On May 26, 2011, at 09:18, Nathan Rutman wrote:> Does anyone have any ideas / plans for IPv6 support for Lustre / LNET? Or
does it remain an uninvestigated wishlist item?
>
> This was part of the OpenSFS requirements gathering phase:
> Support for IPv6 requires a change in the NID format to accommodate a
128bit IPv6 address in the address-within-network field. This affects all
protocol levels: LNDs, LNET and Lustre.
While I think there are a number of semi-interested parties, I don''t
think
anyone is actually working on this today.
There is a two-fold problem:
1) the less complex one is to change Lustre/LNET to handle the larger IPv6
NIDs at compile time and get that working, but this breaks compatibility
2) the more complex one is to make an IPv6-capable Lustre work in some
manner with older clients that don''t understand it (e.g. IPv4-IPv6
LNET
routers, different socklnds for each, or similar)
Of course, until #1 is done there is no way to know how hard #2 will be to
implement. The earlier #1 is finished, it would be possible for many users
to upgrade to RPMs built with IPv6 support, but most of the sites that have
money to fund such work are interested in compatibility (#2) because they
cannot upgrade their entire infrastructure at one time.
Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
Principal Engineer
Whamcloud, Inc.