For optimal cluster performance, we recommend observing the following best practices. This information might be discussed elsewhere in this paper.
- Define, implement, and regularly test a data protection strategy and business continuity plan.
- Maintain sufficient free space and pay attention to data ingest rate.
- Ensure that cluster capacity utilization (hard drive and SSD) remains below 90%.
- As of OneFS 9.2.1, we recommend that each node in a PowerScale cluster has a minimum of 64 GB of RAM.
- If SmartPools is licensed, ensure that spillover is enabled (default setting).
- Manage your data: Archive infrequently accessed data and delete unused data.
- Maintain appropriate data protection levels.
- Periodically check the data protection level as the cluster grows.
- Record your original settings before making any configuration changes to OneFS or its data services.
- Monitor cluster capacity and data ingest rate.
- Ensure that all the data services that you want are licensed and configured.
- Observe NFS and SMB connection limits.
- Many cluster configuration settings are global and have cluster-wide effects. If you consider changing cluster-wide configuration settings, be sure that you fully understand the global settings and their implications
- Manage snapshot creation and deletion schedules.
- Set up SmartConnect for load balancing and use Round Robin as the balancing policy.
- Recommend turning off client DNS caching, where possible. To handle client requests properly, SmartConnect requires that clients use the latest DNS entries.
- Ensure that Virtual Hot Spare and SmartPools spillover both remain enabled (the default).
- Ensure the SmartPools job only runs during off-hours.
- If using SmartPools tiering, reconfigure the Storage Target field from “anywhere” to a specific tier or node pool to direct ingest to a performance node pool or tier.
- Add cluster to an InsightIQ monitoring instance
- Deploy a lab cluster environment to test and validate any new cluster configurations before making changes that affect the production environment.
- Confirm that remote support functions work correctly through Secure Remote Services and internal email/SNMP notifications.
- Upgrade OneFS to a newer release at least once a year using the nondisruptive ‘rolling-upgrade’ option.
- Configure and pay attention to cluster events and alerts.
- Regularly run and monitor OneFS Healthchecks.