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HP XC System Software : Installation Guide > Chapter 8 Node Roles, Services, and the Default Configuration

Role Definitions

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A node role is defined by the services provided by the node. The role is an abstraction that combines one or more services into a group. Roles provide a convenient way of installing services on a node. Node roles, listed alphabetically, are characterized as follows:

You can define multiple roles on any node. The head node, in particular, can have all of these roles if you are setting up a small cluster.

If you need more information about services and node roles, see the HP XC System Software Administration Guide.

Common Role

The common role is automatically assigned to all nodes, and it cannot be removed. This role runs services that must be present on every node.

The management database names of the services provided by this role are as follows:

  • Hardware information gathering (gather_data)

  • Environmental monitoring for the HP ProLiant DL585 server (hpasm)

  • HPTC file system client (hptc_cluster_fs_client)

  • IP firewall (iptables)

  • Linux kernel crash dump (lkcd)

  • Network adapter setup (network)

  • Nagios remote plug-in execution agent (nrpe)

  • Parallel distributed shell (pdsh)

  • SLURM launch (munge)

These services provide functionality that is required on all nodes and are fundamental to the proper functioning of the cluster.

Compute Role

Jobs are distributed to and run on nodes with the compute role. This role provides the services required for the node to be an allocated resource of the SLURM central control service (slurmcd).

On systems with fewer than 63 total nodes, this role is assigned to all nodes; on large-scale systems with more than 64 nodes, this role is assigned exclusively to nodes with no other roles assigned.

Any node with this role may be called upon to execute jobs scheduled by the users. Nodes with this role are also often called compute nodes.

It is the administrator's responsibility to remove this role on a node if it is not wanted or required.

To enable monitoring of the nodes, run the Nagios remote plug-in execution agent on nodes with the compute role

Disk_io Role

Nodes with the disk_io role provide access to storage and file systems mounted locally on the node. This role can be located on any node that provides local file system access to all nodes using NFS. Assign this role to any node that is exporting SAN storage.

The management database name for the NFS Server service supplied by this role is nfs_server.

Nodes with this role normally reside in the utility cabinet of the cluster and have the most direct access to storage.

You can assign other roles to a node with this role. However, you must be careful not to overload the node so it can provide adequate NFS service.

External Role

The external role supplies the NAT server service, which does network address translation within the cluster. This enables applications to access nodes that do not have an external network connection. The management database name of the service supplied by this role is nat.

Assign this role only to nodes that have an external network connection configured.

The system can have multiple nodes defined with the external role, supplying multiple NAT servers to ease network traffic congestion.

Applications have no need to be aware of the actual internal IP address of a compute node because a NAT server node handles all network requests.

Login Role

Nodes with the login role accept login sessions of users. A user can submit jobs from the command line on a node with a login role. The jobs then are distributed among compute nodes to process the job. Nodes with this role should have an external network connection configured.

The login role supplies a node with the LVS Director service, which handles the placement of user login sessions on login nodes when a user logs in to the cluster alias.

The management database name for the service supplied by this role is lvs.

Management Hub Role

A node with the management hub role is an aggregation point for management activities.

The management database names of the services provided by this role are as follows:

  • Console management facility master (cmf)

  • Nagios monitor (nagios_monitor)

  • SuperMon aggregator (supermond)

  • Syslogng (syslogng_forward)

These services are used to support scaling of the cluster. Nodes with this role provide local storage for aggregation of system logs and performance information. Management hub services typically report up to the node with the management_server role.

You can assign this role to several nodes of the cluster, and HP recommends that you consider using one management hub for every 64 to 128 nodes.

Management Server Role

The management_server role contains services that manage the overall management infrastructure. Only one node in the system can have the management_server role; in this release, the head node has this role.

The management database names of the services provided by this role are as follows:

  • Apache Web server (httpd)

  • Nagios aggregator (nagios)

  • Nagios service (nsca)

NIS Server Role

The nis_server role is not enabled by default. Assigning this role to a node configures the node as a NIS slave server. If you assign this role to a node, you will be prompted to enter the name of your NIS master server and NIS domain name during cluster_config processing.

Any node assigned with the nis_server role must also have an external Ethernet network connection defined.

The management database name of the service provided by this role is nis_server.

Node Management Role

Nodes with the node_management role run a number of services that help manage other nodes in the system. This role is restricted to the head node; it cannot be removed.

The management database names of the services provided by this role are as follows:

  • Console management facility master (cmf)

  • Database server (dbserver)

  • Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) server (dhcp)

  • HPTC file system server (hptc_cluster_fs)

  • License manager (hptc-lm)

  • Image server (imageserver)

  • HP MPI interconnect setup (mpiic)

  • Myrinet switch monitor (gmmon)

  • NFS server (nfs_server)

  • Network time protocol (ntp)

  • Power daemon server (pwrmgmtserver)

  • Quadrics switch monitor (swmlogger)

The MySQL database, in which all management configuration information is stored, runs on a node with this role.

The power manager service manages the powering on and off of nodes in the system.

The MPI interconnect settings are managed by nodes running this role.

The image server service provides images from the SystemImager tool to all client nodes.

The NTP server synchronizes the time on all nodes.

The license manager service enables some software components in the system when a valid license is present.

Resource Management Role

Nodes with the resource_management role provide the services necessary to support SLURM and LSF.

On systems with fewer than 63 total nodes, this role is assigned by default to the head node. On large-scale systems with more than 64 nodes, this role is assigned by default to the node with the internal node name that is one less than the head node. For example, if the head node is n256, node n255 is assigned as the resource manager. On large-scale systems, the resource_management role is exclusive; the node with this role has no other roles assigned to it.

The management database names of the services provided by this role are as follows:

  • LSF master node (lsf)

  • SLURM central control service (slurm)

You can assign this role to multiple nodes in the cluster to provide support for failover. Multiple nodes may have this role defined, but only one is active at a time. If the SLURM central control service fails on the active node, the daemon will be started on another node with the resource management role.

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