The recent LUG’2011 user group meeting for the Lustre community set the stage for the popular open source file system to move forward on the road to Exascale. To get an update on progress since then and preview of Lustre sessions at ISC’11, I caught up with Whamcloud’s CTO Eric Barton.
insideHPC: What’s happening with Lustre on the tech side at the moment?
Eric Barton: Performance is the key. Whamcloud is working on 2.x performance to match or exceed 1.8x. Lustre 1.8.x is extremely stable and well-proven in production. Lustre 2.0 involved a major re-structuring in preparation for future features and the focus was on stability. With Lustre 2.1 we are building on that stability and ensuring that the performance meets or exceeds Lustre 1.8.x. Other enhancements include RHEL6 server and client support, Async journal commits by default, and Ext4 by default. We also feel an adopted proven management model will enhance the workability and administration of a Lustre environment.
This is just some of the things we are working on. More updates to the roadmap and development are coming. For more details: http://wiki.whamcloud.com/
insideHPC: What are your plans for Lustre content at ISC?
Eric Barton: Whamcloud will have multiple technical experts at ISC to share updates on Lustre, the stability of the file system, and new developments, as well as how Whamcloud is contributing to the future of Lustre.
We have three presentations and chances to talk with the experts.
- On Sunday, June 19, 1:00pm – 1:30pm: Eric Barton, CTO, will be giving a talk at the HPC Advisory Council European Workshop entitled “Lustre Status and Roadmap.” For more information, check out the Workshop site. You’ll see a number of other great talks listed there as well.
- On Tuesday June 21, 2011, 12:40pm – 1:00pm: Brent Gorda, CEO, Eric Barton, CTO, and Johann Lombardi, Principal Engineer, will talk about the Lustre high-performance parallel file system and the specific work Whamcloud is doing to contribute to the longevity and stability of this core high performance computing technology.
- On Wednesday June 22: 02:30pm – 04:45pm Eric Barton, CTO, and Jacques-Charles Lafoucrière, EOFS, will lead a Birds of a Feather (BoF) discussion on “Lustre for HPC from Petascale to Exascale” including features under development, recent accomplishments and a look into the future roadmap of Lustre.
- And, last but not least, Whamcloud technology experts will be staffing the Whamcloud booth (#843) during all show floor hours at ISC.
insideHPC: Can you fill us in on the progress towards the next Lustre release?
Eric Barton: Whamcloud is leading the Lustre 2.1 community release, and we expect it to GA this summer. All up-to-date details can be followed at: http://groups.google.com/group/lustre-21
Although all future development effort is focused on the 2.x codeline, 1.8.x is still our maintenance release stream and the codeline most of the Lustre community uses in production. Therefore Whamcloud is also in the process of releasing a 1.8.x release that will support 32TB logical unit numbers (LUNs). GA is targeted for June 30th.
insideHPC: At LUG’2011, the main Lustre user communities agreed to align under OpenSFS pending changes to their bylaws. How is that progressing since LUG?
Eric Barton: At the Lustre User Group (LUG) on April 13 this year, LUG Chair Galen Shipman announced an agreement by the three Lustre community organizations to align with OpenSFS. We are extremely supportive of this move and believe that it is great news for Lustre to have all the community groups pulling in the same direction. Since things are changing quickly, for the latest progress and news, it’s probably best to use the http://www.opensfs.org site. Lots of news, information, and mailing lists are available there for anyone who is interested.
insideHPC: What keeps you up at night?
Eric Barton: Concalls with our global team 
Seriously, the big thing is the health and continued collaboration within the Lustre community. There were some tense moments at LUG 2011 where many were wondering what would happen with the main communities, specifically HPCFS, OpenSFS, and EOFS. We came together at LUG, things are good, and I have no reason to think it won’t continue along this positive path. But, I still worry.
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