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Dell Storage for HPC with Intel Enterprise Edition 2.3 for Lustre sofware
The Dell Storage for HPC with Intel EE for Lustre solution utilizes the Dell PowerEdge R630 server
platform as the Management Server, Object Storage Servers and Metadata Servers in the configuration.
The solution supports Mellanox ConnectX-3 InfiniBand FDR (56 Gb/s) adapters, which takes advantages
of the PCIe 3.0 supported by Dell’s 13
th
generation servers. To characterize the maximum capabilities
of the Dell Storage for HPC with Intel EE for Lustre solution, this study focuses only on the performance
of the InfiniBand based configuration at FDR speeds. This PowerEdge R630, shown in Figure 4, allows
for server density, performance and serviceability of the solution server components in a 1U form
factor.
Figure 4: Dell PowerEdge R630
3.1 Management Server
The Intel Manager Server is a single server connected to the Metadata servers and Object Storage
servers via an internal 1GbE network.
The management server is responsible for user interaction, as well as systems health management and
basic monitoring data collected and provided via an interactive web GUI console, the Intel Manager for
Lustre. All management and administration access to the Dell Storage for HPC with Intel EE for Lustre
will be conducted through this server. While the management server is responsible for collecting Lustre
file system related data and provides management for the solution, it does not play an active
operational role in the Lustre file system or the data path itself.
The Intel Manager for Lustre (IML) GUI removes complexities from the installation process, minimizing
time to deploy and configure the Lustre system. It also automates the monitoring of the health and
performance of the different components. The decrease in time and effort for deployment and
configuration speeds up the general preparations for production use. The automation of the monitoring
provides a better service to end users without increasing the burden for system administrators. In
addition, the solution provides tools that help troubleshoot problems related to performance of the file
system. Finally, the monitoring tools ability of keeping historical information, allow for better planning
for expansion, maintenance and upgrades of the storage appliance.
3.2 Metadata Servers
The Metadata Server pair, shown in Figure 5, is comprised of two Dell PowerEdge R630 servers
configured as an active/passive highly available cluster. Each server is directly attached to a single Dell
PowerVault MD3420 storage array housing the Lustre MDT and MGT. The Dell PowerVault MD3420 is
fully populated with 24 – 300GB, 15K RPM, 2.5” near-line SAS drives configured in a 22 disks RAID10
with 2 hot spares. In this Metadata Target (MDT), the solution provides about 3TB of space for file
system metadata. The MDS is responsible for handling file and directory requests and routing tasks to
the appropriate Object Storage Targets for fulfillment. With a single MDT of this size, the maximum
number of files that can be served will be in excess of 1.6 billion. In this solution, storage requests are
handled across LNet by a single 56 Gb/s FDR InfiniBand connection.