IBM Storage Scale MCP Server

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with IBM Storage Scale.

[NOTE] This MCP server supports both StreamableHTTP and stdio transports. By default, it uses StreamableHTTP transport on 127.0.0.1:8000.

Installation Guide

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12 or later
• UV package manager (curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh)
• Node.js 22 and npx (optional, for file operations support)

  curl -fsSL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | sudo bash -
  sudo yum install -y nsolid
  

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/IBM/ibm-storage-scale-mcp-server.git
   cd ibm-storage-scale-mcp-server
   

2. Install dependencies using uv:

   uv venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   uv pip install .
   

3. Configure Scale connection settings:

   cp config/scale_config.ini.example config/scale_config.ini
   

   Edit config/scale_config.ini with your IBM Storage Scale cluster details:

   [scale_api]
   hostname = your-scale-cluster.example.com
   v2_port = 443
   v3_port = 46443
   timeout = 5.0
   
   [authorization]
   username = your-username
   password = your-password
   allow_insecure = true
   
   [domain]
   domain = your-domain
   
   [ssh]
   # SSH connection settings for remote CLI commands
   hostname = your-scale-node.example.com
   port = 22
   username = your-username
   password = your-ssh-password
   key_path = your-ssh-key  # Alternative to password authentication
   

   Replace the placeholder values with your actual Scale cluster credentials and connection details.

   Note: The [ssh] section is required for CLI-based tools that execute commands directly on Scale nodes (such as policy operations). You can use either password or SSH key authentication (precedence over password authentication).

4. Start the server using uv or python:

   # Using uv (default: HTTP transport on localhost:8000)
   uv run scale-mcp-server
   

Usage Examples

# Run with HTTP transport on default port (localhost:8000)
scale-mcp-server --transport http

# Run with HTTP transport binding to all interfaces
scale-mcp-server --transport http --host 0.0.0.0

# Run with HTTP transport on custom port
scale-mcp-server --transport http --port 3000

# Run with stdio transport
scale-mcp-server --transport stdio

# Run with custom host, port, and log level
scale-mcp-server --transport http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 3000 --log-level DEBUG

Third-Party Integrations

The server supports optional third-party MCP server integrations to extend functionality beyond IBM Storage Scale management.

File Operations