Isilon MCP feature

Ah, an Isilon feature from the early days.  When originally written, MCP stood for "Master Control Program", and bonus points for anyone noting the significance.

As for its functionality... the fundamental job of MCP is to keep Isilon-specific configurations synchronized amongst the nodes, which it tries to do transactionally.  MCP is the reason an admin can manipulate a OneFS configuration via a single node's WebUI or CLI and have that change automatically propagated to all the nodes in the cluster.  MCP monitors various directories within /etc/mcp/ on the local nodes for configuration changes, and each node's MCP daemon (being a peer with all other MCP daemons) can coordinate a configuration change if needed.

I'm not sure if there is any document written that specifically covers MCP in detail, but this is the gist...

> Manages Daemons

Yeah, I forgot to explicitly mention this.  In addition to keeping configurations synchronized, isi_mcp (that's the daemon) also monitors other Isilon service daemons (essentially the ones known to "isi services") and will automatically restart them if they die or are killed for some reason.

> Which node runs the MCP - node with the lowest LNN only

Taken out of context this sounds a bit misleading to me.  In actuality, every node runs isi_mcp; the node with the lowest LNN is just chosen as the "master".  If the lowest-LNN node is down or otherwise unavailable, all the remaining isi_mcp daemons will choose a new master (which I believe is just the next lowest-LNN node)...

That is just the way the question is worded in the exam

You are correct from what I understand of how this work if the master node does go down it move to the next lowest LNN numbered node

That is in fact another question in the bank if I remember correctly but again it is just not tied together in any of the document in a laid out way

Just questions in the banks and references to files under the folder etc/mcp no real details in any of the documents

There are several knowledge base articles around this but I do not have the correct access to read them

Tron.  I recall there being a couple of slides in some training a while ago, but nothing in the current versions.

I have to rush back to Flynn's now...  

END OF LINE.

That is what I am trying to find

Have gone through the VILT notes / Isilon Foundation SRG complete notes plus each of the main document

One FS Security Configuration Guide

OneFS Command reference

OneFS Web Administration guide

OneFS cli administration guides

as well as a number of white papers available for Isilon but it does not show this however if you take the online exam for Isilon covering the VILT training for the product Isilon Diagnostic and Trouble shooting Assessment (MR-1ZP-ISIDT) it has 3 related question covering MCP in it

This off course could be an older exam and not been updated but went through each question and complied notes for each and this is the only area where I could not really find any actual details in my revision for the e20-357 exam etc

The recommended training for the E20-357  Isilon Solutions Specialist Exam for Implementation Engineers includes:

• Isilon Fundamentals (eLearning)
• Isilon Installation and Initial Configuration (eLearning)
• Isilon Implementation (Course available as ILT, Online ILT, Video ILT and Video ILT - Stream)

You can find the full exam description here: https://education.emc.com/content/_common/docs/exam_descriptions/E20_357_IE_Isilon_Solutions_exam.pdf

Have you taken all of these courses? The exams are based on the recommended training course materials.

Kate

Passed the E20-357 exam, the MCP question was really from a different online exam from EMC that I used in preparation for the E20-357 exam

Basically I have partner status for the EMC  training and am able to access a lot of the online training via this.

I did go through all related training and it was whilst going through the online training that I noticed additional EMC online practice test .

These three exams  are available as separate online assessments for Isilon in the eLearning training there are also two additional assessment which are related to a boot camp you can take.

MR-1SP-ISIAM - Isilon Administration and Management Assessment

MR-1ZP-ISIDT - Isilon Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Assessment

MR-1ZP-ISIII - Isilon Implementation assessment

I used these  to re-enforce my eLearning and Isilon general knowledge as part of the exam prep and it is in these I noticed the question around MCP

I went through all the student notes for the VILT and eLearning  for Isilon and it did not have any details that I could find

I also looked through all related documentation for the Isilon from the Solve Desktop and configuration guides in building the notes I used in preparation for the exam just could not find a full explanation in any of the slides or the documents etc that I was happy with

I even download and went through all the online help guide for Isilon

What the Master Control Process does is easy to understand but was building some training notes and exam preparation notes for myself and future reference etc and like to add links to where the details are in EMC  documentation as references and for later.

There are a lot of question in the E20-357 exam that can be easily missed in terms of the details in the VILT training, to successfully pass this exam you need to go through the training extremely carefully and in detail paying attention to all related slides notes in both the fundamental and VILT training.

Particularly the major aspect is file access as you would expect so Module four of the VILT is a key factor in passing the exam I found

Michael,

  First of all, thank you for keeping the conversation going and documenting your thoughts and issues with the process here.

I am on the training development team for Isilon and while I did not participate in the creation of the exam you were looking at I have been engaged in the discussion about what to cover with MCP or not.  In most cases now, as you have discovered, it's an internal component that is not discussed in any significant detail in documentation, and at an administrative level it's not a component that you are really going to interact with on any kind of regular basis.  Only in extreme workflow circumstances or in significant troubleshooting situations might the MCP functions come up. 

So as training content is developed and updated, there's been less emphasis on walking through MCP in all but the occasional diagnostic and troubleshooting type training.  My solution to your experience here may actually be going into the exam and pulling these questions as they aren't covered by the material as it stands today.

What I would like to know from you or anyone else participating in this discussion, is there something about the MCP that you believe is of value for an administrator to know?  You've been searching to link or document the source to answer a question, but I want to flip that around.  Does the question and your knowing the answer help you?  Is it valuable?  If you believe it is, then perhaps we do need to look at training and ensure we cover it appropriately. 

I don't think it is asking an Isilon Storage Administrator too much that they know about the existence of the isi_mcp process and that its job is a watchdog for crucial system tasks. I have many times taken advantage of that knowledge even if I wasn't aware of the mechanism of how MCP operates.

Like Jason F says this is part of how the Isilon works in terms of the underlying management of the system

The problem I have is this although we can pull the MCP aspect out of the training notes and exams etc does it help the people doing the training or just leaves them not understanding the whole system properly.

Why miss out something that is a underlying aspect of the Isilon system completely from all documentation not just the training how does that help me understand the Isilon product.

Surely I need to know how to support a system and it details not just some parts of it and the documents and training should reflect that.

I can and have worked out how to do basic tasks in Isilon before I had any training, the Isilon GUI is after all pretty basic to use for BAU activities etc it is easy to just select options in a GUI and get results when the options are limited.

I have also taught for a number of years and have re-developed training in my time including the exams around the subjects I taught etc

Deciding what is in the training and notes is always a call but missing it out completely from all documentation seem wrong there should be details even if it is just a couple of paragraphs somewhere in the documentation discussing what MCP does and is surely.

We all always learn more by doing but we have to have details we can reference somehow, this is why I try to put notes together whilst doing the EMC  online practice exams helps me later when I may need to look something up and saves time.

Learn more by trying to find answer to questions and where the details are in the documents than I do through the various eLearning courses as I have to read more but does show the limits of the training somewhat.

And a continuity aspect if the exams on a product covers an aspect of the system that is no longer covered in the training or in the actual documents for the product.  How are we therefore suppose to pass the exam if the details are sparse or missing

There is value in covering it; questions about MCP come up at least once a quarter on the various forums/mailing lists.  It would be nice if there were something in the OneFS manuals (even a couple of sentences) in addition to the training courses.

After all, knowledge is power. 

Cheers,
Matt

Couldn't agree more.  Apart from isi services, the capability to "share" files

across cluster nodes without using /ifs is a mechanism well worth to be noted.

Too much confusion otherwise if one runs into it in practice...

Cheers

-- Peter