Configuring the Lustre File System

(Updated: Sep 2009)

This page describes how to configure a simple Lustre™ file system comprised of a combined MGS/MDT, an OST and a client. The administrative utilities provided with Lustre, however, can be used to set up systems with many different configurations.

Note: We recommend that you use dotted-quad (dot-decimal) notation for IP addresses (IPv4) rather than host names. This aids in reading debug logs and helps when debugging configurations with multiple interfaces.

Configuring the Lustre File System
This section contains a procedure for configuring the Lustre File System. For an example showing configuration of a Lustre installation comprising a combined MGS/MDT, an OST and a client see Lustre Configuration Example.

To configure Lustre Networking (LNET) and the Lustre file system, complete these steps:

1. Define the module options for Lustre networking (LNET) by adding this line to the /etc/modprobe.conf file. The modprobe.conf file is a Linux file that specifies which parts of the kernel are loaded.


 * options lnet networks=


 * This step restricts LNET to using only the specified network interfaces and prevents LNET from using all network interfaces.


 * As an alternative to modifying the modprobe.conf file, you can modify the modprobe.local file or the configuration files in the modprobe.d directory.


 * Note: For details on configuring networking and LNET, see Chapter 2: Understanding Lustre Networking (LNET) in the Lustre Operations Manual.

2. (Optional) Prepare the block devices to be used as OSTs or MDTs. Depending on the hardware used in the MDS and OSS nodes, you may want to set up a hardware or software RAID to increase the reliability of the Lustre system. For more details on how to set up a hardware or software RAID, see the documentation for your RAID controller or see Chapter 6: Configuring Storage on a Lustre File System in the Lustre Operations Manual.

3. Create a combined MGS/MDT file system on the block device. On the MDS node, run:


 * mkfs.lustre --fsname= --mgs --mdt


 * The default file system name (fsname) is lustre.


 * Note: If you plan to generate multiple file systems, the MGS should be on its own dedicated block device.

4. Mount the combined MGS/MDT file system on the block device. On the MDS node, run:
 * mount -t lustre

5. Create the OST. On the OSS node, run:


 * mkfs.lustre --ost --fsname= --mgsnode=


 * You can have as many OSTs per OSS as the hardware or drivers allow.


 * You should use only one OST per block device. Optionally, you can create an OST which uses the raw block device and does not require partitioning.


 * Note: If the block device has more than 8 TB of storage, it must be partitioned due to the ext3 file system limitation. Lustre can support block devices with multiple partitions, but they are not recommended because bottlenecks may result.

6. Mount the OST. On the OSS node where the OST was created, run:


 * mount -t lustre


 * Note: To create additional OSTs, repeat Steps 5 and 6.

7. Create the client (mount the file system on the client). On the client node, run:




 * mount -t lustre :/


 * Note: To create additional clients, repeat Step 7]].

8. Verify that the file system started and is working by running the UNIX commands df, dd and ls on the client node.


 * a. Run the df command.




 * [root@client1 /] df -h


 * b. Run the dd command.




 * [root@client1 /] cd /lustre
 * [root@client1 /lustre] dd if=/dev/zero of=/lustre/zero.dat bs=4M count=2

c. Run the ls command.




 * [root@client1 /lustre] ls -lsah

If you have a problem mounting the file system, check the syslogs for errors.

Lustre Configuration Example
For an example illustrating the configuration steps described in the previous section for a Lustre installation comprising a combined MGS/MDT, an OST and a client, see Lustre Configuration Example.

Lustre Configuration Utilities
Once the Lustre file system is configured, it is ready for use. If additional configuration is necessary, see Lustre System Configuration Utilities.