Hi Lissa, I'm afraid I've been a bit unclear about what exacly I meant... My provisioning method, doesn't only provide a new, and quite a bit faster, method of installing nodes, but it ensures nodes are, and are kept identical. This is realized by a customized initrd image which pre-pivot executes an rsync fetching an root directory from a provisioning node. What I mean with pre-pivot is the stage where the kernel still sees the initrd ramfs as it's rootfs and is traditionally only busy with mounting the rootfs, to be able to chroot to it and continue boot from there.
So in the simplest case it does the following: 1) check the partitions on /dev/sda (as root=/dev/sda2 was one of the kernel options) 2) analyzes the partitions, and when these seem to comply with the kernel boot option partitionsinfo, it mounts the rootfs (partitionsinfo is an extra boot option required by tuda-rsync-install) 3) it runs an rsync fetching the files from an provisioning node with the actual rootfs as destination. Effectively it synchronizes the changes made to the image to the rootfs. 4) it pivots-root to this actual rootfs and continues the boot as it always does. If in step 2) it detects the partition layout doesn't comply with the partition layout defined in the partitionsinfo kernel argument, then it partitions the disk as specified in partitionsinfo. And continues with the rsync step, but in this case as it's a newly partitioned disk, it copies the complete root directory from the provisioning node to the actual rootfs. (this still takes a fraction of the time it takes to perform an autoyast/kickstart install) All together the difference with an ordinary initrd is that it isn't only responsible for mounting the rootfs, but it now also first synchronizes the content of the rootfs from an provisioning node, and then continues it's boot from there. Maybe the easiest way to see what I mean is to install the rpm on https://imaster.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=ibm:rsync_image_installation_of_nodesin a virtualmachine cluster you must have laying around somewhere. The rpm does everything you need except for the imagedirectory creation on the provisioning node (rsync -ax 1.2.3.4:/ /location/of-image is pretty much enough...) and then define a boot target to load the custom initrd. Which is generated by the rpm installation, so you should be able to see what it does in half an hour or so.... To really look into it you can have a look at the scripts in the rpm... I tried to keep it well comented and it's no rocketscience... Furthermore at https://imaster.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=ibm:rsync_image_installation_of_nodesthere is a more in depth description of what it does where and why. For the how you'll have to look in the scripts :D I'm quite sure this is not possible with xcat as we discussed the subject multiple times in our weekly meetings with IBM. IBM ensured us that this was not possible. I hope I've been more clear this time... If not... please ask. Best regards, Geert On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Lissa Valletta <[email protected]> wrote: > I am a little confused as to why you think xCAT does not provide an image > install method. Could you explain further. What is different than the > xCAT ability to create and install statefull,stateless and statelite > osimages. Sections 6 and later in this doc describe deploying nodes. > > https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=XCAT_iDataPlex_Cluster_Quick_Start > > > Lissa K. Valletta > 8-3/B10 > Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 > (tie 293) 433-3102 > > > > [image: Inactive hide details for geert geurts ---03/18/2013 11:00:06 > AM---Hello xCATlist, For our new cluster we were looking for a si]geert > geurts ---03/18/2013 11:00:06 AM---Hello xCATlist, For our new cluster we > were looking for a similar way of node installation > > From: geert geurts <[email protected]> > To: xCAT Users Mailing list <[email protected]> > Date: 03/18/2013 11:00 AM > Subject: [xcat-user] rsync image install > ------------------------------ > > > > Hello xCATlist, > > For our new cluster we were looking for a similar way of node installation > as seen on Bright ClusterManager clusters. > We asked IBM if xcat featured a image install method, but this was not the > case. We have been looking at ways to get a similar solution, but were > unable to satisfy this need with the conventional xcat methods available. > I decided to try to implement a customized initrd which would rsync the > rootfilesystem from a service node to the computenodes. > > I would like to share this software to the list in the hope it will be > useful. > It features: > * a partitioning layout boot kernel option in the form: > "partitionsinfo=/dev/sda1:linux-swap:2000:200,/dev/sda2:ext3:208000:208:/,/dev/sda3:ext3:40000:400:/usr" > to specify the required partition layout. > * rsync install of rootimage under directory /node-images/default-image > using kernel bootoption "image=/node-images/default-image" > * both full as update only rsync install > * sshd for debuging > More complete, documentation as well as the rpm can be found under: * > https://imaster.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=ibm:rsync_image_installation_of_nodes > *<https://imaster.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=ibm:rsync_image_installation_of_nodes> > This docuwiki article refers to an svn directory for the scripts, which is > not world readable, but all scripts are in the rpm. > When anyone finds bugs or adds features, please send your changes to the > email provided in the scripts. > > Best regards, > Geert Geurts > HPC administrator TU-Darmstadt > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. > Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics > Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: > http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_mar > _______________________________________________ > xCAT-user mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcat-user > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. > Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics > Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: > http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_mar > _______________________________________________ > xCAT-user mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcat-user > > -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why a cat is superior to a dog...
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