[gpfsug-discuss] preventing HSM tape recall storms

Frederick Stock stockf at us.ibm.com
Mon Jul 9 19:57:38 BST 2018


Another option is to request Apple to support the OFFLINE flag in the SMB 
protocol.  The more Mac customers making such a request (I have asked 
others to do likewise) might convince Apple to add this checking to their 
SMB client.

Fred
__________________________________________________
Fred Stock | IBM Pittsburgh Lab | 720-430-8821
stockf at us.ibm.com



From:   "Christof Schmitt" <christof.schmitt at us.ibm.com>
To:     gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
Date:   07/09/2018 02:53 PM
Subject:        Re: [gpfsug-discuss] preventing HSM tape recall storms
Sent by:        gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org



> we had left out "gpfs" from the
> vfs objects =
> line in smb.conf
>
> so setting
> vfs objects = gpfs (etc)
> gpfs:hsm = yes
> gpfs:recalls = yes  (not "no" as I had originally, and is implied by the 
manual)
 
Thank you for the update. gpfs:recalls=yes is the default, allowing
recalls of files. If you set that to 'no', Samba will deny access to
"OFFLINE" files in GPFS through SMB.
 
> and setting the offline flag on the file by migrating it, so that
> # mmlsattr -L  filename.jpg
> ...
> Misc attributes:      ARCHIVE OFFLINE
>
> now Explorer on Windows 7 and 10 do not recall the file while viewing 
the folder with "Large icons"
>
> and a standard icon with an X is displayed.
>
> But after the file is then opened and recalled, the icon displays the 
thumbnail image and the OFFLINE flag is lost.
 
Yes, that is working as intended. While the file is only in the
"external pool" (e.g. HSM tape), the OFFLINE flag is reported. Once
you read/write data, that triggers a recall to the disk pool and the
flag is cleared.
 
> Also as you observed, Finder on  MacOSX 10.13 ignores the file's offline 
flag,
>
> so we still risk a recall storm caused by them.
 
The question here would be how to handle the Mac clients. You could
configured two SMB shares on the same path: One with gpfs:recalls=yes
and tell the Windows users to access that share; the other one with
gpfs:recalls=no and tell the Mac users to use that share. That would
avoid the recall storms, but runs the risk of Mac users connecting to
the wrong share and avoiding this workaround...
 
Regards,

Christof Schmitt || IBM || Spectrum Scale Development || Tucson, AZ
christof.schmitt at us.ibm.com  ||  +1-520-799-2469    (T/L: 321-2469)
 
 
----- Original message -----
From: Cameron Dunn <Cameron.Dunn at bristol.ac.uk>
Sent by: gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org
To: "gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org" <gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org>
Cc:
Subject: Re: [gpfsug-discuss] preventing HSM tape recall storms
Date: Sat, Jul 7, 2018 2:30 PM
 
Thanks Christof,
 
we had left out "gpfs" from the
vfs objects = 
line in smb.conf
 
so setting
vfs objects = gpfs (etc)
gpfs:hsm = yes
gpfs:recalls = yes  (not "no" as I had originally, and is implied by the 
manual)
 
and setting the offline flag on the file by migrating it, so that
# mmlsattr -L  filename.jpg
...
 
Misc attributes:      ARCHIVE OFFLINE
 
now Explorer on Windows 7 and 10 do not recall the file while viewing the 
folder with "Large icons"
and a standard icon with an X is displayed.
But after the file is then opened and recalled, the icon displays the 
thumbnail image and the OFFLINE flag is lost.
 
Also as you observed, Finder on  MacOSX 10.13 ignores the file's offline 
flag,
so we still risk a recall storm caused by them.
 
All the best,
Cameron
 

From: gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org 
<gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org> on behalf of Christof Schmitt 
<christof.schmitt at us.ibm.com>
Sent: 03 July 2018 20:37:08
To: gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
Cc: gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
Subject: Re: [gpfsug-discuss] preventing HSM tape recall storms 
 
> HSM over LTFS-EE runs the risk of a recall storm if files which have 
been migrated to tape
> are then shared by Samba to Macs and PCs.
> MacOS Finder and Windows Explorer will want to display all the thumbnail 
images of a
> folder's contents, which will recall lots of files from tape.
 
SMB clients can query file information, including the OFFLINE
flag. With Spectrum Scale and the "gpfs" module loaded in Samba that
is mapped from the the OFFLINE flag that is visible in "mmlsattr
-L". In those systems, the SMB client can determine that a file is
offline.
 
In our experience this is handled correctly in Windows Explorer; when
an "offline" file is encountered, no preview is generated from the
file data. The Finder on Mac clients does not seem to honor the
OFFLINE flag, thus the main problems are typically recall storms
caused by Mac clients.
 
> According to the Samba documentation this is preventable by setting the 
following
> ----------------------------------------------
> https://www.samba.org/samba/docs/current/man-html/vfs_gpfs.8.html
>
> gpfs:recalls = [ yes | no ]
> When this option is set to no, an attempt to open an offline file
> will be rejected with access denied.
> This helps preventing recall storms triggered by careless applications 
like Finder and Explorer.
>
> yes(default) - Open files that are offline. This will recall the files 
from HSM.
> no - Reject access to offline files with access denied. This will 
prevent recalls of files from HSM.
> Using this setting also requires gpfs:hsm to be set to yes.
>
> gpfs:hsm = [ yes | no ]
> Enable/Disable announcing if this FS has HSM enabled.
> no(default) - Do not announce HSM.
> yes - Announce HSM.
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> However we could not get this to work.
>
> On Centos7/Samba4.5, smb.conf contained
> gpfs:hsm = yes
> gpfs:recalls = no
> (also tried setting gpfs:offline = yes, though this is not documented)
 
These options apply to the "gpfs" module in Samba. The Samba version
you are using needs to be built with GPFS support and the "gpfs"
module needs to be loaded through the "vfs objects" configuration. As
Centos7/Samba4.5 is mentioned, would guess that the CentOS provided
Samba version is used, which is probably not compiled with GPFS
support.
 
>From IBM we would recommend to use CES for protocol services, which
also provides Samba for SMB. The Samba provided through CES is
configured so that the gpfs:recalls option can be used:
 
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/STXKQY_4.2.3/com.ibm.spectrum.scale.v4r23.doc/bl1adm_mmsmb.htm
 
gpfs:recalls
    If the value is set as yes files that have been migrated from disk
    will be recalled on access. By default, this is enabled. If
    recalls = no files will not be recalled on access and the client
    will receive ACCESS_DENIED message.
 
> We made a share containing image files that were then migrated to tape 
by LTFS-EE,
> to see if these flags were respected by OS X Finder or Windows Explorer.
>
> Neither Mac OS X (using SMB3) or Windows 7 (using SMB2) respected the 
settings,
> so that when browsing the stubs in the share, the files were recalled 
from tape
> and the thumbnails displayed.
>
> Has anyone seen these flags working as they are supposed to ?
 
Yes, they are working, as we use them in our Samba build. Debugging
this would require looking at the Samba configuration and possibly
collecting a trace. If my above assumption was wrong and this problem
occurs with the CES Samba (gpfs.smb), please open a PMR for debugging
this issue. If this is not the CES Samba, please contact the provider
of the Samba package for additional support.
 
Regards,
 
Christof

Christof Schmitt || IBM || Spectrum Scale Development || Tucson, AZ
christof.schmitt at us.ibm.com  ||  +1-520-799-2469    (T/L: 321-2469)
 
 
----- Original message -----
From: Cameron Dunn <Cameron.Dunn at bristol.ac.uk>
Sent by: gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org
To: "gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org" <gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org>
Cc:
Subject: [gpfsug-discuss] preventing HSM tape recall storms
Date: Tue, Jul 3, 2018 6:22 AM
 
 
HSM over LTFS-EE runs the risk of a recall storm if files which have been 
migrated to tape 
are then shared by Samba to Macs and PCs. 
MacOS Finder and Windows Explorer will want to display all the thumbnail 
images of a 
folder's contents, which will recall lots of files from tape.
 
According to the Samba documentation this is preventable by setting the 
following 
----------------------------------------------
https://www.samba.org/samba/docs/current/man-html/vfs_gpfs.8.html
 
gpfs:recalls = [ yes | no ]
When this option is set to no, an attempt to open an offline file 
will be rejected with access denied. 
This helps preventing recall storms triggered by careless applications 
like Finder and Explorer.
 
yes(default) - Open files that are offline. This will recall the files 
from HSM.
no - Reject access to offline files with access denied. This will prevent 
recalls of files from HSM. 
Using this setting also requires gpfs:hsm to be set to yes.
 
gpfs:hsm = [ yes | no ]
Enable/Disable announcing if this FS has HSM enabled.
no(default) - Do not announce HSM.
yes - Announce HSM.
--------------------------------------------------
 
However we could not get this to work.
 
On Centos7/Samba4.5, smb.conf contained
gpfs:hsm = yes
gpfs:recalls = no
(also tried setting gpfs:offline = yes, though this is not documented)
 
We made a share containing image files that were then migrated to tape by 
LTFS-EE, 
to see if these flags were respected by OS X Finder or Windows Explorer.
 
Neither Mac OS X (using SMB3) or Windows 7 (using SMB2) respected the 
settings,
so that when browsing the stubs in the share, the files were recalled from 
tape
and the thumbnails displayed.
 
Has anyone seen these flags working as they are supposed to ?
 
Many thanks for any ideas,
Cameron
 
Cameron Dunn
Advanced Computing Systems Administrator
Advanced Computing Research Centre
University of Bristol
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