Redhat’s GPFS distributed file system is used in many HPC environments and is now known as IBM Storage Scale. It is not open-source software and can be downloaded from IBM’s sites. There is a Developer version which can be downloaded for trial use upon registering with IBM.
Here’s how to install the developers release version of IBM Storage Scale on an Alma Linux 9.6 operating system environment as of September 2025.
From a standard minimal install of Alma Linux version 9.6 (say from its ISO or an image template), which matches the newest currently supported kernel and software releases of IBM Storage Scale, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-scale?topic=STXKQY/gpfsclustersfaq.html#fsi
Run the following commands to ensure you’re on the latest currently known working kernel version for GPFS/IBM Storage Scale, which at this date is
5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6 in RHEL 9.6 or Alma Linux 9.6
dnf -y update
dnf -y install kernel-devel-5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6 kernel-5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6 bzip2 gcc gcc-c++ make kernel-headers-5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6 kernel-devel-5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6 tar unzip zip
grubby --set-default /boot/vmlinuz-5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6.x86_64
reboot
Once rebooted on this particularly kernel version with the build environment ready, you can run the “install” file supplied by IBM as the root user.
At the end of the installer’s run, part of it’s output will list:
To install a cluster manually: Use the GPFS packages located within /usr/lpp/mmfs/5.2.3.3/gpfs_rpms/
To do this, cd to the relevant directory for your RPM version Linux and run the dnf install command for the following list of package names:
cd /usr/lpp/mmfs/5.2.3.3/gpfs_rpms/
dnf -y install gpfs.base.rpm gpfs.gpl.rpm gpfs.license.dev.rpm gpfs.gskit.rpm gpfs.docs.rpm gpfs.msg.rpm gpfs.adv.rpm gpfs.crypto.rpm gpfs.docs.rpm gpfs.msg.rpm gpfs.adv.rpm gpfs.crypto.rpm
Now you can build the GPFS software suite and kernel modules with the single command provided by IBM, being: /usr/lpp/mmfs/bin/mmbuildgpl
# /usr/lpp/mmfs/bin/mmbuildgpl
mmbuildgpl: Building GPL (5.2.3.3) module begins at ....
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Verifying Kernel Header...
kernel version = 51400570 (514000570030000, 5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6.x86_64, 5.14.0-570.30)
module include dir = /lib/modules/5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6.x86_64/build/include
module build dir = /lib/modules/5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6.x86_64/build
kernel source dir = /usr/src/linux-5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6.x86_64/include
Found valid kernel header file under /usr/src/kernels/5.14.0-570.30.1.el9_6.x86_64/include
Getting Kernel Cipher mode...
Will use skcipher routines
Verifying Compiler...
make is present at /bin/make
cpp is present at /bin/cpp
gcc is present at /bin/gcc
g++ is present at /bin/g++
ld is present at /bin/ld
Verifying Additional System Headers...
Verifying kernel-headers is installed ...
Command: /bin/rpm -q kernel-headers
The required package kernel-headers is installed
make World ...
make InstallImages ...
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mmbuildgpl: Building GPL module completed successfully at ....
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