7.1 Installing RocksIn this section we'll look at a default Rocks installation. We won't go into the same level of detail as we did with OSCAR, in part because Rocks offers a simpler installation. This section should give you the basics. 7.1.1 PrerequisitesThere are several things you need to do before you begin your installation. First, you need to plan your system. A Rocks cluster has the same basic architecture as an OSCAR cluster (see Figure 6-1). The head node or frontend is a server with two network interfaces. The public interface is attached to the campus network or the Internet while the private interface is attached to the cluster. With Rocks, the first interface (e.g., eth0) is the private interface and the second (e.g., eth1) is the public interface. (This is the opposite of what was described for OSCAR.)You'll install the frontend first and then use it to install the compute nodes. The compute nodes use HTTP to pull the Red Hat and cluster packages from the front-end. Because Rocks uses Kickstart and Anaconda (described in Chapter 8), heterogeneous hardware is supported.Diskless clusters are not an option with Rocks. It assumes you will have hard disks in all your nodes. For a default installation, you'll want at least an 8 GB disk on the frontend. For compute nodes, by altering the defaults, you can get by with smaller drives. It is probably easier to install the software on the compute nodes by booting from a CD-ROM, but if your systems don't have CD-ROM drives, you can install the software by booting from a floppy or by doing a network boot. Compute nodes should be configured to boot without an attached keyboard or should have a keyboard or KVM switch attached.Rocks supports both Ethernet and Myrinet. For the cluster's private network, use a private address space distinct from the external address space per RFC 1918. It's OK to let an external DHCP server configure the public interface, but you should let Rocks configure the private interface. 7.1.2 Downloading RocksTo install Rocks, you'll first need the appropriate CD-ROMs. Typically, you'll go to the Rocks web site http://rocks.npaci.edu/Rocks/, follow the link to the download page, download the ISO images you want, and burn CD-ROMs from these images. (This is also a good time to download the user manuals if you haven't already done so.) Rocks currently supports x86 (Pentium and Athlon), x86_64 (AMD Opteron), and IA-64 (Itanium) architectures.Be sure to download the software that is appropriate for your systems. You'll need at least two ISO images, maybe more depending upon the software you want. Every installation will require the Rocks Base and HPC Roll. The core install provides several flavors of MPICH, Ganglia, and PVFS. If you want additional software that is not part of the core Rocks installation, you'll need to download additional rolls. For example, if you want tripwire and chkrootkit, two common security enhancements, you could download the Area 51 roll. If you are interested in moving on to grid computing, Rocks provides rolls that ease that process (see the sidebar, "Rocks and Grids").Currently available rolls include the following:Sun Grid Engine (SGE) roll This roll includes the Sun Grid Engine, a job queuing system for grids. Think of this as a grid-aware alternative to openPBS. This is open source distributed management software. For more information on SGE, visit http://gridengine.sunsource.net. Grid roll The NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) grid roll contains a full complement of grid software, including the Globus toolkit, Condor-G, Network Weather Service, and MPICH-G2, to name only a few. For more information on the NMI project, visit http://www.nsf-middleware.org. Intel roll This roll installs and configures the Intel C compiler and the Intel FORTRAN compiler. (You'll still need licenses from Intel.) It also includes the MPICH environments built for these compilers. For more information on the Intel compilers and their use with Rocks, visit http://www.intel.com/software/products/distributors/rock_cluster. Area 51 roll This roll currently includes tripwire and chkrootkit. tripwire is a security auditing package. chrootkit examines a system for any indication that a root kit has been installed. For more information on these tools, visit the sites http://www.tripwire.org and http://www.chkrootkit.org. Scalable Cluster Environment (SCE) roll This roll includes the OpenSCE software that originated at Kasetsart University, Thailand. For more information on OpenSCE, visit http://www.opensce.org. Java roll The Java roll contains the Java Virtual Machine. For more information on Java, visit http://java.sun.com. PBS roll The Portable Batch System roll includes the OpenPBS and Maui queuing and scheduling software. For more information on these packages, see Chapter 11 or visit http://www.openpbs.org. Condor roll This roll includes the Condor workload management software. Condor provides job queuing, scheduling, and priority management along with resource monitoring and management. For more information on Condor, visit http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor/. Some rolls are not available for all architectures. It's OK to install more than one roll, so get what you think you may need now. Generally, you won't be able to add a roll once the cluster is installed. (This should change in the future.)Once you've burned CD-ROMs from the ISO images, you are ready to start the installation. You'll start with the frontend.
7.1.3 Installing the FrontendThe frontend installation should go very smoothly. After the initial boot screens, you'll see a half dozen or so screens asking for additional information along with other screens giving status information for the installation. If you've installed Red Hat Linux before, these screens will look very familiar. On a blue background, you'll see the Rocks version information at the very top of the screen and interface directions at the bottom of the screen. In the center of the screen, you'll see a gray window with fields for user supplied information or status information. Although you can probably ignore them, as with any Red Hat installation, the Linux virtual consoles are available as shown in Table 7-1. If you have problems, don't forget these.
After a moment, you will see a boot screen giving you several options. Type frontend at the boot: prompt and press Enter. You need to do this quickly because the system will default to a compute node installation after a few seconds and the prompt will disappear. If you miss the prompt, just reboot the system and pay closer attention.After a brief pause, the system prompts you to register your roll CDs. When it asks whether you have any roll CDs, click on Yes. When the CD drive opens, replace the Rocks Base CD with the HPC Roll CD. After a moment the system will ask if you have another roll CD. Repeat this process until you have added all the roll CDs you have. Once you are done, click on No and the system will prompt you for the original Rocks Base CD. Registration is now done, but at the end of the installation you'll be prompted for these disks again for the purpose of actual software installation.The next screen prompts you for information that will be included in the web reports that Ganglia creates. This includes the cluster name, the cluster owner, a contact, a URL, and the latitude and longitude for the cluster location. You can skip any or all of this information, but it only takes a moment to enter. You can change all this later, but it can be annoying trying to find the right files. By default, the web interface is not accessible over the public interface, so you don't have to worry about others outside your organization seeing this information.The next step is partitioning the disk drive. You can select Autopartition and let Rocks partition the disk using default values or you can manually partition the disk using Disk Druid. The current defaults are 6 GB for / and 1 GB for swap space. /export gets the remaining space. If you manually partition the drive, you need at least 6 GB for / and you must have a /export partition.The next few screens are used to configure the network. Rocks begins with the private interface. You can choose to have DHCP configure this interface, but since this is on the internal network, it isn't likely that you want to do this. For the internal network, use a private address range that doesn't conflict with the external address range. For example, if your campus LAN uses 10.X.X.X, you might use 172.16.1.X for your internal network. When setting up clients, Rocks numbers machines from the highest number downward, e.g., 172.16.1.254, 172.16.1.253, ....For the public interface, you can manually enter an IP address and mask or you can rely on DHCP. If you are manually entering the information, you'll be prompted for a routing gateway and DNS servers. If you are using DHCP, you shouldn't be asked for this information.The last network setup screen asks for a node name. While it is possible to retrieve this information by DHCP, it is better to set it manually. Otherwise, you'll need to edit /etc/resolv.conf after the installation to add the frontend to the name resolution path. Choose the frontend name carefully. It will be written to a number of files, so it is very difficult to change. It is a very bad idea to try to change hostnames after installing Rocks.Once you have the network parameters set, you'll be prompted for a root password. Then Rocks will format the filesystem and begin installing the packages. As the installation proceeds, Rocks provides a status report showing each package as it is installed, time used, time remaining, etc. This step will take a while.Once the Rocks Base CD has been installed, you'll be prompted for each of the roll CDs once again. Just swap CDs when prompted to do so. When the last roll CD has been installed, the frontend will reboot.Your frontend is now installed. You can move onto the compute nodes or you can stop and poke around on the frontend first. The first time you log onto the frontend, you will be prompted for a file and passphrase for SSH. Rocks Frontend Node - Wofford Rocks ClusterThe default file name is reasonable, but you really should enter a passphraseone you can remember. 7.1.4 Install Compute NodesThe next step is to install the compute nodes. Before you do this, you may want to make a few changes to the defaults. For example, you might want to change how the disks will be partitioned, what packages will be installed, or even which kernel will be used. For now, we'll stick with the defaults. Customizations are described in the next two sections, so you may want to read ahead before going on. But it's really easy to reinstall the compute nodes, so don't feel you have to master everything at once.To install the compute nodes, you'll begin by running the program insert-ethers as root on the frontend. Next, you'll boot a compute node using the Rocks Base CD. Since the Rocks Base CD defaults to compute node install, you won't need to type anything on the cluster node. The insert-ethers program listens for a DHCP query from the booting compute node, assigns it a name and IP address, records information in its database, and begins the installation of the client.Let's look at the process in a little more detail. insert-ethers collects MAC address information and enters it into the Rocks cluster database. It can also be used to replace (--replace), update (--update), and remove (--remove) information in the database. This information is used to generate the DHCP configuration file and the host file.There is one potential problem you might face when using insert-ethers. If you have a managed Ethernet switch, when booted it will issue a DHCP request. You don't want to treat it like a compute node. Fortunately, the Rocks implementers foresaw this problem. When you start insert-ethers, you are given a choice of the type of appliance to install. You can select Ethernet Switch as an option and configure your switch. When you are done, quit and restart insert-ethers. This time select Compute. Now you are ready to boot your compute nodes. If you aren't setting up an Ethernet switch, you can just select Compute the first time you run insert-ethers.The next step is to boot your compute nodes. As previously noted, you can use the Rocks Base CD to do this. If your compute nodes don't have CD-ROM drives, you have two other options. You can use a network boot if your network adapters support a PXE boot, or you can create a PXE boot floppy. Consult your hardware documentation to determine how to do a PXE boot using a network adapter. The Rocks FAQ, included in NPSCI Rocks Cluster Distribution: Users Guide , has the details for creating a PXE boot floppy.When insert-ethers runs, it displays a window labeled Inserted Appliances. As each compute node is booted, it displays the node's MAC address and assigned name. Typically, insert-ethers will name the systems compute-0-0, compute-0-1, etc. (The file /etc/host defines aliases for these, c0-0, c0-1, etc., for those of us who don't type well.) If you start insert-ethers with the command-line option --cabinet=1, it will generate the names compute-1-0, compute-1-1, etc. This allows you to create a two-tier naming system, if you want. You can change the starting point for the second number with the --rank. See the insert-ethers(8) manpage for more details.A couple of minutes after you reboot your compute node, it will eject the CD-ROM. You can take the CD-ROM and move on to your next machine. If you have a terminal connected to the system, you'll get a status report as the installation proceeds.If you need to reinstall a node, you can use the shoot-node command. This is useful when changing the configuration of a node, e.g., adding a new package. This command takes the name of the machine or machines as an argument. [root@frontend root]# shoot-node compute-0-0Since this is run on the frontend, it can be used to remotely reinstall a system. This command is described in the shoot-node(8) manpage. 7.1.5 Customizing the FrontendSince Rocks installs Linux for you, you will need to do a little digging to see how things are set up. Among other services, Rocks installs and configures 411 (an NIS replacement), Apache, DHCP, MySQL, NFS, NTP, Postfix, and SSH, as well as cluster-specific software such as Ganglia and PVFS. Configuration files are generally where you would expect them. You'll probably want to browse the files in /etc, /etc/init.d, /etc/ssh, and /etc/xinetd.d. Other likely files include crontab, dhcpd.conf, exports, fstab, gmetad.conf, gmond.conf, hosts, ntp.conf, and ntp/step-tickers. You might also run the commands [root@frontend etc]# ps -aux | moreThe cluster software that Rocks installs is in /opt or /usr/share.If you have been using Red Hat for a while, you probably have some favorite packages that Rocks may not have installed. Probably the best way to learn what you have is to just poke around and try things. 7.1.5.1 User management with 411Starting with Rocks 3.1.0, 411 now replaces NIS. 411 automatically synchronizes the files listed in /var/411/Files.mk. The password and group files are among these. When you add users, you'll want to use useradd. [root@frontend 411]# useradd -p xyzzy -c "Joe Sloan" \This automatically invokes 411. When a user changes a password, you'll need to sync the changes with the compute nodes. You can do this with the command [root@frontend root]# make -C /var/411A more complete discussion of 411 can be found in the Rocks user's guide. At this time, there isn't a 411 man page. To remove users, use userdel. 7.1.5.2 X Window SystemYou'll probably want to start the X Window System so you can run useful graphical tools such as Ganglia. Before you can run X the first time, you'll need to run redhat-config-xfree86. If you are comfortable setting options, go for it. If you are new to the X Window System, you'll probably be OK just accepting the defaults. You can then start X with the xstart command. (If you get a warning message about no screen savers, just ignore it.)Once X is working, you'll need to do the usual local customizations such as setting up printers, creating a message of the day, etc. 7.1.6 Customizing Compute NodesRocks uses Kickstart and Anaconda to install the individual compute nodes. However, rather than use the usual flat, text-based configuration file for Kickstart, Rocks decomposes the Kickstart file into a set of XML files for the configuration information. The Kickstart configuration is generated dynamically from these. These files are located in the /export/home/install/rocks-dist/enterprise/3/en/os/i386/build/nodes/ directory. Don't change these. If you need to create customization files, you can put them in the directory /home/install/site-pro/image/library/english/10030_3.2.0/nodes/ for Rocks Version 3.2.0. There is a sample file skeleton.xml that you can use as a template when creating new configuration files. When you make these changes, you'll need to apply the configuration change to the distribution using the rocks-dist command. The following subsections give examples. (For more information on rocks-dist, see the rocks-dist(1) manpage.) 7.1.6.1 Adding packagesIf you want to install additional RPM packages, first copy those packages to the directory /home/install/contrib./enterprise/3/public/arch/RPMS, where arch is the architecture you are using, e.g., i386. [root@frontend root]# mv ethereal-0.9.8-6.i386.rpm \Next, create a configuration file extend-compute.xml. Change to the profile directory, copy skeleton.xml, and edit it with your favorite text editor such as vi . [root@frontend root]# cd /home/install/site-pro/image/library/english/10030_3.2.0/nodesNext, add a line to extend-compute.xml for each package. <package> ethereal </package>Notice that only the base name for a package is used; omit the version number and .rpm suffix.Finally, apply the configuration change to the distribution. [root@frontend nodes]# cd /home/installYou can now install the compute nodes and the desired packages will be included. 7.1.6.2 Changing disk partitionsIn general, it is probably a good idea to stick to one disk-partitioning scheme. Unless you turn the feature off as described in the next subsection, compute nodes will automatically be reinstalled after a power outage. If you are using multiple partitioning schemes, the automatic reinstallation could result in some drives with undesirable partitioning. Of course, the downside of a single-partitioning scheme is that it may limit the diversity of hardware you can use.To change the default disk partitioning scheme used by Rocks to install compute nodes, first create a replacement partition configuration file. Begin by changing to the directory where the site profiles are stored. Create a configuration file replace-auto-partition.xml. Change to the profile directory, copy skeleton.xml, and edit it. [root@frontend root]# cd /home/install/site-pro/image/library/english/10030_3.2.0/nodesUnder the main section, you'll add something like the following: <main>Apart from the XML tags, this is standard Kickstart syntax. This example, a partitioning scheme for an older machine, uses 2 GB for the root partition, 500 MB for a swap partition, and the rest of the disk for the /mydata partition.The last step is to apply the configuration change to the distribution. [root@frontend nodes]# cd /home/installYou can now install the system using the new partitioning scheme. 7.1.6.3 Other changesBy default, a compute node will attempt to reinstall itself whenever it does a hard restart, e.g., after a power failure. You can disable this behavior by executing the next two commands. [root@frontend root]# cluster-fork '/etc/rc.d/init.d/rocks-grub stop'The command cluster-fork is used to execute a command on every machine in the cluster. In this example, the two commands enclosed in quotes will be executed on each compute node. Of course, if you really wanted to, you could log onto each, one at a time, and execute those commands. cluster-fork is a convenient tool to have around. Additional information can be found in the Rocks user's guide. There is no manpage at this time.Creating and installing custom kernels on the compute nodes, although more involved, is nonetheless straightforward under Rocks. You'll first need to create a compute node, build a new kernel on the compute node, package it using rpm, copy it to the frontend, rebuild the Rocks distribution with rocks-dist, and reinstall the compute nodes. The details are provided in the Rocks user's guide along with descriptions of other customizations you might want to consider. |
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