) or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Server
(LDAP). By default, the IBM Spectrum Scale system uses an internal authentication
repository for GUI users. Internal and external authentication methods can be configured in
the system.
5.13.1 Managing GUI users locally in the IBM Spectrum Scale system
You can create users who can perform different administrative tasks on the system. Each
user must be part of a user group or multiple groups that are defined on the system. When
you create a user, you assign the user to one of the default user groups or to a custom user
group. User groups are assigned with predefined roles that authorize the users within that
group to a specific set of operations on the GUI.
Use the Services → GUI page to create users and add them to a user group.
Predefined roles are assigned to user groups to define the working scope within the GUI. If a
user is assigned to more than one user group, the permissions are additive, not restrictive.
The predefined role names cannot be changed.
The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI includes the following default user groups:
򐂰 Administrator
Manages all functions on the system except those deals with managing users, user
groups, and authentication.
򐂰 SecurityAdmin
Manages all functions on the system, including managing users, user groups, and user
authentication.
򐂰 SystemAdmin
Manages clusters, nodes, alert logs, and authentication.
򐂰 StorageAdmin
Manages disks, file systems, pools, filesets, and ILM policies.
򐂰 SnapAdmin
Manages snapshots for file systems and filesets.
򐂰 DataAccess
Controls access to data, such as managing access control lists.
򐂰 Monitor
Monitors objects and system configuration, but cannot configure, modify, or manage the
system or its resources.
򐂰 ProtocolAdmin
Manages object storage and data export definitions of SMB and NFS protocols.
򐂰 UserAdmin
Manages access for GUI users. Users who are part of this group have edit permissions
only in the Access pages of the GUI.
When you log in to the system for the first time after the installation, the system lists the option
to create the first GUI user.
Use the various controls that are available under the Password Policy tab of the GUI Users
page to enforce strong passwords for the users. You can modify or expire password of the
individual users or all the users that are created in the system. If the password is set as
expired, the user is prompted to change the password at the next login.
Password policy modifications: Only users with the User Administrator role can modify
the password policy of a user.
5.13.2 Assigning roles to user groups

Users who are part of Security Administrator and User Administrator user groups can create
role-based user groups in which any users that are added to the group adopt the role that is
assigned to that group.
Roles apply to users on the system and are based on the user group to which the user
belongs. A user can be part of multiple user groups so that a single user can play multiple
roles in the system.
You can assign the following roles to your user groups:

򐂰 Administrator
Users can access all functions on the GUI except those deals with managing users and
user groups.
򐂰 Security Administrator
Users can access all functions on the GUI, including managing users and user groups.
򐂰 System Administrator
Users can manage clusters, nodes, and alert logs.
򐂰 Storage Administrator
Users can manage disks, file systems, pools, and filesets.
򐂰 Snapshot Administrator
Users can manage snapshots for file systems and filesets.
򐂰 Monitor
Users can view objects and system configuration, but cannot configure, modify, or manage
the system or its resources.
򐂰 Data Access
Users can perform the following tasks:
– Edit owner, group, and ACL of any file or path on the Files → File System ACL →
Files and Directories page.
– Edit owner, group, and ACL for a non-empty directory of a file system, fileset, NFS
export, or SMB share.
– Create and delete object containers through the Object → Accounts page.

򐂰 Protocol Administrator
Users manage object storage and data export definitions of SMB and NFS protocols.
򐂰 User Administrator
Users manage GUI users and user groups.
Note: Default groups are not created for the User Administrator user role in case the user
is upgrading the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster from 4.2.0.x to a later release.
5.13.3 Managing GUI administrators in an external authentication server

By default, the IBM Spectrum Scale uses an internal authentication repository for the GUI
administrators. You can configure an external authentication server either through GUI or CLI.
Configuring external authentication by using GUI

Use the Configure External Authentication option that is available under the External
Authentication tab of Services → GUI page to configure an external LDAP-based
authentication method for authenticating the GUI users. The Configure LDAP-Based External
Authentication wizard assists you to configure the external authentication method (see
Figure 5-4).
Figure 5-4 Configure LDAP-Based External Authentication wizard
The user credentials are stored in an external repository. You can store the user credentials in
the following repository types:
򐂰 Microsoft Active Directory
򐂰 IBM Lotus Domino
򐂰 IBM SecureWay Directory Server
򐂰 IBM Tivoli® Directory Server
򐂰 Netscape Directory Server
򐂰 Novell eDirectory
򐂰 Sun Java System Directory Server
򐂰 Custom (for example, OpenLdap)
Follow the wizard to complete the authentication service.
Use the Test Connection option that is available under the External Authentication tab to
determine whether a user credential is available in the internal or external repository.
Configuring external authentication by using CLI

Complete the following steps to configure external authentication by using CLI:
1. Create your AD or LDAP configuration by issuing the mkldap command at the following
location:
/usr/lpp/mmfs/gui/cli/mkldap
The use of this command writes the configuration automatically to
/opt/ibm/wlp/usr/servers/gpfsgui/ldap.xml, which is then distributed across all GUI
nodes. For secure AD or LDAP connection, ensure that the keystores are on the
respective GUI nodes.
The mkldap command accepts the parameters that are listed in Table 5-5.
Table 5-5 mkldap command parameters

Parameters Description
id Unique ID of the LDAP configuration.
--host The IP address or host name of the LDAP server.
--baseDn BaseDn string for the repository.
--bindDn BindDn string for the authentication user.
--bindPassword Password of the authentication user.
--port Port number of the LDAP. Default is 389 or 636 over SSL.
--type Repository type, such as “Microsoft Active Directory, ids, domino,

secureway, iplanet, netscape, edirectory” or “custom”. Default
value is “Microsoft Active Directory”.
--connecTimeout Maximum time for establishing a connection with the LDAP

server. Default value is 1m.
--searchTimeout Maximum time for an LDAP server to respond before a request is

canceled. Default value is 1m.
--keystore Location with file name of the keystore file (.jks, .p12 or .pfx).
--keystorePassword Password of the keystore.
--truststore Location with file name of the truststore file (.jks, .p12 or .pfx).
--truststorePassword Password of the truststore.
--userFilter User filter for the LDAP repository.
--userIdMap User ID map for the LDAP repository.
--groupFilter Group filter for the LDAP repository.
--groupIdMap Group ID map for the LDAP repository.
--groupMemberIdMap Group member ID map for the LDAP repository.

The following examples show the use of the mkldap command:
– Example for standard AD:
mkldap myad --host 9.155.106.19 --bindDn
CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=mydomain,DC=local
--baseDn CN=Users,DC=mydomain,DC=local
– Example for secure AD:
mkldap mysecuread --host 9.155.106.19 --bindDn
--baseDn CN=Users,DC=mydomain,DC=local --keystore /tmp/ad.jks
If you specify multiple AD or LDAP servers, you might encounter a problem that a user
with the same user name exists in multiple user repositories. This user cannot log in.
To prevent this situation, you can specify LDAP filters for User Principal Names (UPN)
for a selected server configuration.
– Example for a scenario where UPN filters are enabled:
mkldap myfilteredad --host 9.155.106.19 --bindDn
--baseDn CN=Users,DC=mydomain,DC=local --userFilter
"(&(userPrincipalName=%v)(objectcategory=person))"
--groupFilter "(&(cn=%v)(objectcategory=group))" --userIdMap
"*:userPrincipalName"
--groupIdMap "*:cn" --groupMemberIdMap "memberOf:member"
2. Map an existing AD or LDAP group to the SecurityAdmin GUI role as shown in the
following example:
/usr/lpp/mmfs/gui/cli/mkusergrp LDAPGroup --role securityadmin
Now you can log in with your AD or LDAP user and create more group mappings through
the GUI on the Services → GUI → Users page by using the Create Group Mapping
option.
If you want to remove the existing configurations, use the rmldap command. To see all
specified LDAP configurations, issue the lsldap command.
Note: Configurations that are managed by using the mkldap and rmldap commands are not
overwritten during the upgrade; that is, you do not need to back up the configuration data.
6
Chapter 6. Troubleshooting options in the

IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
This chapter describes the following troubleshooting options that are available in the IBM
Spectrum Scale GUI:
򐂰 View an overall cluster status in the Home view.
򐂰 View health status of components, such as file systems, NSD, and nodes.
򐂰 View details of the events reported in the system.
򐂰 View options to download logs, trace files, and dumps to know more about the issues
reported in the system.
򐂰 View the directed maintenance procedures to fix certain events reported in the system.
This chapter includes the following topics:

򐂰 6.1, “Monitoring events” on page 88
򐂰 6.2, “Monitoring tip events” on page 89
򐂰 6.3, “Configuring event notifications” on page 89
򐂰 6.4, “Configuring email notifications” on page 90
򐂰 6.5, “Configuring SNMP manager” on page 91
򐂰 6.6, “Collecting diagnostic data by using the GUI” on page 92
򐂰 6.7, “Configuring IBM Call Home by using GUI” on page 94
򐂰 6.8, “Directed maintenance procedures” on page 95
򐂰 6.9, “Troubleshooting issues with capacity data displayed in the GUI” on page 96

6.1 Monitoring events
You can primarily use the Monitoring → Events page to review the entire set of events that
are reported in the IBM Spectrum Scale system.
The following filter options are available in the Events page:

򐂰 Current Issues displays all unfixed errors and warnings.
򐂰 Unread Messages displays all unfixed errors and warnings and information messages that
are not marked as read.
򐂰 All Events displays every event, no matter if it is fixed or marked as read.
The status icons help to quickly determine whether the event is informational, a warning, or
an error. Click an event and select Actions → Properties to see the detailed information of
that event. The event table displays the most recent events first.
6.1.1 Event deduplication

The events are raised against the respective component; for example, GPFS, NFS, and SMB.
Some of these events might occur multiple times in the system. Such events are grouped
under the Event Groups tab and the number of occurrences of the events are indicated in the
Occurrences column. The Individual Events tab lists all the events irrespective of the multiple
occurrences.
6.1.2 Event Filtering

The following filter options by event type are available as a drop-down list in the Events page:
򐂰 Current Issues: Displays all unfixed errors and warnings.
򐂰 Notices: Displays all transient messages of type “notice” that were not marked as read.
򐂰 Current State: Displays all events that define the current state of the entities, and excludes
notices and historic events.
򐂰 All Events: Displays all messages, even historic messages and messages that are marked
as read. This filter is not available in the Event Groups view because of performance
implications.
A graphical view of events that are reported against each component is available. Clicking the
graph displays only the relevant events in the grid view; that is, clicking a portion in the
graphical view applies the corresponding filter on the search action and fetches only the
relevant data in the Events table.
The status icons help to quickly determine whether the event is informational, a warning, or
an error. Click an event and select Actions → Properties to see the detailed information of
that event. The event table displays the most recent events first.
6.1.3 Marking events as read

You can mark events of type Notice as read to change the status of the event in the Events
view. The status icons become gray when an error or warning is fixed or if it is marked as
read.

6.1.4 Running fix procedure
Some issues can be resolved by running a fix procedure by clicking Run Fix Procedure. For
more information, see 6.8, “Directed maintenance procedures” on page 95.
6.2 Monitoring tip events

You can monitor events of type “Tips” from the Monitoring → Tips page of the GUI. The tip
events give recommendations to the user to avoid certain issues that might occur in the
future. The system detects the entities with the tip event type as healthy. A tip disappears from
the GUI when the problem behind the tip event is resolved.
Select Actions → Properties to view the details of the tip. After you review the tip, decide
whether it requires attention or can be ignored. Select Actions → Hide to ignore the events
that are not important. Select Show to mark the tips that require attention.
6.3 Configuring event notifications

The system can use Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps and emails to
notify you when significant events are detected. Any combination of these notification
methods can be used simultaneously. Use the Monitoring → Event Notifications page (see
Figure 6-1) in the GUI to configure event notifications.
Figure 6-1 Event Notifications page
Notifications are normally sent immediately after an event is raised.
Chapter 6. Troubleshooting options in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI 89

6.4 Configuring email notifications
The email feature transmits operational and error-related data in the form of an event
notification email. To configure an email server, complete the following steps:
1. Select Monitoring → Event Notifications → Email Server.
2. Select Edit and then, select Enable email notifications.
3. Enter the required details and, when you are ready, click OK.
Email notifications can be customized by setting a custom header and footer for the emails.
You also can customize the subject by selecting and combining from the following variables:
򐂰 &message
򐂰 &messageId
򐂰 &severity
򐂰 &dateAndTime
򐂰 &cluster
򐂰 &component
Emails that contain the quota reports and other events that are reported in the following
functional areas are sent to the recipients:
򐂰 AFM and AFM DR
򐂰 Authentication
򐂰 CES network
򐂰 Transparent Cloud Tiering
򐂰 NSD
򐂰 File system
򐂰 GPFS
򐂰 GUI
򐂰 Hadoop connector
򐂰 iSCSI
򐂰 Keystone
򐂰 Network
򐂰 NFS
򐂰 Object
򐂰 Performance monitoring
򐂰 SMB
򐂰 Object authentication
򐂰 Node
򐂰 CES
In the email notification method, you can also define whether a recipient must receive a report
of events that are reported in the system. These reports are sent once daily. Based on the
seriousness of the issue, a severity level is associated with each reported event in the
system.
To create email recipients, select Email Recipients from the Event Notifications page, and
then, click Create Recipient.
Note: You can change the email notification configuration or disable the email service at
any time.

6.5 Configuring SNMP manager
SNMP is the standard protocol for managing networks and exchanging messages. The
system can send SNMP messages that notify personnel about an event. You can use an
SNMP manager to view the SNMP messages that the system sends.
With an SNMP manager, such as IBM Systems Director, you can view and act on the
messages that the SNMP agent sends. The SNMP manager can send SNMP notifications,
which are also known as traps, when an event occurs in the system.
Select Monitoring → Event Notifications → SNMP Manager to configure SNMP managers

for event notifications. You can specify up to a maximum of six SNMP managers.
In the SNMP mode of event notification, one SNMP notification (trap) with object identifiers
(OID) .1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.0.1 is sent by the GUI for each event. The SNMP objects that
are included in the event notifications are listed in Table 6-1.
Table 6-1 SNMP objects included in event notifications

OID Description Example
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.1 Cluster ID 317908494245422510
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.2 Entity type NODE, FILESYSTEM
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.3 Entity name gss-11, fs01
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.4 Component NFS, FILESYSTEM, NSD
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.5 Severity INFO, TIP, WARNING, ERROR
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.6 Date and time 17.02.2016 13:27:42.516
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.7 Event name nfs_active
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.8 Message NFS service is now active.
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.9 Reporting node The node where the problem is reported.
6.5.1 Understanding the SNMP OID ranges

The SNMP OID ranges are listed in Table 6-2.
Table 6-2 SNMP OID ranges

OID range Description
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212 IBM Spectrum Scale
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.0.1 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI event notification (trap)
.1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.x IBM Spectrum Scale GUI event notification parameters (objects)
The traps for the core IBM Spectrum Scale and the trap objects are not included in the SNMP
notifications that are configured through the IBM Spectrum Scale management GUI.

6.5.2 Example for SNMP traps
Example 6-1 shows the SNMP event notification that is sent when performance monitoring
sensor is shut down on a node.
Example 6-1 SNMP event notification: Performance monitoring sensor shutdown

SNMPv2-MIB::snmpTrapOID.0 = OID: SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.0.1
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.1 = STRING: "317908494245422510"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.2 = STRING: "NODE"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.3 = STRING: "gss-11"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.4 = STRING: "PERFMON"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.5 = STRING: "ERROR"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.6 = STRING: "18.02.2016 12:46:44.839"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.7 = STRING: "pmsensors_down"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.8 = STRING: "pmsensors service should be
started and is stopped"
Example 6-2 shows the SNMP event notification that is sent for an SNMP test message.
Example 6-2 SNMP event notification: SNMP test message

SNMPv2-MIB::snmpTrapOID.0 = OID: SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.0.1
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.1 = STRING: "317908494245422510"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.2 = STRING: "CLUSTER"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.3 = STRING: "UNKNOWN"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.4 = STRING: "GUI"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.5 = STRING: "INFO"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.6 = STRING: "18.02.2016 12:47:10.851"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.7 = STRING: "snmp_test"
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.2.6.212.10.1.8 = STRING: "This is a SNMP test message."
6.5.3 SNMP MIBs

The SNMP Management Information Base (MIB) is a collection of definitions that define the
properties of the managed objects.
The IBM Spectrum Scale GUI MIB OID range starts with 1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10. The OID
range 1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.0.1 denotes IBM Spectrum Scale GUI event notification (trap),
and .1.3.6.1.4.1.2.6.212.10.1.x denotes IBM Spectrum Scale GUI event notification
parameters (objects). While configuring SNMP, use the MIB file that is available at the
following location of each GUI node:
/usr/lpp/mmfs/gui/IBM-SPECTRUM-SCALE-GUI-MIB.txt
6.6 Collecting diagnostic data by using the GUI

IBM Support might ask you to collect logs, trace files, and dump files from the system to help
resolve a problem. You can perform this task by using the management GUI or the gpfs.snap
command. Use the Support → Diagnostic Data page in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI to
collect details of the issues that are reported in the system.

The entire set of diagnostic data that is available in the system helps analyzing all types of
IBM Spectrum Scale issues. Depending on the data selection criteria, these files can be large
(gigabytes) and might take an hour to download.
The diagnostic data is collected from each node in a cluster. In a cluster with hundreds of
nodes, downloading the diagnostic data might take a long time and the downloaded file can
be large.
It is always better to reduce the size of the log file as you might need to send it to IBM Support
to help fix the issues. You can reduce the size of the diagnostic data file by reducing the
scope. The following options are available to reduce the scope of the diagnostic data:
򐂰 Include only affected functional areas
򐂰 Include only affected nodes
򐂰 Reduce the number of days for which the diagnostic data needs to be collected
The following three modes are available in the GUI to select the functional areas of the
diagnostic data:
򐂰 Standard diagnostics
The data that is collected in the standard diagnostics consists of the configuration, status,
log files, dumps, and traces in the following functional areas:
– Core IBM Spectrum Scale
– Network
– GUI
– NFS
– SMB
– Object
– Authentication
– Cluster export services (CES)
– Crash dumps
You can download the diagnostic data for these functional areas at the following levels:
– All nodes
– Specific nodes
– All nodes within one or more node classes
򐂰 Deadlock diagnostics
The data that is collected in this category consists of the minimum amount of data that is
needed to investigate a deadlock problem.
򐂰 Performance diagnostics
The data that is collected in this category consists of the system performance details that
are collected from performance monitoring tools. You can use this option only if it is
requested by the IBM Support.
Note: Instead of collecting the diagnostic data again, you can also use the diagnostic
data that was previously collected. You can analyze the relevance of the historic data
based on the date on which the issue is reported in the system. Ensure to delete the
diagnostic data that is no longer needed to save disk space.

6.6.1 GUI logs
Run the gpfs.snap -N GUI_MGMT_SERVERS command or use the Support → Diagnostic Data
page in the GUI to access the GUI logs to analyze GUI problems. These logs are available at
the following location:
/var/log/cnlog/mgtsrv/
The following main log files are available:

򐂰 mgtsrv-system-log-x (most important)
Logs everything that runs in background processes such as refresh tasks.
򐂰 mgtsrv-trace-log-x
Logs everything that is directly triggered by the GUI user, such as starting an action,
clicking a button, and running a GUI CLI command.
򐂰 wlp-messages.log
Covers the underlying WebSphere Liberty. The log is mostly relevant during the start-up
phase.
򐂰 gpfsgui_trc.log
Logs problems related to incoming requests from the browser. Check this log if the GUI
displays the following error message:
Server was unable to process request.
6.7 Configuring IBM Call Home by using GUI

The Call Home feature provides a communication channel that automatically notifies the IBM
service personnel about the issues reported in the system. You can also manually upload
diagnostic data files and associate them with a PMR by using the GUI.
You can use the Call Home page in the GUI to perform the following tasks:
򐂰 Enable the Call Home feature on the cluster.
򐂰 Select one or more Call Home nodes that share the data with the IBM Support.
򐂰 Specify the contact information to be used by the IBM Support if any issues exist.
򐂰 Specify the proxy information that is needed to create a communication channel between
the Call Home nodes and IBM support.
򐂰 Test connection with the IBM server.
Collecting data and sharing it with IBM Support

Call Home shares support information and your contact information with IBM on a scheduled
basis. The IBM Support monitors the details that are shared by Call Home and any takes
necessary action on any issues or potential issues.
Enabling Call Home reduces the response time for the IBM Support to address the issues.
The GUI does not support to change the data gathering and sharing schedules.
You can also manually upload the diagnostic data that is collected through the Support →
Diagnostic Data page in the GUI to share the diagnostic data to resolve a Problem
Management Record (PMR).

To upload data manually, complete the following steps:
1. Go to Support → Diagnostic Data.
2. Collect diagnostic data that is based on the requirement. You can also use the previously
collected data for the upload.
3. Select the relevant data set from the Previously Collected Diagnostic Data section and
then, right-click and select Upload to PMR.
4. Select the PMR to which the data must be uploaded and then, click Upload.
6.8 Directed maintenance procedures

The directed maintenance procedures (DMPs) assist you to repair a problem when you select
Run Fix Procedure on a selected event from the Monitoring → Events page. DMPs are
present for only a few events that are reported in the system.
The available DMPs and the corresponding events are listed in Table 6-3.
Table 6-3 Directed maintenance procedures available for events

DMP Event ID
Start NSD disk_down
Start GPFS daemon gpfs_down
Increase fileset space inode_error_high and inode_warn_high
Start performance monitoring collector service pmcollector_down
Start performance monitoring sensor service pmsensors_down
Activate AFM performance monitoring sensors afm_sensors_inactive
Activate NFS performance monitoring nfs_sensors_inactive
Activate SMB performance monitoring smb_sensors_inactive
Configure NFS sensor nfs_sensors_not_configured
Configure SMB sensor smb_sensors_not_configured
Mount file systems unmounted_fs_check
Start GUI service on remote node gui_down
Repair a failed GUI refresh task gui_refresh_task_failed

6.9 Troubleshooting issues with capacity data displayed in the
GUI
Because of the effect that capacity data collection can have on the system, different capacity
values are collected on a different schedule and are provided by different system
components. The following issues can arise from the multitude of schedules and subsystems
that provide capacity data:
򐂰 Capacity in the file system view and the total amount of the capacity for pools and volumes
view do not match.
The capacity data in the file system view is collected every 10 minutes by performance
monitoring collector, but the capacity data for pools and Network Shared Disks (NSD) are
not updated. By default, NSD data is collected only once per day by the performance
monitoring collector and this data is cached.
Clicking the refresh icon gathers the last two records from performance monitoring tool
and displays the last record values if they are not null. If the last record includes null
values, the system displays the previous record. If the values of both records are null, the
system displays “N/A” and the option for displaying a time chart is unavailable. The last
update date is the record date that is fetched from performance monitoring tool if the
values are not null.
򐂰 Capacity in the file system view and the total amount of used capacity for all filesets in that
file system do not match.
Differences exist in the collection schedule and the collection mechanism that contributes
to the fact that the fileset capacities do not add up to the file system used capacity.
򐂰 Scheduling differences
Capacity information that is shown for filesets in the GUI is collected once per hour by
performance monitoring collector and displayed in the Filesets page. When you click the
refresh icon, the information from the last record from performance monitoring is shown.
If the last two records have null values, a “Not collected” warning for used capacity is
shown. The file system capacity information on the file systems view is collected every 10
minutes by the performance monitoring collector. When you click the refresh icon, the
information about the last record from performance monitoring is shown.
򐂰 Data collection differences
Quota values show the sum of the size of all files and are reported asynchronously. The
quota reporting does not consider metadata, snapshots, or capacity that cannot be
allocated within a subblock. Therefore, the sum of the fileset quota values can be lower
than the data shown in the file system view.
You can use the mmlsfileset CLI command with the -d and -i options to view capacity
information. The GUI does not provide a means to display these values because of the
performance effect that results from data collection.
򐂰 The sum of all fileset inode values on the view quota window does not match the number
of inodes that are displayed on the file system properties window.
The quota value accounts for user-created inodes only, while the properties for the file
system also display inodes that are used internally. Refresh the quota data to update
these values.

򐂰 No capacity data is shown on a new system or for a newly created file system.
Capacity data can appear with a delay of up to 1 day. The capacity data for file systems,
NSDs, and pools is collected once per day because operation is resource-intensive. Line
charts do not show a line if only a single data point exists. You can use the hover function
to see the first data point in the chart.
򐂰 The management GUI displays negative fileset capacity or a highly used capacity, such as
millions of Petabytes or 4,000,000,000 used inodes.
This problem can be seen in the quota and filesets views. This problem is caused when
the quota accounting is out of sync. To fix this error, issue the mmcheckquota command.
This command recounts inode and capacity usage in a file system by user, user group,
and fileset, and writes the collected data into the database. It also checks quota limits for
users, user groups, and filesets in a file system. Running this command can affect the
performance of I/O operations.
򐂰 No capacity data is displayed on the performance monitoring charts.
Verify whether the sensors as described in 4.4.2, “Capacity data collected through the
performance monitoring tool” on page 38 are enabled correctly. Ensure that all
prerequisites are met; for example, quota is enabled for the GPFSFIlesetQuota sensor, or
file systems are mounted on the nodes where the GPFSPools sensor runs.
For more information about how to enable the performance monitoring sensor for capacity
data collection, see Manual installation of IBM Spectrum Scale GUI in IBM Spectrum Scale:
Concepts, Planning, and Installation Guide.

A
Appendix A. Current limitations for the IBM

Spectrum Scale GUI
IBM Spectrum Scale GUI features the following current limitations:
򐂰 The GUI runs on all Linux variants that are supported by IBM Spectrum Scale. However,
the GUI does not run on AIX and Windows nodes.
򐂰 Up to 1000 nodes are supported.
򐂰 The GUI supports a subset of the CLI functionality. More capabilities are to be added in
future releases of the product.
򐂰 The Object management pages do not support configurations with Keystone V2 API.
򐂰 One GUI manages a single cluster. A GUI instance can monitor a subset of performance
and system health of remote clusters after creating a connection between the local and
remote cluster GUI.
򐂰 In an IBM Spectrum Scale and ESS mixed support environment, the ESS GUI must
manage the whole cluster to display the ESS-specific pages in the GUI.
򐂰 The GUI supports IBM Spectrum Scale release 4.2.0.0 or later.
Issue the mmlsconfig command to see the value that is set for the minReleaseLevel
attribute. Use the mmchconfig release=LATEST command and restart the GUI to make the
management GUI fully operational at the new code level.
Because changing the minimum release level affects the cluster behavior, see the
mmchconfig command man page and other related topics before this configuration change
is made.
򐂰 All IBM Spectrum Scale packages on one node must be of the same release. For
example, do not mix the 5.0.3 GUI rpm with a 5.02 base rpm. However, GUI PTFs and
efixes often can be applied without installing the corresponding PTF or efix of the base
package. This design is helpful if you want to resolve a GUI issue without changing
anything on the base layer.

Related publications
The publications that are listed in this section are considered particularly suitable for a more
detailed discussion of the topics that are covered in this paper.
IBM Redbooks
The following IBM Redbooks publications provide more information about the topic in this
document. Note that some publications that are referenced in this list might be available in
softcopy only:
򐂰 IBM Spectrum Scale Security, REDP-5426
򐂰 Implementing IBM Spectrum Scale, REDP-5254
You can search for, view, download, or order these documents and other Redbooks,
Redpapers, Web Docs, draft, and other materials at the following website:
ibm.com/redbooks
Other publications
The following publications are also relevant as further information sources:
򐂰 IBM Spectrum Scale Version 4 Release 2.3 Administration Guide, SA23-1455
򐂰 IBM Spectrum Scale Version 4 Release 2.3 Concepts, Planning, and Installation Guide,
GA76-0441
򐂰 IBM Spectrum Scale Version 4 Release 2.3 Problem Determination Guide, GA76-0443
Online resources
The following websites are also relevant as further information sources:
򐂰 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI quick reference:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/STXKQY_5.0.3/com.ibm.spectrum.scale
.v5r03.doc/bl1ins_quickrefforgui.htm
򐂰 Examples for GUI issues and their resolutions:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/STXKQY_5.0.3/com.ibm.spectrum.scale
.v5r03.doc/bl1pdg_GUI_issues.htm
򐂰 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS7mekU2kxDrWbtK5AiVGPyF94xTv02xN

Help from IBM
IBM Support and downloads
ibm.com/support
IBM Global Services

ibm.com/services
Back cover
REDP-5458-01
ISBN 0738456454
Printed in U.S.A.
®
ibm.com/redbooks

Redp 5458

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Redp 5458

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Redp 5458

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Front cover

Monitoring and Managing

Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using

Second Edition (October 2019)

This edition applies to IBM Spectrum Scale version 5.0.3.

This document was created or updated on October 18, 2019.

Chapter 2. Installing and configuring the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 3. Understanding the GUI options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 4. Monitoring options available in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . 29

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. iii

iv Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI

Chapter 6. Troubleshooting options in the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Appendix A. Current limitations for the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Markus Rohwedder is an IT Architect at IBM Research™ and Development in Kelsterbach,

Alexander Wolf-Reber is an IT Architect in IBM Research and Development Kelsterbach,

Stefan Roth is a Software Engineer in IBM Research and Development in Kelsterbach,

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. vii

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

Now you can become a published author, too!

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION “AS IS”

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. xi

The following terms are trademarks of other companies:

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. 1

Figure 1-1 IBM Spectrum Scale GUI architecture

1.1.1 GUI node requirements

2 Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI

1.2 Role-based access control with GUI users

1.3 High-availability with multiple GUI nodes in a cluster

1.4 Integration hub for configuration, health, and performance

1.5 Support matrix

1.5.1 Operating system levels

4 Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI

Chapter 2. Installing and configuring the

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2019. All rights reserved. 7

2.2 Manually installing the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI

8 Monitoring and Managing IBM Spectrum Scale Using the GUI

RHEL 7.x gpfs.gui-5.0.3-0.noarch.rpm

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 gpfs.gui-5.0.3-0.noarch.rpm

Ubuntu 16 and 18 gpfs.gui_5.0.3-0_all.deb

Performance monitoring tool platform Performance monitoring tool rpms

RHEL 7.x X86 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.x86_64.rpm

RHEL 7 s390x gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el7.s390x.rpm

RHEL 7.x ppc64 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.ppc64.rpm

RHEL 7.x ppc64 LE gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.el7.ppc64le.rpm

RHEL6 s390x gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.el6.s390x.rpm

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 X86 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.SLES12.x86_64.rpm

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1 gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES12.1.s390x.rpm

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 ppc64 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.SLES12.ppc64.rpm

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 ppc64 gpfs.gss.pmcollector-5.0.3-0.SLES12.ppc64le.rpm

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 ppc64 gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES11.ppc64.rpm

Chapter 2. Installing and configuring the IBM Spectrum Scale GUI 9

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 s390x gpfs.gss.pmsensors-5.0.3-0.SLES11.s390x.rpm

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS sensor and collector gpfs.gss.pmsensors_5.0.3-0.U16.04_amd64.deb

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS sensor and collector gpfs.gss.pmsensors_5.0.3-0.U18.04_amd64.deb

Yum repository setup

2.2.2 Installation steps

Installing by using the package manager (yum or zypper commands)

Installing by using RPMs