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1. Log on the graphic management interface (GUI) of IBM Storage Scale(Duration: 3 mins)
   

   Click  Advanced...  -> Accept the Risk and Continue

   Input "admin" as name and "admin001" as password, and then click the "Sign In" button
   
   Log onto the Spectrum Scale management platform
   

2. View resource pools(Duration: 5 mins)
   Navigate to the menu "Storage -> Pools" at the left.
   
   View all the resource pools currently managed by the system:
   
   - ssdpool: a resource pool consisting of high-performance disks, which is mainly used for storing hot data or the data with relatively high storage performance requirements
   - saspool: a resource pool consisting of medium-performance disks, which is mainly used for storing the data with medium storage performance requirements
   - nlsaspool: a resource pool consisting of low-performance disks, which is mainly used for storing warm data and the data that needs to be retained for a long term
   Note: In this demo scenario, the above-mentioned three storage resource pools of different performance levels will be used to store different types of business data, for example:
   • profiles in json or xml: refer to the files to be read/written by applications in real-time; we can configure a placement policy to write these files into ssdpool by default to meet their high-performance read/write requirements
   • videos and audios in mp4, avi, mov, mp3 or other formats: these files are of large size but accessed less frequently; we can configure a placement policy to write them into nlsaspool to meet their long-term retention and high cost performance requirements
   • Other types of files: to be placed into saspool by default
   Next, we will quickly configure three placement policies (default / highperf / lowperf) in the GUI of Spectrum Scale:
3. Enter the Information Lifecycle Management page(Duration: 6 mins)
   Navigate to the Menu "Files -> Information Lifecycle" at the left
   
   View the list of policies at the left:
   
   Active Policy: refers to currently active policy rules
   Policy Repository: refers to the policy repository
4. Create a policy(Duration: 5 mins)
   - Click into the Policy Repository tab page
   - Click the button "+" to create a new policy and name it as "mypolicy1"
   
5. Configure the default placement rules(Duration: 5 mins)
   Note: Our purpose here is to let the common files without special statements be written into the resource pool "saspool" by default
   - Click to select the default rule "Placement default (*)" under mypolicy1
   - Edit the rule at the right as "pool = saspool" (meaning that all files are to be placed saspool by default)
   - Click the button "Apply Changes" to save your settings
   
6. Create and configure the placement rules for files with high storage performance requirements(Duration: 5 mins)
   

   Note: Our purpose here is to let the files of json and xml format be written into ssdpool by default
   - Click the button "Add Rule" to create a new placement rule (Rule name: highperf; Rule type: Placement)
   
   - Edit the rule at the right as "pool = ssdpool"
   
   - Scroll down and edit the rule (Placement Criteria: Extension IN *.json, *.xml) as shown in the figure
   
   Click the button "Apply Changes" at the lower left corner to save your settings

7. Create and configure the placement rules for files with low storage performance requirements(Duration: 5 mins)
   Note: Our purpose here is to let the files of mp4, mp3 and avi format be written into nlsapool by default
   - With reference to the figure in the previous step, click the button "Add Rules" to create a new placement rule (Rule name: lowperf; Rule type: Placement)
   - Edit the rule at the right as "pool = nlsaspool"
   - Edit the rule (Placement Criteria: Extension IN *.mp4, *.mp3,*.avi)
   - Click the button "Apply Changes" to save your settings
8. Adjust the sequence of placement rules(Duration: 5 mins)
   Note: The purpose here is to ensure that the files with format declared can be written into their default resource pool preferentially
   - At the left, drag the "Placement default" rule to the bottom
   - Click the button "Apply Changes" at the bottom to save your settings
   
9. Activate the policies(Duration: 5 mins)
   Note: The newly-created "mypolicy1" policy containing three placement rules does not take effect and is just registered in the Policy Repository. Next, we should activate all these rules.
   Scroll up to the top, right click to select mypolicy1 and then select "Apply as Active Policy"
   
   Click into the "Active Policy" tab page and view the list of active policies
   
   Till now, all the settings have been completed.
10. Simulate writing files and verify the placement policies(Duration: 6 mins)
    

    Note: In this step, we will directly access the directory /gpfs at the GPFS server side, simulate writing three files of json, pdf and mp4 formats respectively, and check whether they are written automatically into the resource pools as set by rules
    - Find the PuTTY client in the taskbar at the bottom of desktop, which has logged into the GPFS server by default
    - Enter the gpfs directory
    # cd /ibm/gpfs
    - Crete a json file to be accessed most frequently, a pdf file to be accessed less frequently and a mp4 file to be accessed least frequently respectively, and simulate writing files into the gpfs directory
    # echo ‘aaa’ > a.json

    # echo ‘bbb’> b.pdf

    # echo ‘ccc’ > c.mp4
    - Use the commands of Spectrum Scale to verify the storage resource pools where the three test files are located
    # mmlsattr -L a.json

    # mmlsattr -L b.pdf

    # mmlsattr -L c.mp4
    View the values of "storage pool name" values in the output results, which should be normally displayed as follows:
    a.json -> ssdpool
    b.pdf -> saspool
    c.mp4 -> nlsaspool
    Through the simple tests described above, we can find that Spectrum Scale allows you to allocate proper resource pools for writing files by quick configuration. These tests only demonstrate the judgment conditions based on file suffix. You may test with other parameters, such as user or user group.

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