Description:

backend.aistorageproxy 24.3.9

Backend.AI Storage Proxy
Backend.AI Storage Proxy is an RPC daemon to manage vfolders used in Backend.AI agent, with quota and
storage-specific optimization support.
Package Structure

ai.backend.storage

server: The agent daemon which communicates between Backend.AI Manager
api.client: The client-facing API to handle tus.io server-side protocol for uploads and ranged HTTP
queries for downloads.
api.manager: The manager-facing (internal) API to provide abstraction of volumes and separation of
the hardware resources for volume and file operations.
vfs

The minimal fallback backend which only uses the standard Linux filesystem interfaces


xfs

XFS-optimized backend with a small daemon to manage XFS project IDs for quota limits
agent: Implementation of AbstractVolumeAgent with XFS support


purestorage

PureStorage's FlashBlade-optimized backend with RapidFile Toolkit (formerly PureTools)


netapp

NetApp QTree integration backend based on the NetApp ONTAP REST API


weka

Weka.IO integration backend with Weka.IO V2 REST API


cephfs (TODO)

CephFS-optimized backend with quota limit support





Installation
Prerequisites

Python 3.8 or higher with pyenv
and pyenv-virtualenv (optional but recommended)

Installation Process
First, prepare the source clone of this agent:
# git clone https://github.com/lablup/backend.ai-storage-proxy

From now on, let's assume all shell commands are executed inside the virtualenv.
Now install dependencies:
# pip install -U -r requirements/dist.txt # for deployment
# pip install -U -r requirements/dev.txt # for development

Then, copy halfstack.toml to root of the project folder and edit to match your machine:
# cp config/sample.toml storage-proxy.toml

When done, start storage server:
# python -m ai.backend.storage.server

It will start Storage Proxy daemon bound at 127.0.0.1:6021 (client API) and
127.0.0.1:6022 (manager API).
NOTE: Depending on the backend, the server may require to be run as root.
Production Deployment
To get performance boosts by using OS-provided sendfile() syscall
for file transfers, SSL termination should be handled by reverse-proxies
such as nginx and the storage proxy daemon itself should be run without SSL.
Filesystem Backends
VFS
Prerequisites

User account permission to access for the given directory

Make sure a directory such as /vfroot/vfs a directory or you want to mount exists



XFS
Prerequisites

Local device mounted under /vfroot
Native support for XFS filesystem

Mounting XFS volume with an option -o pquota to enable project quota
To turn on quotas on the root filesystem, the quota mount flags must be
set with the rootflags= boot parameter. Usually, this is not recommended.


Access to root privilege

Execution of xfs_quota, which performs quota-related commands, requires
the root privilege.
Thus, you need to start the Storage-Proxy service by a root user or a
user with passwordless sudo access.
If the root user starts the Storage-Proxy, the owner of every file created
is also root. In some situations, this would not be the desired setting.
In that case, it might be better to start the service with a regular user
with passwordless sudo privilege.



Creating virtual XFS device for testing
Create a virtual block device mounted to lo (loopback) if you are the only one
to use the storage for testing:

Create file with your desired size

# dd if=/dev/zero of=xfs_test.img bs=1G count=100


Make file as XFS partition

# mkfs.xfs xfs_test.img


Mount it to loopback

# export LODEVICE=$(losetup -f)
# losetup $LODEVICE xfs_test.img


Create mount point and mount loopback device, with pquota option

# mkdir -p /vfroot/xfs
# mount -o loop -o pquota $LODEVICE /vfroot/xfs

Note on operation
XFS keeps quota mapping information on two files: /etc/projects and
/etc/projid. If they are deleted or damaged in any way, per-directory quota
information will also be lost. So, it is crucial not to delete them
accidentally. If possible, it is a good idea to backup them to a different disk
or NFS.
PureStorage FlashBlade
Prerequisites

NFSv3 export mounted under /vfroot
Purity API access

CephFS
Prerequisites

FUSE export mounted under /vfroot

NetApp ONTAP
Prerequisites

NFSv3 export mounted under /vfroot
NetApp ONTAP API access
native NetApp XCP or Dockerized NetApp XCP container

To install NetApp XCP, please refer NetApp XCP install guide


Create Qtree in Volume explicitly using NetApp ONTAP Sysmgr GUI

Note on operation
The volume host of Backend.AI Storage proxy corresponds to Qtree of NetApp ONTAP, not NetApp ONTAP Volume.
Please DO NOT remove Backend.AI mapped qtree in NetApp ONTAP Sysmgr GUI. If not, you cannot access to NetApp ONTAP Volume through Backend.AI.

NOTE:
Qtree name in configuration file(storage-proxy.toml) must have the same name created in NetApp ONTAP Sysmgr.

Weka.IO
Prerequisites

Weka.IO agent installed and running
Weka.IO filesystem mounted under local machine, with permission set to somewhat storage-proxy process can read and write
Weka.IO REST API access (username/password/organization)

License

For personal and professional use. You cannot resell or redistribute these repositories in their original state.

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