Patchless Client

Patchless Client
As of Lustre 1.6.0, Lustre supports running the client modules on most current "stock" kernels without the need for patches to the client kernel. Patches are still required to the Lustre server kernel, but since these nodes generally run only Lustre, this is not a major limitation. Pre-built "patchless" RPMs can be found at the Lustre download site.

We strongly recommend that you use a pre-built RPM rather than building your own. However, if you need to run a kernel on the client that is not one of the supported kernels, it is possible to build from source for the kernels listed at the top the Change Log for each release (see Lustre Release Information).

The Lustre configure script will automatically detect the unpatched kernel and disable building the servers.

[lustre]$ ./configure --with-linux=/unpatched/kernel/source

Versions
 OK to replace this section with a pointer to the Lustre Support Matrix?

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) Debian 4.0 2.6.18 is also reported working
 * 2.6.19   (1.6.0)
 * 2.6.20   (1.6.1 bug 11647)
 * 2.6.21   (1.6.1 bug 11647)
 * 2.6.22   (1.6.1 bug 12764)
 * 2.6.23+  (tbd bug 14250)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux: - 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
 * RHEL4 [2.6.9-42.0.8EL] (1.6.0) with the following caveats:
 * RHEL4U5 [2.6.9-55EL]  (1.6.0) Red Hat has included a number of fixes that allow Lustre to run with RHEL4U5 which resolves the above issues.
 * RHEL5 [2.6.18-67.0.22]  (1.6.1 bug 11647)

Fedora Core:
 * FC6 [2.6.18] (1.6.1 bug 11647)

Suse:
 * SLES 10 [2.6.16-60.0-31] (1.6.4 bug 12411))

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