Re: [xcat-user] How to create and deploy an xCAT Service Node
All official xCAT documentation is linked off this page. If it is a support/maintained xCAT doc, it will indicate at the top of the doc Official xCAT Document. https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=XCAT_Documentation Sometime the best way to find information is to go to this wiki page and use the search box. Hierarchical Cluster would have worked. And Yes the document below is best. Lissa K. Valletta 8-3/B10 Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 (tie 293) 433-3102 From: Josh Nielsen jniel...@hudsonalpha.org To: xCAT Users Mailing list xcat-user@lists.sourceforge.net, Date: 01/08/2014 02:49 PM Subject:Re: [xcat-user] How to create and deploy an xCAT Service Node Hi Russell, For some reason that wiki page never came up in my Google searches even when I placed quotes around service node. Thanks! I'll take a look through it. Regards, Josh On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 12:25 PM, Russell Jones russell-l...@jonesmail.me wrote: Hi Josh, This should be helpful for you (it was for me when first learning how to set this up): http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=Setting_Up_a_Linux_Hierarchical_Cluster On 1/8/2014 11:52 AM, Josh Nielsen wrote: Hello all, I am trying to move my xCAT installation toward a hierarchical structure by including Service Nodes but I am finding a dearth of information on how to create a service node on the xCAT wiki and even the Sumavi xCAT guide. At first I began following the instructions for a setting up a management node (which involves a new xCAT install, an independent xCAT database, etc.) on a VM intended to the the SN but then realized that that must be wrong. I have noticed the xCAT 'servicenode' database table present on the Management Node (listed with tabdump). I am wondering if I can simply designate a new node (in my case a VM) to be the prospective SN, designate which services (like dhcp, dns, etc.) to enable/disable in the 'servicenode' table, and then do a fresh 'rinstall' to that VM and have it be automatically fully configured as an SN from postinstall scripts (which I presume are already present and will be automatically applied to that node by some xCAT logic of parsing the 'servicenode' table and associating any relevant postscripts to be run with the node). If so will it create the /install and /tftpboot directories (including ISOs made with copycds) on each SN identical to the contents of the MN? Is it that simple or is there more involved than that? In addition I want to be able to take down the Management Node in the future for maintenance and be able to do just about everything that the MN can do from the SNs (including dhcp leases, rpower commands, updatenode, psh, etc) while the MN is down. Is that possible? Any clarifications would be appreciated. Thank you, Josh Nielsen -- Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your Java,.NET, PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349831iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ xCAT-user mailing list xCAT-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcat-user -- Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your Java,.NET, PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349831iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ xCAT-user mailing list xCAT-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcat-user -- Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your Java,.NET, PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349831iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ xCAT-user mailing list xCAT-user@lists.sourceforge.net
Re: [xcat-user] How to create and deploy an xCAT Service Node
Highly Available management nodes makes sure that if one Management Server goes down there is one configured that can take over.Only one Management Server at a time is active. Lissa K. Valletta 8-3/B10 Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 (tie 293) 433-3102 From: Josh Nielsen jniel...@hudsonalpha.org To: xCAT Users Mailing list xcat-user@lists.sourceforge.net, Date: 01/09/2014 03:13 PM Subject:Re: [xcat-user] How to create and deploy an xCAT Service Node Thank you Xiao Peng Wang, that information is useful. I am thinking that, in that case, Service Nodes are not what I need after all. Our cluster is not at a scale yet that requires additional repositories to pull software updates from (which SNs look like they are designed for). Rather I need additional management points. I looked a little further and it looks like Highly Available Management Nodes are what I need: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=Highly_Available_Management_Node . I do have a question about the Service Nodes though since I've already begun configuring them: In the Service Node setup documentation on the wiki, under the heading Add OS and Hardware Attributes to Service Nodes they tell you to do a chdef with parameters like: chdef -t group service arch=x86_64 os=centos6.4 nodetype=osi ... My question is about the nodetype. I will be deploying to VMs acting as the SNs, so should the nodetype not rather be nodetype=vm? What does nodetype=osi as an osimage even mean when applied to a physical or virtual machine? When I do an lsdef on the nodes (that will be on VMs) I see: # lsdef service arch=x86_64 groups=service,ipmi,all installnic=mac ip=172.20.3.1 netboot=xnba nfsserver=10.X.X.X nodetype=osi ... Object name: xcat-serv2 arch=x86_64 groups=service,ipmi,all installnic=mac ip=172.20.3.2 netboot=xnba nfsserver=10.X.X.X nodetype=osi .. But the VMs are vms and not osimages. I'm just wondering about the semantics of what osi/osimage indicates should be done to a node or how it will affect deployment. Thanks, Josh On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 6:32 PM, Xiao Peng Wang w...@cn.ibm.com wrote: The doc mentioned by Josh will lead you in the correct direction to setup Service Node. Several information for you: Roughly, your understand is correct that you can install and configure a SN automatically when prepare/configure correctly for SNnode definition (correct group like service, correct attribute like postscripts, correct osimage like rhels6.4-x86_64-install-service) and xCAT rpm repository. Generally, the /tftpboot and /install on SN are mounted from xCAT MN, so them will be identical with the dirs on MN in any time. SN cannot work without MN since there's only one database which is running on MN. If MN is down you cannot run lots of commands on SN. In fact xCAT does NOT recommend to run any command on SN. Thanks Best Regards -- Wang Xiaopeng (王晓朋) IBM China System Technology Laboratory Tel: 86-10-82453455 Email: w...@cn.ibm.com Address: 28,ZhongGuanCun Software Park,No.8 Dong Bei Wang West Road, Haidian District Beijing P.R.China 100193 Josh Nielsen ---2014/01/09 03:48:01---Hi Russell, For some reason that wiki page never came up in my Google searches even From: Josh Nielsen jniel...@hudsonalpha.org To: xCAT Users Mailing list xcat-user@lists.sourceforge.net, Date: 2014/01/09 03:48 Subject: Re: [xcat-user] How to create and deploy an xCAT Service Node Hi Russell, For some reason that wiki page never came up in my Google searches even when I placed quotes around service node. Thanks! I'll take a look through it. Regards, Josh On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 12:25 PM, Russell Jones russell-l...@jonesmail.me wrote: Hi Josh, This should be helpful for you (it was for me when first learning how to set this up): http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=Setting_Up_a_Linux_Hierarchical_Cluster On 1/8/2014 11:52 AM, Josh Nielsen wrote: Hello all, I am trying to move my xCAT installation toward a hierarchical structure by including Service Nodes but I am finding a dearth of information on how to create a service node on the xCAT wiki and even the Sumavi xCAT guide. At first I began following the instructions for a setting up a management node (which involves a new xCAT install, an independent xCAT database, etc.) on a VM intended to the the SN but then realized that that must be wrong. I have noticed the xCAT 'servicenode' database table present on the Management Node (listed with tabdump). I am wondering if I can simply designate a new node (in my case a VM) to be the prospective SN, designate which services (like dhcp, dns, etc.) to enable/disable in the 'servicenode' table, and then do a fresh 'rinstall' to that VM and have it be automatically fully configured as
Re: [xcat-user] How to create and deploy an xCAT Service Node
That may be what I need actually, because I have to wipe the OS on our current (physical) headnode to upgrade from RHEL5 to RHEL6 and I need something (a VM HA management node) up and functional while I am doing that to service the cluster. -Josh On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Lissa Valletta lis...@us.ibm.com wrote: Highly Available management nodes makes sure that if one Management Server goes down there is one configured that can take over.Only one Management Server at a time is active. Lissa K. Valletta 8-3/B10 Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 (tie 293) 433-3102 [image: Inactive hide details for Josh Nielsen ---01/09/2014 03:13:09 PM---Thank you Xiao Peng Wang, that information is useful. I am t]Josh Nielsen ---01/09/2014 03:13:09 PM---Thank you Xiao Peng Wang, that information is useful. I am thinking that, in that case, Service Node From: Josh Nielsen jniel...@hudsonalpha.org To: xCAT Users Mailing list xcat-user@lists.sourceforge.net, Date: 01/09/2014 03:13 PM Subject: Re: [xcat-user] How to create and deploy an xCAT Service Node -- Thank you Xiao Peng Wang, that information is useful. I am thinking that, in that case, Service Nodes are not what I need after all. Our cluster is not at a scale yet that requires additional repositories to pull software updates from (which SNs look like they are designed for). Rather I need additional management points. I looked a little further and it looks like Highly Available Management Nodes are what I need: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=Highly_Available_Management_Node . I do have a question about the Service Nodes though since I've already begun configuring them: In the Service Node setup documentation on the wiki, under the heading Add OS and Hardware Attributes to Service Nodes they tell you to do a chdef with parameters like: chdef -t group service arch=x86_64 os=centos6.4 nodetype=osi ... My question is about the nodetype. I will be deploying to VMs acting as the SNs, so should the nodetype not rather be nodetype=vm? What does nodetype=osi as an osimage even mean when applied to a physical or virtual machine? When I do an lsdef on the nodes (that will be on VMs) I see: # lsdef service arch=x86_64 groups=service,ipmi,all installnic=mac ip=172.20.3.1 netboot=xnba nfsserver=10.X.X.X nodetype=osi ... Object name: xcat-serv2 arch=x86_64 groups=service,ipmi,all installnic=mac ip=172.20.3.2 netboot=xnba nfsserver=10.X.X.X nodetype=osi .. But the VMs are vms and not osimages. I'm just wondering about the semantics of what osi/osimage indicates should be done to a node or how it will affect deployment. Thanks, Josh On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 6:32 PM, Xiao Peng Wang w...@cn.ibm.com wrote: The doc mentioned by Josh will lead you in the correct direction to setup Service Node. Several information for you: Roughly, your understand is correct that you can install and configure a SN automatically when prepare/configure correctly for SNnode definition (correct group like service, correct attribute like postscripts, correct osimage like rhels6.4-x86_64-install-service) and xCAT rpm repository. Generally, the /tftpboot and /install on SN are mounted from xCAT MN, so them will be identical with the dirs on MN in any time. SN cannot work without MN since there's only one database which is running on MN. If MN is down you cannot run lots of commands on SN. In fact xCAT does NOT recommend to run any command on SN. Thanks Best Regards -- Wang Xiaopeng (王晓朋) IBM China System Technology Laboratory Tel: 86-10-82453455 Email: w...@cn.ibm.com Address: 28,ZhongGuanCun Software Park,No.8 Dong Bei Wang West Road, Haidian District Beijing P.R.China 100193 Josh Nielsen ---2014/01/09 03:48:01---Hi Russell, For some reason that wiki page never came up in my Google searches even From: Josh Nielsen jniel...@hudsonalpha.org To: xCAT Users Mailing list xcat-user@lists.sourceforge.net, Date: 2014/01/09 03:48 Subject: Re: [xcat-user] How to create and deploy an xCAT Service Node Hi Russell, For some reason that wiki page never came up in my Google searches even when I placed quotes around service node. Thanks! I'll take a look through it. Regards, Josh On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 12:25 PM, Russell Jones russell-l...@jonesmail.me wrote: Hi Josh, This should be helpful for you (it was for me when first learning how to set this up): http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=Setting_Up_a_Linux_Hierarchical_Cluster On 1/8/2014 11:52 AM, Josh Nielsen wrote: Hello all, I am trying to move my xCAT installation toward a hierarchical structure by including Service Nodes but I am
