Re: [VCL 2.2.1] [Power7] Problem with image reservation

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:47:12 -0700

Thanks Josh. My professor was asking about the details of VCL workshop in NC. Are you aware of these details? 

Please bare with my comments inline.

On 7/7/11 11:13 AM, Josh Thompson wrote:

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Hash: SHA1

On Tuesday July 05, 2011, Sunil Venkatesh wrote:

Hi Josh,

I was able to get the following things done in respect to getting VCL to
work on POWER.

1. Made modifications in the xcat tables to get the capture process
working with statelite images instead of stateless images. Particularly
the noderes&  bootparams table.

2. Used partimage to capture the images (did NOT set usepartimageng to 1).

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 Jul  5 16:38 compute.img.capturedone
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 Jul  5 15:58 compute.img.capturefailed
-rw------- 1 root root 6.5M Jul  5 16:07 compute-parta2.gz
-rw------- 1 root root 679M Jul  5 16:10 compute-parta3.gz
-rw------- 1 root root  23M Jul  5 16:38 compute-parta6.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  512 Jul  5 16:07 compute-sda.mbr
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  363 Jul  5 16:07 compute-sda.sfdisk


2 partitions including the boot partition present on the blade were
captured under /install/image/ppc64/. Initially, RHEL 5 was installed on
a 600 GB partition due to which the capture process failed. The image of
the partition was generated once the partition size was reduced to 6GB.
Is it necessary for me to use partimage-ng instead of partimage itself?

Are you asking if you need to use partimage-ng for partitions that are 600GB?
If so, I don't really know.  We've never dealt with partitions that large.

Here, I am just asking if images captured using partimage are recognized 
by VCL or is it required that I use partimage-ng. From your earlier 
emails to Prem, I could notice that the only difference between 
partimage & partimage-ng (after setting userpartimageng to 1) is the 
former generates images with .gz and the later generates .img. Am I 
right here? Also, I was able to get the 600GB partition captured, since 
the partition was empty, it resulted in a ~17MB image file.



When proceeding further with "vcld --setup", the script was not able to
find the images that were created using partimage. The options that are
provided in the script does not allow for selecting an architecture
other than x86/x86_64.

You'll need to modify the vcld image.pm module.  Look in
/usr/local/vcl/lib/VCL.  In image.pm, look for the function
'setup_capture_base_image'; then, find 'my @architecture_choices' and add
'ppc' as another option.



As a matter of fact, I tried this step. But, the 
_get_image_repository_path function in 
/usr/local/vcl/lib/VCL/Module/Provisioning/xCAT.pm does not recognize 
the architecture when I choose ppc/ppc64 in the menu. On line 2922 in 
the same file, image_architecture is set to undefined. I think the list 
of supported architectures is stored in some mysql table. I haven't 
checked regarding this, i was trying to get VCL to recognize the images 
as x86/x86_64 by setting up soft links in the search paths of VCL.

Also, in the error log vcld is looking for

/opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/image/rh5image-power010701bi34-v0.tmpl

and cannot find the template file. Should the template file that needs
to be accessed in this case be createimage.ppc64.tmpl?

This is actually a check to make sure the image doesn't already exist before
trying to capturing it.  So, it is good that it doesn't find it.

If possible, could you please provide me with the details of steps that 
take place here. If there are any documentation available regarding 
this, that would work too. U said "image doesn't already exist before 
trying to capturing it", how does VCL capture the images? does it make 
use of the images that are already generated using partimage? if so, in 
what places does it look for the images?



Sorry for asking too many questions. I could trace the scripts to check 
the flow, but, that would take a lot of time. You have been really 
patient with all my queries, appreciate that.


Thanks
Sunil

It sounds like you're almost there.  Great work!

Josh


I have attached a log at the end of the mail. I am not sure where I have
gone wrong with the VCL configuration.

-Sunil

-----

rh5image-power010701bi34-v0 image creation failed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
time: 2011-07-05 11:03:25
caller: image.pm:reservation_failed(385)
( 0) image.pm, reservation_failed (line: 385)
(-1) image.pm, process (line: 167)
(-2) vcld, make_new_child (line: 568)
(-3) vcld, main (line: 346)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
management node: web1.bluegrit.cs.umbc.edu
reservation PID: 9866
parent vcld PID: 19110

request ID: 30
reservation ID: 30
request state/laststate: image/image
request start time: 2011-07-05 11:03:20
request end time: 2011-07-05 12:03:20
for imaging: no
log ID: none

computer: power01.bluegrit.cs.umbc.edu
computer id: 2
computer type: blade
computer eth0 MAC address:<undefined>
computer eth1 MAC address:<undefined>
computer private IP address: 172.20.106.1
computer public IP address: 172.20.106.1
computer in block allocation: no
provisioning module: VCL::Module::Provisioning::xCAT2

image: rh5image-power010701bi34-v0
image display name: power010701bi
image ID: 34
image revision ID: 34
image size: 1450 MB
use Sysprep: yes
root access: yes
image owner ID: 1
image owner affiliation: Local
image revision date created: 2011-07-05 11:03:25
image revision production: yes
OS module: VCL::Module::OS::Linux

user: admin
user name: vcl admin
user ID: 1
user affiliation: Local
------------------------------------------------------------------------
RECENT LOG ENTRIES FOR THIS PROCESS:
2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|Module.pm:create_os_object(304)|VCL::Module::OS:
:Linux OS object created for rh5image-power010701bi34-v0, address: 88fb070
2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:initialize(110)|XCATROOT
environment variable is not set, using /opt/xcat 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:initialize(128)|xCAT root path found:
/opt/xcat 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:initialize(130)|xCAT module initialized
2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:initialize(110)|XCATROOT
environment variable is not set, using /opt/xcat 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:initialize(128)|xCAT root path found:
/opt/xcat 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:initialize(130)|xCAT module initialized
2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|Module.pm:create_provisioning_object(420)|VCL::M
odule::Provisioning::xCAT2 module loaded 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|Module.pm:create_mn_os_object(335)|management
node OS object has already been created, address: 88f23b0, returning 1
2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|Module.pm:new(200)|VCL::Module::Provisioning::xC
AT2 object created for computer power01, address: 88fb0e0 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:initialize(110)|XCATROOT environment
variable is not set, using /opt/xcat 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:initialize(128)|xCAT root path found:
/opt/xcat 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:initialize(130)|xCAT module initialized
2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|Module.pm:create_provisioning_object(426)|VCL::M
odule::Provisioning::xCAT2 provisioner object created for power01, address:
88fb0e0 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|State.pm:initialize(126)|returning 1 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|vcld:make_new_child(565)|VCL::image object
created and initialized 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:mail(1268)|SUCCESS -- Sending mail
To:shru...@gmail.com, VCL IMAGE Creation Started:
rh5image-power010701bi34-v0 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:does_image_exist(2434)|image OS install
type: partimage 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:_get_image_repository_path(2910)|managem
ent node identifier argument was not specified

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|

xCAT.pm:_get_image_repository_path(2932)|attempting to determine repository
path for image on web1.bluegrit.cs.umbc.edu:

|9866|30:30|image| image id: 34
|9866|30:30|image| OS name: rh5image
|9866|30:30|image| OS type: linux
|9866|30:30|image| OS install type: partimage
|9866|30:30|image| OS source path: image
|9866|30:30|image| architecture: x86_64

2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:_get_image_repository_path(2996)|did not
find any images under /tftpboot/xcat//linux_image/x86_64 on
web1.bluegrit.cs.umbc.edu 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:_get_image_repository_path(3006)|returni
ng repository path for web1.bluegrit.cs.umbc.edu:
/tftpboot/xcat//image/x86_64 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:does_image_exist(2444)|image repository
path: /tftpboot/xcat//image/x86_64

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:run_command(9010)|executed

command: du -c /tftpboot/xcat//image/x86_64/*rh5image-power010701bi34-v0* 2>&1
| grep total 2>&1, pid: 9877, exit status: 0, output:

|9866|30:30|image| 0 total

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:does_image_exist(2506)|image
does NOT exist: rh5image-power010701bi34-v0 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:_get_image_template_path(2084)|manageme
nt node identifier argument was not specified

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|

xCAT2.pm:_get_image_template_path(2115)|attempting to determine template path
for image:

|9866|30:30|image| image name: rh5image-power010701bi34-v0
|9866|30:30|image| OS install type: partimage
|9866|30:30|image| OS source path: image
|9866|30:30|image| xCAT 2.x OS source path: image

2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:_get_image_template_path(2123)|returnin
g: /opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/image 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:does_image_exist(2518)|template
repository path for rh5image-power010701bi34-v0:
/opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/image 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:does_image_exist(2530)|template file
does not exist:
/opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/image/rh5image-power010701bi34-v0.tmpl
2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT.pm:does_image_exist(2570)|image
rh5image-power010701bi34-v0 does NOT exist on this management node
2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|image.pm:process(145)|image
rh5image-power010701bi34-v0 does not exist in the repository 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|DataStructure.pm:_automethod(834)|data structure
updated: $self->request_data->{reservation}{30}{image}{lastupdate}

|9866|30:30|image| image_lastupdate = 2011-07-05 11:03:25

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|DataStructure.pm:_automethod(834)|data
structure updated:
$self->request_data->{reservation}{30}{imagerevision}{datecreated}

|9866|30:30|image| imagerevision_date_created = 2011-07-05 11:03:25

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|image.pm:process(161)|calling
provisioning module's capture() subroutine 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:capture(776)|image=rh5image-power010701
bi34-v0, computer=power01

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:run_ssh_command(5380)|

executing SSH command on power01:

|9866|30:30|image| /usr/bin/ssh -i /etc/vcl/vcl.key  -o
|StrictHostKeyChecking=no -l root -p 22 -x power01 'chown root
|currentimage.txt; chmod 777 currentimage.txt' 2>&1

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:run_ssh_command(5464)|

run_ssh_command output:

|9866|30:30|image| Permission denied, please try again.
|9866|30:30|image| Permission denied, please try again.
|9866|30:30|image| Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-with-mic,password).

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:run_ssh_command(5474)|SSH

command executed on power01, command:

|9866|30:30|image| /usr/bin/ssh -i /etc/vcl/vcl.key  -o
|StrictHostKeyChecking=no -l root -p 22 -x power01 'chown root
|currentimage.txt; chmod 777 currentimage.txt' 2>&1 9866|30:30|image|
|returning (255, "Permission denied, please try ...")

2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:write_currentimage_txt(5685)|updated
ownership and permissions on currentimage.txt

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:run_ssh_command(5380)|

executing SSH command on power01:

|9866|30:30|image| /usr/bin/ssh -i /etc/vcl/vcl.key  -o
|StrictHostKeyChecking=no -l root -p 22 -x power01 'echo -e
|"rh5image-power010701bi34-v0\r\nid=34\r\nprettyname=power010701bi\r\nimag
|erevision_id=34\r\nimagerevision_datecreated=2011-07-05
|11:03:25\r\ncomputer_id=2\r\ncomputer_hostname=power01.bluegrit.cs.umbc.e
|du">   currentimage.txt&&   cat currentimage.txt' 2>&1

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:run_ssh_command(5464)|

run_ssh_command output:

|9866|30:30|image| Permission denied, please try again.
|9866|30:30|image| Permission denied, please try again.
|9866|30:30|image| Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-with-mic,password).

2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:run_ssh_command(5474)|SSH

command executed on power01, command:

|9866|30:30|image| /usr/bin/ssh -i /etc/vcl/vcl.key  -o
|StrictHostKeyChecking=no -l root -p 22 -x power01 'echo -e
|"rh5image-power010701bi34-v0\r\nid=34\r\nprettyname=power010701bi\r\nimag
|erevision_id=34\r\nimagerevision_datecreated=2011-07-05
|11:03:25\r\ncomputer_id=2\r\ncomputer_hostname=power01.bluegrit.cs.umbc.e
|du">   currentimage.txt&&   cat currentimage.txt' 2>&1 9866|30:30|image|
|returning (255, "Permission denied, please try ...") 9866|30:30|image|
|---- WARNING ----
|9866|30:30|image| 2011-07-05
|11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:write_currentimage_txt(5699)|failed to
|create currentimage.txt file on power01: 9866|30:30|image| Permission
|denied, please try again.
|9866|30:30|image| Permission denied, please try again.
|9866|30:30|image| Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-with-mic,password).
|9866|30:30|image| ( 0) utils.pm, write_currentimage_txt (line: 5699)
|9866|30:30|image| (-1) xCAT2.pm, capture (line: 779)
|9866|30:30|image| (-2) image.pm, process (line: 162)
|9866|30:30|image| (-3) vcld, make_new_child (line: 568)
|9866|30:30|image| (-4) vcld, main (line: 346)
|9866|30:30|image| ---- WARNING ----
|9866|30:30|image| 2011-07-05
|11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|xCAT2.pm:capture(783)|unable to update
|currentimage.txt on power01 9866|30:30|image| ( 0) xCAT2.pm, capture
|(line: 783)
|9866|30:30|image| (-1) image.pm, process (line: 162)
|9866|30:30|image| (-2) vcld, make_new_child (line: 568)
|9866|30:30|image| (-3) vcld, main (line: 346)
|9866|30:30|image| ---- WARNING ----
|9866|30:30|image| 2011-07-05
|11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|image.pm:process(166)|rh5image-power010701bi34-
|v0 image failed to be captured by provisioning module 9866|30:30|image| (
|0) image.pm, process (line: 166)
|9866|30:30|image| (-1) vcld, make_new_child (line: 568)
|9866|30:30|image| (-2) vcld, main (line: 346)

2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|DataStructure.pm:get_computer_private_ip_address
(1581)|attempting to retrieve private IP address for computer: power01
2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|DataStructure.pm:get_computer_private_ip_address
(1585)|retrieved contents of /etc/hosts on this management node, contains
158 lines 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|DataStructure.pm:get_computer_private_ip_address
(1645)|returning IP address from /etc/hosts file: 172.20.106.1 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:is_inblockrequest(6163)|zero rows were
returned from database select 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|DataStructure.pm:get_image_affiliation_name(2035
)|image owner id: 1 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:getnewdbh(2709)|database requested
(information_schema) does not match handle stored in $ENV{dbh} (vcl:)
2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:getnewdbh(2760)|database
handle stored in $ENV{dbh} 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|DataStructure.pm:retrieve_user_data(1352)|attemp
ting to retrieve and store data for user: user.id = '1' 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:getnewdbh(2709)|database requested
(vcl) does not match handle stored in $ENV{dbh} (information_schema:)
2011-07-05 11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|utils.pm:getnewdbh(2760)|database
handle stored in $ENV{dbh} 2011-07-05
11:03:25|9866|30:30|image|DataStructure.pm:retrieve_user_data(1415)|data
has been retrieved for user: admin (id: 1)

On 6/24/11 10:13 AM, Josh Thompson wrote:

Sunil,

"nodeset<nodename>   image" sets up all the xCAT stuff so that the next
time the node is booted, it will boot the stateless/statelite image and
capture an image of the node.

Can you double check that you have 'os' in the nodetype table set to
image for the node you are using?  If you look in the partimageng.pm
xCAT module, you see toward the top where it registers the
"handled_commands".  The "mk" gets stripped off.  So, that module is
registering "install" and "image" for os type = "image".  As long as you
have os in the nodetype table set to image, it should be using that
module.

You will need to make sure you have all of the required files in
locations using 'ppc64' as the arch.

Josh

On Wednesday June 22, 2011, Sunil Venkatesh wrote:

Hi,

Update !

I was able to fix the problem that I was facing with the scripts by
disabling the firewall. But, I still have a problem with the command-

nodeset<nodename>   image

Unless this error is fixed, I don't think partimage will work. Am I
right here?

Thanks,
Sunil

On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 3:13 PM, Sunil Venkatesh<suni...@umbc.edu>

wrote:

Josh,

I have reached a point where I am able to boot the ppc using the
statelite images created using genimage. But, I was wondering how
significant the following command is.

nodeset<nodename>   image

I got the same error that Prem had mentioned.


power01: Error: Unable to identify plugin for this command, check
relevant tables: nodetype.os
Error: Some nodes failed to set up image resources, aborting

I tried changing the 'os' field to 'image' under nodetype, that doesn't
seem to help. I get the same error even after the change. 'arch' in my
case is set to 'ppc64'.


Also, I think partimage plugin needs to be changed to support the ppc
architecture, from what you had mentioned in the other thread.

I am not sure what the command 'nodeset<nodename>   image' does, but, I
am able to boot the statelite images by making changes to the yaboot
configuration files. The ppc blade currently uses LVM, that needs to
be replaced with ext2/ext3 from what I read from the other thread, am
I right? Also, just out of curiosity I left the statelite image to
boot with my current setting. I can see the xcat script throwing an
error-

/opt/xcat/xcatdsklspost: line 229: /xcatpost/getpostscript.awk: No such
file or directory
/tmp/mypostscript: line 16: updateflag.awk: command not found

both getpostscript.awk&   updateflag.awk are not found in the rootimg
created by genimage. Is there any place I could find these scripts?

Also, please correct me if there is anything wrong with the procedure I
am following.


Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Sunil

On 6/13/11 4:13 PM, Josh Thompson wrote:

Sunil,

   From what I remember, I didn't have to do much to the rootimg.gz
   image to

make
it work.  I created the files I supply before xCAT started using
"statelite"
instead of "stateless".  I think statelite uses NFS to mount the
image, and
stateless uses an image file downloaded to the node and run out of
RAM.

   Since

generating a statelite image is pretty straightforward use of xCAT,
you may
want to ask on the xcat-user email list for help with it.

Unless you can have the admins of the other dhcp server on your
network exclude the MAC addresses of your blades, you'll need to
create a separate private network to control your VCL stuff, either
physically or with VLANs.

If they can exclude the MACs, you can set up the dhcp server on your
management node to only answer to requests from your blades.

Josh

On Monday June 13, 2011, Sunil Venkatesh wrote:

Josh,

Again, Thank you for your valuable inputs. I have got to the point
where I can get the compute node to boot using the stateless images.
I had to manually configure the netboot since we already had a DHCP
server which is not the same as our Management node. Since our setup
is not in an isolated environment, I could not let xcat handle the
dhcp&    netboot configuration (it messed up out network
configuration when i let xcat handle it,we had 2 dhcp servers
running at that point). Are you aware of any way to let xcat handle
such scenarios?

Although I am able to get the compute node to boot with the kernel
image&    initrd, and NFS mount the rootimg that was generated using
'genimage', I am getting the following error on the compute node's
console -

       FATAL error: could not get the entries from litefile table...

after going thru the init-scripts, I found out 'xCATCmd' binary is
not present in the rootimg. I am currently checking the xcat
packages for its availability. If you know the procedure to get it
onto the compute node, please let me know the same.

Appreciate your support.

Thanking you,
Sunil

On 6/8/11 9:02 AM, Josh Thompson wrote:

Sunil,

I don't recall seeing any documentation on those parts.  I had to
poke around looking at parts of xCAT to see how it worked.  It's
been a few years since I did that; so, I don't remember much about
the process. My recommendation would be to start looking at things
in the rootimg.gz image.  Looking at it now, I see that
/opt/xcat/xcatdsklspost gets run when rootimg.gz boots.  It looks
like it downloads all of the postscripts from the management node
and then run getpostscript.awk which issues a command to xcatd to
get the primary postscript for that machine.  I've forgotten how
xcatd then builds the primary postscript. I do remember that in the
partimageng.pm module, I had it add the partimageng postscript.

So, you'll really have to start digging through how the xcat
postscript system works.

Josh

On Tuesday June 07, 2011, Sunil Venkatesh wrote:

Josh,

Is there any place I could find some details on

"... /Once the compute node is booted with the stateless
image, it uses NFS to mount some things from the management node,
and then runs some xcat postscripts,/.... "

I have the stateless images ready with partimage compiled for PPC.
For the compute node (power 7) to boot using the stateless images,
i need to
configure the yaboot instead of pxeboot (which is specific to x86).
I wanted to know where in the startup files the execution of
partimage and
NFS mount is configured. Is it configured by the "genimage" command
itself? Considering the way in which the nodes are configured in
the network, it would not be a good idea to let xcat take care of
configuring the details like DHCPD for netboot. So, I need to make
changes to the configuration files manually, which is why this
query came up.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Sunil

On 6/1/11 1:39 PM, Josh Thompson wrote:

Sunil,

The "stateless" image I refer to is what is actually booted on the
compute node containing the image to be captured.  It's called
stateless because it is loaded completely in RAM and does not
maintain any state when a reboot occurs.

The partimage binary is part of this stateless image and actually
runs on the compute node.  It does not run on the management node.
The management node does not have block level access to the disk
on the compute node to be able to capture the image from the
disk.

I'll try to describe the process a little better.  The management
node issues a reboot command to the compute node.  The compute
node uses PXE
to load and boot a kernel (vmlinuz), initial RAM disk
(initrd.img), and
a root filesystem (rootimg.gz) from the management node.  All
three of these together make up the stateless image.  Once the
compute node is booted with the stateless image, it uses NFS to
mount some things from the management node, and then runs some
xcat
postscripts, one of which is the partimageng postscript.  This
postscript determines what partitions are on the compute node and,
depending on how the postscript
is configured, uses partimage or partimageng to capture an image
of the
compute node disk that is then saved to the management node. When
it is
finished capturing the image, it notifies xcat on the management
node and then reboots.  xcat reconfigures itself to tell the
compute node to
boot off of disk at next boot.  When the compute node comes up, it
uses
PXE to ask the management node how to boot.  The management node
tells it to boot off of disk.

I hope that clarifies how the system works.  If any of it is
unclear, please ask for further clarification.

Josh

On Wednesday June 01, 2011, Sunil Venkatesh wrote:

Josh,

I had one more clarification.

partimage binaries run in the management node to capture an
(stateless) image from the compute node right? In that case, is
there a need for these binaries to go into the rootimg.gz??

My assumption is, partimage runs on the management node (an intel
blade in our case) to capture a stateless image from a compute
node (a power 7 blade) and stores these images under " /install
" of the management node. Please correct me if I am wrong here.

Regards,
Sunil

On 6/1/11 9:58 AM, Josh Thompson wrote:

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On Tuesday May 31, 2011, Sunil Venkatesh wrote:

Hi,

I used the steps that were mentioned under

https://cwiki.apache.org/**confluence/display/VCL/Adding+**
support+for+p<https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/A
dd ing+support+for+p>   ar ti mag e+and+partimage-
ng+to+xCAT+2.x+%28unofficial%**29

to enable partimage support for xcat. I wasn't sure if I need
to change references to x86&       x86_64 (as directories) to
reflect the
ppc architecture, as the web page says "The architecture for
the node must always be set to x86 for this..". I have with me
the vmlinuz (kernel image) and initrd for the capture process.
The 2 nodeset commands

By this, do you mean you have vmlinuz and initrd for your power
blades, not the ones linked to off of the page you listed above?
If you do, that's a good start.  However, you'll also need
rootimg.gz. rootimg.gz is the root filesystem for the stateless
image.  It also contains the partimage and partimageng binaries.
Assuming partimage or partimageng can actually capture
partitions from power systems, you'll need to compile at least
one of them to run on power.  For the rootimg.gz image I
provided, I compiled them statically so that I didn't have to
worry about including any library dependencies in rootimg.gz.

It would be a good idea to research how to use xcat's genimage
command to generate stateless images to learn how to do this.

If there's any part of the above that you don't fully
understand, please ask me to clarify it.  Until you have a
stateless image that you can deploy to your power blades,
there's no point in trying to debug any VCL specific items.

Josh
- --
- ------------------------------**-
Josh Thompson
VCL Developer
North Carolina State University

my GPG/PGP key can be found at pgp.mit.edu
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- -- 
- -------------------------------

Josh Thompson
VCL Developer
North Carolina State University

my GPG/PGP key can be found at pgp.mit.edu
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