HCP 3.0 Training

I am giving the second training session about HDS Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) 3.0 this week, so I want to share my thoughts just real quick.

Since I am getting less questions about the installation during the lab activities, I suppose the code was again improved and is even more stable. This is a Good Thing (TM). The only issue we had in the last training session was the inability to add nodes to an existing cluster. Apparently, this was not a technical issue (aka bug) but a configuration problem: The time of the nodes that should have been added to the cluster were set six hours into the future, which effectively kept these nodes from joining the existing cluster. This is a wise decision by the programmers, so there will be no inconsistencies within the cluster timing.

The fix was quite easy: log in to the nodes that you want to add to the cluster and issue “ntpdate <IP of any existing cluster node>”. Of course you need to be logged in as a user that has the permission to do that, which means you are HDS staff or HDS Partner personell

Let’s talk a bit about new functionality: With the introduction of tenants and namespaces, HCP was developed into a real multi-functional tool, that goes beyond mere archiving. Versioning, the ability to delete files that are not under retention, the segregation of administration and data, HCP can serve different purposes from backup backend over Source Code Repository to “Write Seldom Read Many” Content Repositories. In terms of modern IT you could also talk about a cloud storage system, because it decouples the storage clients from the storage system and enables dynamic scaling and rebalancing of storage infrastructure components.

You can find more information here: http://www.hds.com/products/storage-systems/content-platform/content-archive-platform.html