Server Startup

	You will use the OrangeFS server daemon (pvfs2-server) on each server to initialize the storage directories and start the OrangeFS server process.

Procedure

Running the server involves two tasks:

• Initializing the working directories on each server for storage space
• Starting the server process

The first task must be performed once on each server. Thereafter, you can start and stop the server process with a single command. Both tasks are accomplished with a command line statement that includes the OrangeFS server daemon (pvfs2-server), located in the OrangeFS installation directory under sbin.

Initialize the Storage Directories

To initialize the storage directories, run the following command on each server:

/opt/orangefs/sbin/pvfs2-server -f -a [hostname] /opt/orangefs/etc/orangefs-server.conf

The -f option indicates that the file system storage directories should be initialized. This command creates the storage directories using the locations provided in the orangefs-server.conf file.  The storage directories created will be /opt/orangefs/storage/{data,meta} with additional subdirectories under both storage locations.

**Notes   **Because each server has different data based on the handle ranges provided with the orangefs-server.conf file, do not copy one set of databases to each server. You must create them separately on each server.

The storage space on each OrangeFS server must be initialized only once.

You can change the locations for storage directories by manually adding the <ServerOptions> section in OrangeFS configuration file. With this method, you can specify unique directory locations for each server. For detailed information on all options in the OrangeFS configuration file, see Advanced Configuration > OrangeFS Configuration File.

Start the Server Process

To start the server process, enter the following command:

/opt/orangefs/sbin/pvfs2-server -a hostname /opt/orangefs/etc/orangefs-server.conf

Starting the Server Process Automatically

To avoid repeating this command each time you reboot an OrangeFS server, you can place the statement in the appropriate system file(s) for automatic execution.

Stopping the Server Process

To stop the server process, enter the following command:

killall pvfs2-server