IBM Storage Scale

You can deploy the dedicated Storage Scale cluster for High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters using IBM Storage Scale as the storage solution. This offering leverages deployable architecture automation to streamline the provisioning and configuration of the cloud resources. In simple steps, you can define the configuration properties and make use of automated deployment to build your own storage-rich clusters in minutes. IBM® Storage Scale supports the configuration of both compute and storage nodes, allowing you to build a complete, end-to-end Storage cluster.

Architecture diagram

Design concepts

The architecture framework design covers design considerations and architecture decisions for the following aspects and domains:

Data: Data storage
Compute: Virtual servers
Storage: Primary storage
Networking: Isolation and domain name service
Security: Data security
Service management: Logging and automated deployment

Requirements

The following table outlines the requirements that are addressed in this architecture.

Requirements
Aspect	Requirements
Data	Provide a location to store IBM Storage Scale configuration and data.
Compute	Provide properly isolated compute resources with adequate compute capacity for the applications.
Storage	Provide storage that meets the application and database performance requirements.
Networking	Deploy workloads in an isolated environment and enforce information flow policies. Distribute incoming application requests across available compute resources. Support failover of application within the cluster event of planned or unplanned node outage. Provide private DNS resolution to support the use of hostnames instead of IP addresses.
Security	Ensure that all operator actions are run securely through bastion host. Provide users with the ability to use keys to ensure that all data meets regulatory compliance requirements for more security and user control. Protect secrets through their entire lifecycle and secure them using access control measures.
Service Management	Monitor system and application health metrics and logs to detect issues that might impact the availability of the application. Monitor audit logs to track changes and detect potential security problems.

Components

Components
Aspects	Requirement	Architecture component	How the component is used
Data and Storage	GPFS or NFS	Storage Scale nodes Protocol nodes	These components are used to create storage elements for the cluster.
Compute	Create Virtual Server Instances (VSI) to support LDAP.	Scale LDAP nodes	Allows you to login through LDAP users.
	Create VSI to support GPFS based compute nodes.	Scale compute nodes	This component is used to create the GPFS compute nodes.
	Create VSI to support NFS based protocol nodes.	Scale protocol nodes	This component is used to create the NFS based protocol nodes.
	Create VSI to support NFS based client protocol nodes.	Protocol client nodes	This component is used to create the NFS based client protocol nodes.
	Create VSI to support Storage Scale nodes.	Storage Scale nodes	Creates VSI to support the Storage Scale nodes.
	Create VSI to support GKLM.	GKLM nodes	Create VSI to support GKLM nodes.
Networking	Create individual security groups for each nodes.	To restrict the traffic at the instance level.
	Enable floating IP on bastion node for user access.	Floating IP on the bastion node	Allows user access to the Scale bastion node.
	Enable a public gateway for the Scale subnets.	Storage subnet Compute subnet	Allows outbound communication for the Scale node for any internet access (for example, repositories, packages, and so on).
	DNS service for the Scale cluster nodes	DNS service	Helps with the IP and name resolution for the Scale compute nodes.
Security	Provide users with the ability to use keys to ensure that all data meets regulatory compliance requirements for more security and user control.	IBM® Key Protect for IBM Cloud® IBM Security® Guardium® Key Lifecycle Manager (GKLM)	Provides the ability to use keys to ensure that all data meets regulatory compliance requirements for more security and user control.
	Protect secrets through their entire lifecycle and secure them using access control measures.	IBM Cloud® Secrets Manager	Protects secrets through their entire lifecycle and secure them using access control measures.
Service Management	(Optional) Monitor system and application health metrics and logs to detect issues that might impact the availability of the application.	IBM Storage Scale GUI	Monitors system and application health to detect issues that might impact the availability of the application.
	(Optional) Monitor audit logs to track changes and detect potential security problems.	IBM Cloud® Activity Tracker Event Routing	Monitors audit logs to track changes and detect potential security problems.