PowerScale: Insufficient RAM stops NDMP jobs from running
Summary: Some archive nodes have only 16 GB of RAM, which is insufficient for Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) on OneFS 9.2 or later.
Symptoms
Nodes equipped with only 16 GB of RAM are unlikely to support NDMP backups. Insufficient memory can lead to various errors, and backups may fail to run after an upgrade.
IOCA pre-upgrade checks catch this, with the message:
"IOCA has detected node X fails to meet the minimum required RAM for successful NDMP at OneFS 9.2 and above. Dell Technologies recommends upgrading the RAM on your X node to a minimum of 64GB of RAM to ensure no interruption to current NDMP operations prior to upgrade”
Cause
Starting in OneFS 9.2 and later, PowerScale introduces code optimizations for handling larger files and datasets. As part of these enhancements, the memory requirements for NDMP backups have increased. Consequently, nodes with only 16 GB of RAM will likely be unable to perform NDMP backups after upgrading to version 9.2.
Resolution
PowerScale recommends engaging the Account Team, as upgrading the node RAM to 64 GB resolves this issue. However, Archive nodes are inherently lower-performance, and backup speed on these nodes cannot be guaranteed.