PureStorage

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RapidFile Toolkit v2.0 for FlashBlade

What is RapidFile Toolkit?

RapidFile Toolkit is a set of supercharged tools for efficiently managing millions of files using familiar Linux command line interfaces. RapidFile Toolkit is designed from the ground up to take advantage of Pure Storage FlashBlade’s massively parallel, scale-out architecture, while also supporting standard Linux file systems. RapidFile Toolkit can serve as a high performance, drop-in replacement for Linux commands in many common scenarios, which can increase employee efficiency, application performance, and business productivity. RapidFile Toolkit is available to all Pure Storage customers.

RapidFile

Benefits of RapidToolkit according to the Site

Increase SysAdmin Productivity

  • Up to 20X faster than Linux Core Utilities
  • Accelerates file management and analytics

Faster Data Movement & Analytics

  • Accelerates Perforce Checkout by up to 20X
  • Rapid file copy to and from scratch space

Faster & Simpler Data Pipelines

  • Indexing files systems up to 20X faster, reducing metadata caching time
  • Support EDA, Genomics, DevOps, HPC, Analytics & Apache Spark and AI/ML

Commands

Linux commandsRapidFile Toolkit v2.0Description
lsplsLists files & directories
findpfindFinds matching files
dupduSummarizes file space usage
rmprmRemoves files & directories
chownpchownChanges file ownership
chmodpchmodChanges file permissions
cppcopyCopies files & directories

To Download, you have to be Pure Storage Customers and Partners.

Download URL (login required): 

https://support.purestorage.com/FlashBlade/FlashBlade_Release/FlashBlade_Release_Information/RapidFileToolkit

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Configuring NVMeoF RoCE For SUSE 15

The blog is taken from Configuring NVMeoF RoCE For SUSE 15.

The purpose of this blog post is to provide the steps required to implement NVMe-oF using RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) for SUSE Enterprise Linux (SLES) 15 and subsequent releases.

An important item to note is that RoCE requires a lossless network, requiring global pause flow control or PFC to be configured on the network for smooth operation.

All of the below steps are implemented using Mellanox Connect-X4 adapters.

The blog is taken from Configuring NVMeoF RoCE For SUSE 15.
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Rapidfile Toolskit 1.0

RapidFile Toolkit 1.0 (formerly, PureTools) provides fast client-side alternatives for common Linux commands like ls, du, find, chown, chmod, rm and cp which has been optimized for the high level of concurrency supported by FlashBlade NFS. You will be

For CentOS/RHEL

# sudo rpm -U rapidfile-1.0.0-beta.5/rapidfile-1.0.0-beta.5-Linux.rpm

Examples:

Disk Usages:

% pdu -sh /scratch/user1

Copy Files:

% pcp -r -p -u /scratch/user1/ /backup/user1/

Remove Files:

% prm -rv /scratch/user1/

Change Ownership:

% pchown -Rv user1:usergroup /scratch/user1

Change Permission:

% pchmod -Rv 755 /scratch/user1

References:

  1. RapidFile Toolkit for FlashBlade (PureTools)
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Increasing NFS Performance by using nconnect

nconnect is included in linux kernel versions >= 5.3. What is nconnect? nconnect enables multiple TCP connections for a single NFS mount. It is easy to implement

At /etc/fstab

mount -t nfs -o rw,nconnect=16 192.168.1.0:/applications /user/local

For more information, do take a look at Session Trunking for NFS available in RHEL-8

References:

  1. Use nconnect to effortlessly increase NFS performance
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QLC support in Pure Flash Array

Read an interesting article by Pure Storage on QLC support into Pure Flash Array//C which is challenging or at least coming close to hybrid (SSD + Spinning Disk) Storage Solution. The technology used. The article is titled “Hybrid Arrays – Not Dead Yet, But … QLC Flash Is Here”

According to the article,

Why QLC?

It all comes down to how many bits of data can be stored in each tiny little cell on a flash chip. Most enterprise flash arrays currently use triple-level cell (TLC) chips that store three bits in each cell. A newer generation, quad-level cell (QLC) can store—you guessed it—four bits per cell. 

Better still, it’s more economical to manufacture QLC flash chips than TLC flash. Sounds great, except for two big problems: 

  • QLC flash has far lower endurance, typically limited to fewer than 1,000 program/erase cycles. This is one-tenth the endurance of TLC flash.
  • QLC flash is less performant, with higher latency and lower throughput than TLC. 

Because of these technical challenges, there are only a few QLC-based storage arrays on the market. And the only way those arrays can attain enterprise-grade performance is by overprovisioning (which decreases the amount of usable storage) or by adding a persistent memory tier (which significantly increases cost).

 

How did Pure Storage integrate?

So what has Pure done differently? Crucially, the hardware and software engineers who built QLC support into FlashArray//C built on Pure’s unique vertically integrated architecture. Instead of using flash solid-state drive (SSD) modules like other storage vendors, Pure’s proprietary DirectFlash® modules connect raw flash directly to the FlashArray™ storage via NVMe, which reduces latency and increases throughput. And unlike traditional SSDs that use a flash controller or flash translation layer, DirectFlash is primarily raw flash. The flash translation takes place in the software.

This architecture allows the Purity operating environment to schedule and place data on the storage media with extreme precision, overcoming the technical challenges that have constrained other vendors.

 

For more information do read “Hybrid Arrays – Not Dead Yet, But … QLC Flash Is Here“