[Pvfs2-users] PVFS2 Installation

[Robert Latham]

On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 05:27:03AM -0500, Jeff Pummill wrote:
> I think the oddity with the pvfs2-rm command lies in the 
> /mnt/pvfs2/sample structure. If I just specify /mnt/pvfs2/<filename>, 
> the pvfs2-rm will delete the file with no complaints...even though the 
> file appears to be nested within the /sample subdirectory. Another 
> "roll" issue?

That *could* be a problem with the version of pvfs2 you are using
(1.1, right?).  I can't reproduce that with a recent version of PVFS2.  

> Regarding the compute node clients, I think the "roll" set them up and 
> started them...
> 
> *[jpummil at prospero ~]$ ssh c0-0
> Last login: Tue Apr 18 09:06:14 2006 from prospero.local
> Rocks Compute Node
> Rocks 4.0.0 (Whitney)
> Profile built 14:11 12-Apr-2006
> 
> Kickstarted 14:17 12-Apr-2006
> [jpummil at compute-0-0 ~]$ ps -ef | grep pvf
> root      7321     1  0 Apr12 ?        00:00:20 /usr/sbin/automount 
> --timeout=60 --ghost /mnt/pvfs2 file /etc/auto.pvfs2
> root      7370     1  0 Apr12 ?        00:00:00 
> /opt/pvfs2/sbin/pvfs2-client -p /opt/pvfs2/sbin/pvfs2-client-core
> root      7371  7370  0 Apr12 ?        00:00:00 pvfs2-client-core -a 5
> jpummil   9267  9244  0 10:20 pts/0    00:00:00 grep pvf
> *

That looks good. one less step for you.

> What is the significance of the commands in the /pvfs2/bin directory? 
> For example, pvfs2-cp vs cp and pvfs2-rm vs rm? Does this have anything 
> to do with whether or not the kernel module is running (someone told me 
> that if the kernel module for pvfs2 was running properly, you could use 
> the standard linux commands interchangeably...)?

The pvfs2-* commands in the /pvfs2/bin/ directory are tools that
interact with PVFS2 directly.  They bypass the linux VFS and kernel
module and talk directly to the PVFS2 servers running on your storage
nodes.  They are mostly used for development and debugging, as
users can run the programs and manipulate pvfs2 files without being
root.  Since they bypass the kernel interface, they are also a good
way to eliminate the PVFS2 kernel interface from the list of culprits
when something goes wrong.

If you've loaded the kernel module and mounted PVFS2, then you
probably don't need to worry about the pvfs2-* programs.

Hope that response clears things up for you a little bit.
==rob

-- 
Rob Latham
Mathematics and Computer Science Division    A215 0178 EA2D B059 8CDF
Argonne National Labs, IL USA                B29D F333 664A 4280 315B