ESOS Update (8/11/2012)

[Marc Smith]

Hi,

I wanted to let everyone know that the text-based user interface (TUI)
is now included and enabled by default with Enterprise Storage OS
(ESOS) in head/current. I've added a new wiki page to the ESOS project
site with screenshots of the TUI; its located here:
http://code.google.com/p/enterprise-storage-os/wiki/Screenshots

In its current form, the user interface supports the following features:
- Network settings/configuration
- Mail (sSMTP) configuration
- Add/delete users
- Change passwords
- Add/delete/modify logical drives for LSI Logic MegaRAID controllers
- Enclosure/disk information and adapter properties for LSI Logic
MegaRAID controllers
- Add/delete SCST devices (dev_disk, dev_disk_perf, vcdrom,
vdisk_blockio, vdisk_fileio, vdisk_nullio)
- Add/remove iSCSI dynamic SCST targets
- Targets: enable/disable, issue FC LIP
- Add/remove security groups
- Add/remove initiators (to/from security groups)
- Map/unmap SCST devices to/from security groups (LUNs)


The TUI is written in C, utilizing the Curses Development Kit (CDK).
If anyone else is interested in contributing to the ESOS project,
especially with the text-based user interface, please contact me. The
TUI is fully functioning in its current form, however, a number of
features can/need to be added that can really put this project in line
to compete with other proprietary enterprise disk array solutions.


On the ESOS road-map, the following features are planned (in this order):
- Update wiki documentation for the new user interface
- Work on producing binary image file releases of ESOS (at least
nightly builds for now, suitable for dd'ing to a USB flash drive)
- Add TUI features for manipulating filesystems, LVM, etc.
- Add Linux HA to the ESOS project for high availability support
- Add DRBD for replication
- Lots more features to come...


--Marc

[Marc Smith]

Hi Peter,

Sorry, I know very little about InfiniBand... I did know that a subnet
manager is required, but I was thinking it would be provided by some
other device on the IB network (switch, etc.).

I can definitely add it in -- do you have a particular one you
recommend, and possibly a default configuration to use? Would this
interfere with other IB subnet managers that are on the IB network, or
is it something that always has to be setup/configured for each unique
IB network? Or should it be on the image and just be
disabled/unconfigured by default?


--Marc

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Peter Rendle <pe...@hellion.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Marc
>
> Great work - I have just downloaded and installed ESOS to use as backend
> storage for VMWare
>
> I have run into one snag - there is no IB subnet manager installed so I
> cannot get my back to back Infiniband connection working.
>
> Would it be possible to add it to the road-map?
>
> Regards
>
> Peter

[Jon Busey]

Hi Marc, just going through some of the historical messages:

On Friday, August 17, 2012 8:25:06 PM UTC-4, Marc Smith wrote:

Hi Peter,

Sorry, I know very little about InfiniBand... I did know that a subnet
manager is required, but I was thinking it would be provided by some
other device on the IB network (switch, etc.).

I can definitely add it in -- do you have a particular one you
recommend, and possibly a default configuration to use? Would this
interfere with other IB subnet managers that are on the IB network, or
is it something that always has to be setup/configured for each unique
IB network? Or should it be on the image and just be
disabled/unconfigured by default?

 

FWIW at this point: You can add opensm to a subnet at will.  You need at least one, but they are highly available in the event of multiple going and should not interfere with one another.  I was told that the same code base is used for all subnet managers.  I.e. opensm is what is actually embedded onto switches, etc.  It 'just works' out of the box, but if you need to use what little security you can with Infiniband (i.e. the vlan-like separation of some servers from another), this configuration takes place here.  

If you read all the release docs on your IB equipment, you'll think there's some secret sauce in the vendor versions.  Look for example at the Mellanox OFED notes and see that it's nearly all open source *except* the subnet manager.  For this reason, I'd not turn on my switch subnet manager and another.  I would, however, include it in the install wherever (even every IB capable Linux box is OK), then only turn it on as needed.  For example, if you only use IB for storage, then running on the storage controller(s) makes sense, since each initiator should have at most two hops to get there. 

I hope this helps you or at least someone, 6 months after your post ;-)

Regards,

Jon