# IBM Spectrum Scale share driver

IBM Spectrum Scale is a flexible software-defined storage product that can be deployed as high-performance file storage or a cost optimized large-scale content repository. IBM Spectrum Scale, previously known as IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS), is designed to scale performance and capacity with no bottlenecks. IBM Spectrum Scale is a cluster file system that provides concurrent access to file systems from multiple nodes. The storage provided by these nodes can be direct attached, network attached, SAN attached, or a combination of these methods. Spectrum Scale provides many features beyond common data access, including data replication, policy based storage management, and space efficient file snapshot and clone operations.

## Supported shared filesystems and operations (NFS shares only)

The Spectrum Scale share driver supports NFS shares.

The following operations are supported:

- Create a share.

- Delete a share.

- Allow share access.

  - Only IP access type is supported.

  - Both RW & RO access level is supported.

- Deny share access.

- Create a share snapshot.

- Delete a share snapshot.

- Create a share from a snapshot.

- Extend a share.

- Manage a share.

- Unmanage a share.

## Requirements

Spectrum Scale must be installed and a cluster must be created that includes one or more storage nodes and protocol server nodes. The NFS server running on these nodes is used to export shares to storage consumers in OpenStack virtual machines or even to bare metal storage consumers in the OpenStack environment. A file system must also be created and mounted on these nodes before configuring the manila service to use Spectrum Scale storage. For more details, refer to Spectrum Scale product documentation.

Spectrum Scale supports two ways of exporting data through NFS with high availability.

1. CES (which uses Ganesha NFS)

   - This is provided inherently by the protocol support in Spectrum Scale and is a recommended method for NFS access.

2. CNFS (which uses kernel NFS)

For more information on NFS support in Spectrum Scale, refer to Protocol support in Spectrum Scale and NFS Support overview in Spectrum Scale.

The following figure is an example of Spectrum Scale architecture with OpenStack services:

Quotas should be enabled for the Spectrum Scale filesystem to be exported through NFS using Spectrum Scale share driver. Use the following command to enable quota for a filesystem:

    $ mmchfs <filesystem> -Q yes

## Limitation

Spectrum Scale share driver currently supports creation of NFS shares in the flat network space only. For example, the Spectrum Scale storage node exporting the data should be in the same network as that of the Compute VMs which mount the shares acting as NFS clients.

## Driver configuration

Spectrum Scale share driver supports creation of shares using both NFS servers (Ganesha using Spectrum Scale CES/Kernel NFS).

For both the NFS server types, you need to set the `share_driver` in the `manila.conf` as:

    share_driver = manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.GPFSShareDriver

### Spectrum Scale CES (NFS Ganesha server)

To use Spectrum Scale share driver in this mode, set the `gpfs_share_helpers` in the `manila.conf` as:

    gpfs_share_helpers = CES=manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.CESHelper

Following table lists the additional configuration options which are used with this driver configuration.

Description of IBM Spectrum Scale CES share driver configuration options
Configuration option = Default value | Description
--- | ---
[DEFAULT] |
`gpfs_mount_point_base` = `$state_path/mnt` | (String) Base folder where exported shares are located.
`gpfs_nfs_server_type` = `CES` | (String) NFS Server type. Valid choices are “CES” (Ganesha NFS) or “KNFS” (Kernel NFS).
`gpfs_share_export_ip` = `None` | (Host address) IP to be added to GPFS export string.
`gpfs_share_helpers` = `KNFS=manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.KNFSHelper, CES=manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.CESHelper` | (List) Specify list of share export helpers.
`gpfs_ssh_login` = `None` | (String) GPFS server SSH login name.
`gpfs_ssh_password` = `None` | (String) GPFS server SSH login password. The password is not needed, if ‘gpfs_ssh_private_key’ is configured.
`gpfs_ssh_port` = `22` | (Port number) GPFS server SSH port.
`gpfs_ssh_private_key` = `None` | (String) Path to GPFS server SSH private key for login.
`is_gpfs_node` = `False` | (Boolean) True:when Manila services are running on one of the Spectrum Scale node. False:when Manila services are not running on any of the Spectrum Scale node.

Note

Configuration options related to ssh are required only if `is_gpfs_node` is set to `False`.

### Spectrum Scale Clustered NFS (Kernel NFS server)

To use Spectrum Scale share driver in this mode, set the `gpfs_share_helpers` in the `manila.conf` as:

    gpfs_share_helpers = KNFS=manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.KNFSHelper

Following table lists the additional configuration options which are used with this driver configuration.

Description of IBM Spectrum Scale KNFS share driver configuration options
Configuration option = Default value | Description
--- | ---
[DEFAULT] |
`gpfs_mount_point_base` = `$state_path/mnt` | (String) Base folder where exported shares are located.
`gpfs_nfs_server_list` = `None` | (List) A list of the fully qualified NFS server names that make up the OpenStack Manila configuration.
`gpfs_nfs_server_type` = `CES` | (String) NFS Server type. Valid choices are “CES” (Ganesha NFS) or “KNFS” (Kernel NFS).
`gpfs_share_export_ip` = `None` | (Host address) IP to be added to GPFS export string.
`gpfs_share_helpers` = `KNFS=manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.KNFSHelper, CES=manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.CESHelper` | (List) Specify list of share export helpers.
`gpfs_ssh_login` = `None` | (String) GPFS server SSH login name.
`gpfs_ssh_password` = `None` | (String) GPFS server SSH login password. The password is not needed, if ‘gpfs_ssh_private_key’ is configured.
`gpfs_ssh_port` = `22` | (Port number) GPFS server SSH port.
`gpfs_ssh_private_key` = `None` | (String) Path to GPFS server SSH private key for login.
`is_gpfs_node` = `False` | (Boolean) True:when Manila services are running on one of the Spectrum Scale node. False:when Manila services are not running on any of the Spectrum Scale node.

Note

Configuration options related to ssh are required only if `is_gpfs_node` is set to `False`.

## Share creation steps

### Sample configuration

    [gpfs]
    share_driver = manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.GPFSShareDriver
    gpfs_share_export_ip = x.x.x.x
    gpfs_mount_point_base = /ibm/gpfs0
    gpfs_nfs_server_type = CES
    is_gpfs_node = True
    gpfs_share_helpers = CES=manila.share.drivers.ibm.gpfs.CESHelper
    share_backend_name = GPFS
    driver_handles_share_servers = False

### Create GPFS share type and set extra spec

    $ manila type-create --snapshot_support True \
      --create_share_from_snapshot_support True gpfs False

    $ manila type-key gpfs set share_backend_name=GPFS

this page last updated: 2026-03-20 00:30:00

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