Juli Rew
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by Juli Rew
On 30 March, SCD installed a new version of the Distributed Computing Services (DCS) Mass Storage System (MSS) commands as
the default on all SCD production machines, including front-end machines
and Crays.
This new version of the MSS commands includes a new file transfer
command named msrcp. The msrcp command allows you to
transfer several files in a single command line, as well as the
ability to use wildcard characters to reference MSS files. See the
msrcp man page for details on this new command.
You do not have to modify your environment in order to access the
new versions of the commands. SCD has replaced the
command set located in /usr/local/bin.
The new DCS commands are effective on antero, aztec, chipeta, irje, meeker, migs, ouray, paiute,
and winterpark.
MSS transactions speedier
Users have undoubtedly noticed a quicker response when they type
msls to get a list of their MSS files.
Since 1 January, when SCD installed the first version of its DCS
commands to replace the aging in-house network, called MASnet, DCS has
succeeded well beyond expectations. The DCS commands are built upon
DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) software and protocols.
They now handle all "metadata" (informational) transactions to
the MSS as well as the new remote copy capability.
From the period from 1 January to 16 March, DCS handled a total of
177,689
commands. This works out to 2,338 per day. The new installation
has undergone further improvements to make it more robust as well as
more efficient.
A touching moment. . .
SCD has observed that the majority of commands issued to the MSS are
mstouch commands on Monday mornings after purge notices are
sent out on Sunday.
While this is an economical way to update your retention period (there
is currently no charge for metadata commands), we encourage you to
select an
appropriate retention period (either via the msrcp, mswrite, or
msretention commands) for your MSS data files, rather than
relying on the short default retention period and doing frequent
mstouch commands.
For example,
msretention -period 365 /JSMITH/DATA/file1
changes the retention period of file1 to 365 days.
msretention -period 365 -R /JSMITH/DATA
(recursively) changes the retention period of all files in the
DATA directory and below.
msretention -period 365 '/JSMITH/DATA/*'
changes the retention period of all files in the DATA directory (using
the wildcard feature). Note that when using wildcards, it is necessary
to use quotes to escape expansion by the shell.
Web interface coming
SCD plans to provide a web interface that will allow you to maintain
and examine your MSS data via your browser, and is now testing a
prototype.
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