IBM Data Engine for NoSQL - Power Systems Edition creates a new tier of memory by attaching up to 57 Terabytes of auxiliary flash memory to the processor without the latency issues of traditional I/O storage. While not as fast as DRAM, the latency is within the acceptable limit of most applications especially when data is accessed over the network. Flash is also dramatically less expensive than DRAM, and helps reduce the deployment and operational cost for delivering the customer solution. Customers, MSPs, and ISPs all benefit from application of this new technology in the NoSQL application space. Exploiting hardware and software built-in to IBM’s flagship POWER8 open architecture means that clients no longer much choose between “big” or “fast” for their solutions. Read more, including API guides at:
To configure a build environment on Ubuntu:
#!/bin/bash
#a ready-to-go toolchain exists in the IBM Toolchain for Linux. Configure its repo and download it
sudo apt-get -y install software-properties-common #needed for the next few lines...
#set up at7.1 repo
wget ftp://ftp.unicamp.br/pub/linuxpatch/toolchain/at/ubuntu/dists/precise/6976a827.gpg.key
sudo apt-key add 6976a827.gpg.key
sudo add-apt-repository "deb ftp://ftp.unicamp.br/pub/linuxpatch/toolchain/at/ubuntu trusty at7.1 "
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install advance-toolchain-at7.1-runtime advance-toolchain-at7.1-perf advance-toolchain-at7.1-devel advance-toolchain-at7.1-mcore-libs libudev1
To configure a build environment on RHEL or Fedora:
#!/bin/bash
cat >/etc/yum.repos.d/atX.X.repo
# Beginning of configuration file
[atX.X]
name=Advance Toolchain Unicamp FTP
baseurl=ftp://ftp.unicamp.br/pub/linuxpatch/toolchain/at/redhat/RHEL7
failovermethod=priority
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=ftp://ftp.unicamp.br/pub/linuxpatch/toolchain/at/redhat/RHEL7/gpg-pubkey-6976a827-5164221b
# End of configuration file
<CTRL-D>
yum install make cscope ctags doxygen git gitk links
yum install advance-toolchain-at7.1-runtime advance-toolchain-at7.1-devel advance-toolchain-at7.1-perf advance-toolchain-at7.1-mcore-libs
The IBM Data Engine for NoSQL provides two major sets of public APIs. These are described in:
Builds are configurable for different purposes. If no Data Engine for NoSQL Accelerator is available, you can still do active development using a "File Mode." See below for how to select the mode. Likewise, you may also select the endianness of your code (if needed).
As a developer, to get started:
- clone the repository
- cd capiflash
- (optional) modify / select a customrc file (see below)
- source env.bash
- make -j32 #build the code
- make test && make unit #run unit tests
- make fvt #run FVT tests - note you may need to set one or more env variables
Note: Developers have options to enable / disable specific targets (e.g. Big endian PPC64BE vs little endian PPC64EL) or P8 vs P7 tunings. See the customrc.p8be as an example. Creating a new component-specific environment variable is legal, however the env variable should be optional and provide a default that is safe for production.
Current valid options:
| ENV Variable | Component | Usage (BOLD = default) |
|---|---|---|
| TARGET_PLATFORM | (all) | PPC64BE - Big-Endian Structures |
| PPC64LE - Little-Endian Structures | ||
| CUSTOMFLAGS | (all) | Custom GCC flags. Used typically to enable P8 or P7 tunings, debug, optimization, etc. |
| BLOCK_FILEMODE_ENABLED | block | Forces Block Layer to redirect all IO to a file instead of a CAPI device. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled |
| BLOCK_KERNEL_MC_ENABLED | block | Enables block layer to communicate with cxlflash driver built in to the Linux kernel. For more information, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/powerpc/cxlflash.txt |
Prebuild customrc files exist for different environments. Most users will want to use "customrc.p8elblkkermc" or "customrc.p8el:"
CustomRC files:
| Filename | Description |
|---|---|
| customrc.p8el | Little-endian Linux, P8 Tunings, Block FileMode enabled |
| customrc.p8elblkkermc | Little-endian Linux, P8 Tunings, Real IO to CXL Flash kernel driver |
Example on a POWER8 Little-endian system:
ln -s customrc.p8elblkkermc customrc
source env.bash
make cleanall
make -j32
The software package relies on Google Test. For more information, see src/test/framework/README.md
Example of acquiring the test framework and running unit tests in file mode:
pushd src/test/framework
git clone git@github.com:google/googletest.git
popd
ln -s customrc.p8el customrc
source env.bash
make cleanall
make -j32
make -j32 tests
make run_unit #run the unit tests - note that certain test cases will create up to a 1GB file in /tmp during the test run