Create PFS File Systems

Add a separate PFSFileSystem section for each PFS file system you want to create. Include the following information in each PFSFileSystem section:

• The name of the parallel file system. See "Parallel File System Name".

• The hostname of each server node in the parallel file system. See "Server Node Hostnames".

• The name of the storage device to be included in the parallel file system being defined. See "Storage Device Names".

• The number of PFS I/O threads spawned to support each PFS storage device. See "Thread Limits".

The following example shows sample PFSFileSystem sections for two parallel file systems, pfs0 and pfs1.

Example 3-3 PFSFileSystem Section Example

Begin PFSFileSystem=pfs-demo0
NODE            DEVICE              THREADS 
hpc-node0       /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2  1 hpc-node1       /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2  1 
hpc-node2       /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2  1
End PFSFileSystem

Begin PFSFileSystem=pfs-demo1
NODE            DEVICE              THREADS
hpc-node3       /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2  1
hpc-node4       /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2  1 End PFSFileSystem

Parallel File System Name

Specify the name of the PFS file system on the first line of the section, to the right of the = symbol.

Apply the same naming conventions to PFS file as are used for serial Solaris files.

Server Node Hostnames

The NODE column lists the hostnames of the nodes that function as I/O servers for the parallel file system being defined. The example configuration in Example 3-3 shows two parallel file systems:

• pfs0 - two server nodes: node4 and node5.

• pfs1 - two server nodes: node5 and node6.

Note that I/O server node5 is used by both pfs0 and pfs1. This is possible because node5 is attached to at least two storage devices, one of which is assigned to pfs0 and the other to pfs1.

Storage Device Names

In the DEVICE column, specify the name of the device that will be used by the file system. Solaris device naming conventions apply.

Thread Limits

In the THREADS column, specify the number of threads a PFS I/O daemon will spawn for the disk storage device or devices it controls. The number of threads needed by a given PFS I/O server node will depend primarily on the performance capabilities of its disk subsystem.

• For a storage object with a single disk or a small storage array, one thread may be enough to exploit the storage unit's maximum I/O potential.

• For a more powerful storage array, two or more threads may be needed to make full use of the available bandwidth.