StorNext Client System Requirements

Installing StorNext on all UNIX-based (including Linux) platforms requires installing these quantum-supplied packages:

• jansson

• libevent

• protobuf

• zeromq

These packages are used by StorNext and are bundled with the StorNext binary file.

The operating systems, kernel versions, rpm package dependencies, and hardware platforms supported by StorNext File System are listed in the StorNext 6 Compatibility Guide.

Make sure the system meets the operating system and platform requirements outlined in the guide, and, if necessary, update to a supported release or kernel version before installing StorNext.

Note: For Linux clients, you must be disable C-States through kernel boot parameters. See Modify the grub.conf File to Disable the Intel Sleep State.

To install and run the StorNext Client software, the system must meet the following minimum hardware requirements.

• For SAN (FC-attached) clients or for LAN clients:
  • 1 GB RAM
  • 500 MB available hard disk space
• For SAN clients acting as a Gateway server:
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 500 MB available hard disk space

Note: Gateway servers may require additional RAM depending on the number of file systems, LAN clients, and NICs used. See Gateway Server/Client Network and Memory Tuning for Gateway server/client memory tuning guidelines.

RAM, hard disk, and CPU requirements to run the StorNext clients are listed in the StorNext 6 Compatibility Guide.

Note: Make sure the system to be used as a StorNext client meets the hardware requirements outlined in the guide, and, if necessary, update the system before installing StorNext.

For improved performance and stability, on Windows clients it is strongly recommended that CPU C-States be disabled in the BIOS if they are supported by your system. Refer to system vendor documentation for additional information.

File System Buffer cache requirements for the StorNext clients are listed in the StorNext 6 Compatibility Guide.

Note: Make sure the system to be used as a StorNext client meets the hardware requirements outlined in the guide, and, if necessary, update the system before installing StorNext.

On Linux systems, the StorNext client installation software files are extracted into the /tmp/stornext directory by default. The software, when extracted, requires approximately 60 MB of space, and requires approximately 220 MB of space when installed. Make sure there is enough free space in the default directory to extract the files. If there is not sufficient space, you may need to specify an alternative directory with the -d option.

To specify an alternate location before beginning the installation, enter the following command:

where <archive name> is the name of the client software file you downloaded, and <dir> is the directory into which you want to extract the installation files.

Additional requirements that must be met for the StorNext system are listed in the StorNext 6 Compatibility Guide.

Note: Make sure the system meets the additional requirements outlined in the guide, and, if necessary, update the system before installing StorNext.

Multiple mounted file systems typically share a single buffer cache. A StorNext Client buffer cache is created for each different cachebufsize. By default, all file systems have the same cachebufsize of 64K, so they all share the same buffer cache.

Note: These settings do not apply to Apple Xsan Clients, which do not use the StorNext buffer cache.

The amount of memory consumed by default for each cachebufsize depends on the platform type and the amount of memory in the system. The table below displays the default amount of memory consumed by cachebufsize.

Platform Type	<=2GB Memory	2GB Memory
32-bit Windows	32MB	64MB
All other platforms	64MB	256MB

To see information about the buffer cache after mounting file systems, use the cvdb(1) command with the -b option. To change the amount of memory used by the buffer cache at mount time, use the buffercachecap parameter.

On Windows, the non-paged pool is used for buffer cache memory until it consumes up to 64 megabytes (32-bit systems) or 64 gigabytes (64-bit systems). Any additional buffer cache memory comes from the paged pool.