Thank you for the detailed answer Andrew.
I do understand that anything above the posix level will not be supported by 
IBM and might lead to scaling/other issues.
We will start small, and discuss with IBM representative on any other possible 
efforts.

Regards,
Lohit

On May 15, 2018, 10:39 PM -0400, Andrew Beattie <[email protected]>, wrote:
> Lohit,
>
> There is no technical reason why if you use the correct licensing that you 
> can't publish a Posix fileystem using external Protocol tool rather than CES
> the key thing to note is that if its not the IBM certified solution that IBM 
> support stops at the Posix level and the protocol issues are your own to 
> resolve.
>
> The reason we provide the CES environment is to provide a supported 
> architecture to deliver protocol access,  does it have some limitations - 
> certainly
> but it is a supported environment.  Moving away from this moves the risk onto 
> the customer to resolve and maintain.
>
> The other part of this, and potentially the reason why you might have been 
> warned off using an external solution is that not all systems provide 
> scalability and resiliency
> so you may end up bumping into scaling issues by building your own 
> environment --- and from the sound of things this is a large complex 
> environment.  These issues are clearly defined in the CES stack and are well 
> understood.  moving away from this will move you into the realm of the 
> unknown -- again the risk becomes yours.
>
> it may well be worth putting a request in with your local IBM representative 
> to have IBM Scale protocol development team involved in your design and see 
> what we can support for your requirements.
>
>
> Regards,
> Andrew Beattie
> Software Defined Storage  - IT Specialist
> Phone: 614-2133-7927
> E-mail: [email protected]
>
>
> > ----- Original message -----
> > From: [email protected]
> > Sent by: [email protected]
> > To: gpfsug main discussion list <[email protected]>
> > Cc:
> > Subject: Re: [gpfsug-discuss] SMB server on GPFS clients and Followsymlinks
> > Date: Wed, May 16, 2018 12:25 PM
> >
> > Thanks Stephen,
> >
> > Yes i do acknowledge, that it will need a SERVER license and thank you for 
> > reminding me.
> >
> > I just wanted to make sure, from the technical point of view that we won’t 
> > face any issues by exporting a GPFS mount as a SMB export.
> >
> > I remember, i had seen in documentation about few years ago that it is not 
> > recommended to export a GPFS mount via Third party SMB services (not CES). 
> > But i don’t exactly remember why.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Lohit
> >
> > On May 15, 2018, 10:19 PM -0400, Stephen Ulmer <[email protected]>, wrote:
> > > Lohit,
> > >
> > > Just be aware that exporting the data from GPFS via SMB requires a SERVER 
> > > license for the node in question. You’ve mentioned client a few times 
> > > now. :)
> > >
> > > --
> > > Stephen
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > On May 15, 2018, at 6:48 PM, Lohit Valleru <[email protected]> 
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Thanks Christof.
> > > >
> > > > The usecase is just that : it is easier to have symlinks of files/dirs 
> > > > from various locations/filesystems rather than copying or duplicating 
> > > > that data.
> > > >
> > > > The design from many years was maintaining about 8 PB of NFS filesystem 
> > > > with thousands of symlinks to various locations and the same 
> > > > directories being exported on SMB.
> > > >
> > > > Now we are migrating most of the data to GPFS keeping the symlinks as 
> > > > they are.
> > > > Thus the need to follow symlinks from the GPFS filesystem to the NFS 
> > > > Filesystem.
> > > > The client wants to effectively use the symlinks design that works when 
> > > > used on Linux but is not happy to hear that he will have to redo years 
> > > > of work just because GPFS does not support the same.
> > > >
> > > > I understand that there might be a reason on why CES might not support 
> > > > this, but is it an issue if we run SMB server on the GPFS clients to 
> > > > expose a read only or read write GPFS mounts?
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > >
> > > > Lohit
> > > >
> > > > On May 15, 2018, 6:32 PM -0400, Christof Schmitt 
> > > > <[email protected]>, wrote:
> > > > > > I could use CES, but CES does not support follow-symlinks outside 
> > > > > > respective SMB export.
> > > > >
> > > > > Samba has the 'wide links' option, that we currently do not test and 
> > > > > support as part of the mmsmb integration. You can always open a RFE 
> > > > > and ask that we support this option in a future release.
> > > > >
> > > > > > Follow-symlinks is a however a hard-requirement  for to follow 
> > > > > > links outside GPFS filesystems.
> > > > >
> > > > > I might be reading this wrong, but do you actually want symlinks that 
> > > > > point to a file or directory outside of the GPFS file system? Could 
> > > > > you outline a usecase for that?
> > > > >
> > > > > Regards,
> > > > >
> > > > > Christof Schmitt || IBM || Spectrum Scale Development || Tucson, AZ
> > > > > [email protected]  ||  +1-520-799-2469    (T/L: 321-2469)
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > > ----- Original message -----
> > > > > > From: [email protected]
> > > > > > Sent by: [email protected]
> > > > > > To: gpfsug main discussion list <[email protected]>
> > > > > > Cc:
> > > > > > Subject: [gpfsug-discuss] SMB server on GPFS clients and 
> > > > > > Followsymlinks
> > > > > > Date: Tue, May 15, 2018 3:04 PM
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Hello All,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Has anyone tried serving SMB export of GPFS mounts from a SMB 
> > > > > > server on GPFS client? Is it supported and does it lead to any 
> > > > > > issues?
> > > > > > I understand that i will not need a redundant SMB server 
> > > > > > configuration.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I could use CES, but CES does not support follow-symlinks outside 
> > > > > > respective SMB export. Follow-symlinks is a however a 
> > > > > > hard-requirement  for to follow links outside GPFS filesystems.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > > Lohit
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > > gpfsug-discuss mailing list
> > > > > > gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
> > > > > > http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss
> > > > >
> > > > >
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