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Chapter 2. HPSS Basics
2.1. Introduction
The High Performance Storage System (HPSS) provides hierarchical storage management and
services for very large storage environments. HPSS may be of interest to organizations having present
and future scalability requirements that are very demanding in terms of total storage capacity, file
sizes, data rates, number of objects stored, and numbers of users. HPSS is part of an open, distributed
environment based on remote procedure calls, Kerberos, LDAP directory systems and DB2 which
form the infrastructure of HPSS. HPSS is the result of a collaborative effort by leading US
Government supercomputer laboratories and industry to address very real, urgent high-end storage
requirements. HPSS is offered commercially by IBM.
HPSS provides scalable parallel storage systems for highly parallel computers as well as traditional
supercomputers and workstation clusters. Concentrating on meeting the high end of storage system
and data management requirements, HPSS is scalable and designed to store up to petabytes (10
15
) of
data and to use network-connected storage devices to transfer data at rates up to multiple gigabytes
(10
9
) per second.
HPSS provides a large degree of control for the customer to manage the hierarchical storage system.
Using configuration information defined by the customer, HPSS organizes storage devices into
multiple storage hierarchies. Based on policy information defined by the customer and actual usage
information, data are then moved to the appropriate storage hierarchy and to appropriate levels in the
storage hierarchy.
2.2. HPSS Capabilities
A primary goal of HPSS is to move large files between storage devices and parallel or clustered
computers at speeds many times faster than today’s commercial storage system software products and
to do this in a way that is more reliable and manageable than is possible with current systems. In
order to accomplish this goal, HPSS is designed and implemented based on the concepts described in
the following subsections.
2.2.1. Network-centered Architecture
The focus of HPSS is the network, not a single processor as in conventional storage systems. HPSS
provides servers that can be distributed across a high performance network to provide scalability and
parallelism. The basis for this architecture is the IEEE Mass Storage System Reference Model,
Version 5.
2.2.2. High Data Transfer Rate
HPSS achieves high data transfer rates by eliminating overhead normally associated with data
transfer operations. In general, HPSS servers establish and control transfer sessions but are not
involved in actual transfer of data.
2.2.3. Parallel Operation
The HPSS Client Application Program Interface (Client API) supports parallel or sequential access to
storage devices by clients executing parallel or sequential applications. HPSS also provides a Parallel
File Transfer Protocol. HPSS can even manage data transfers in a situation where the number of data
sources differs from the number of destination sources. Parallel data transfer is vital in situations that
demand fast access to very large files.
HPSS Installation Guide July 2008
Release 6.2 (Revision 2.0) 35