Patchless Client

Patchless Client
As of Lustre 1.6.0, Lustre supports running the client modules on some unpatched "stock" kernels. This results in some small performance losses, but may be worthwhile to some users for maintenance or contract reasons.

We will typically post a "patchless" RPM at the download site. Instead, if building from source, the Lustre configure script will automatically detect the unpatched kernel and disable building the servers.

Versions
Currently, the patchless client works with these kernel versions

Vanilla kernel: * 2.6.15   (1.6.0) * 2.6.16    (1.6.0) * 2.6.17    (1.6.0) Mandriva's 2.6.17 is also reported working. * 2.6.18   (1.6.0) * 2.6.19    (1.6.0) * 2.6.20    (1.6.1 bug 11647) * 2.6.21   (1.6.1 bug 11647)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux: * RHEL4 [2.6.9-42.0.8EL] (1.6.0) with the following caveats: - Nested Symlinks: due to improper lookup_continue logic with unpatched 2.6.15 kernels and earlier, nested symlinks will lead to unpredictable results - FMODE_EXEC missing: Lustre will incorrectly allow a user from one client to   write/truncate a binary simultaneously while a user from a different client executes the same binary * RHEL4U5 [2.6.9-55EL]  (1.6.0) Red Hat has includesd a Lustre-specific patch with RHEL4U5 which resolves the above issues.

* RHEL5    (1.6.1 bug 11647)

Fedora Core: * FC6      (1.6.1 bug 11647)

Suse: * SLES 10  (tbd)

Known Issues
many NFS-related bugs are also addressed by the patchless client fixes.