Dell PowerVault MD1200 - Manual (Page 27)

Improving NFS Performance on HPC Clusters with Dell Fluid Cache for DAS
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Appendix A: Step-by-step configuration of Dell Fluid Cache for
NFS
This appendix provides detailed step-by-step instructions on the configuration of the storage solution
described in this white paper. Readers familiar with
Dell’s NSS line of solutions will find the
configuration steps to be very similar to the NSS recipe.
Contents
A.1. Hardware checklist and cabling .......................................................................... 27
A.2. NFS server set up ............................................................................................ 28
A.3. NFS server configuration and tuning ..................................................................... 29
A.4. Virtual disk configuration .................................................................................. 31
A.5. XFS and DFC configuration................................................................................. 33
A.6. Useful commands and references ........................................................................ 34
A.7. Performance tuning on clients ............................................................................ 34
A.1. Hardware checklist and cabling
The storage solution described in this white paper comprises of an NFS server, direct-attached external
storage, and the Dell Fluid Cache for DAS (DFC) software.
A PowerEdge R720 is used as the NFS server. This solution uses four PowerVault MD1200s as the
attached storage to provide 144TB of raw capacity.
Refer to Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 and Table 4 for the complete hardware and firmware configuration
of the server and the storage. This includes the PCI slot-to-card mapping for the server.
Figure 15 shows the cabling of the PowerVault MD1200s to the PERC H810 adapter on the server.