Bug 674090

Summary: RFE: Section needed in SAG to summarize configuration of RHEL with enterprise storage
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Reporter: Dave Wysochanski <dwysocha>
Component: doc-Storage_Admin_GuideAssignee: Jacquelynn East <jeast>
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE QA Contact: ecs-bugs
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: 6.0CC: bmr, dwysocha, jskeoch, msnitzer, rlandman
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: Documentation, FutureFeature
Target Release: 6.2   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Enhancement
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2013-02-26 04:57:16 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Deadline: 2012-02-22   

Description Dave Wysochanski 2011-01-31 15:59:30 UTC 
Description of problem:
There is a variety of bits and pieces of information about configuring RHEL with enterprise storage.  I feel it would be of value to provide a section to summarize the location of these particular details.

I am not entirely sure about this, since the SAG is organized around components of RHEL, and so a section on "things to note when using enterprise storage" does not really fit as far as a particular section.  It might fit as an Appendix though.  And I would guess of all our documentation, a customer who is setting up an enterprise storage array to be connected to RHEL would most likely look for clues in the SAG above all other RHEL documentation.

Here is some possible content:
0. Start with an admonition to contact the storage vendor for specific configuration information.  Then go on to list the following areas that are worth consideration when configuring enterprise storage.
1. tuned-adm "enterprise-storage" profile.  This is part of the power
management guide.  NOTE: The power management guide does not mention
this profile, but I spoke with Jeff Moyer about it.
2. Turning off barriers.  If using filesystems such as the default of
ext4, barriers should be turned off with the "-o nobarrier" mount
option.
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Storage_Administration_Guide/writebarrieronoff.html
3. Block discard.  Described in SSD section, and mentioned in release
notes as a use for thinly provisioned LUNs.  Would need to check with
storage vendor whether it is supported.
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Release_Notes/filesystems.html#id1776795
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Storage_Administration_Guide/newmds-ssdtuning.html#ssddeploy
4. I/O Alignment.
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Storage_Administration_Guide/newstorage-iolimits.html
5. Multipathing.  Might be worth a mention of our DM Multipath Configuration and Administration document.
Comment 1 Jacquelynn East 2011-05-23 05:49:51 UTC 
Should this perhaps go either in Chapter 1: Overview, or Chapter 2 Storage Considerations? 

Also, for points 2, 3, and 4, what did you want taken out of there? If it's already documented in the Storage Admin guide I don't really see the point in replicating it or just having a couple sentences and a link when all the client needs to do is look down the contents page to find these sections.
Comment 5 Dave Wysochanski 2012-06-18 13:05:56 UTC 
Let me send a note to our SBR storage mailing lists to see if this is something others see as valuable.

I'm not sure I can drive this content or be the SME for it.  If it is important we may need to identify a specific SME.
Comment 6 Bryn M. Reeves 2012-06-18 15:08:16 UTC 
I could see this fitting fairly naturally in the overview section - since most of this is covered _somewhere_ (even if we also want to increase coverage in some of those places), a couple of pages at the front of the document "Overview of enterprise storage technology" mentioning the issues highlighted here and providing links for futher information (and also maybe mentioning the knowledge base?) might serve as a good introduction that would make this easy to find without messing too much with the existing document structure.