This section provides an overview of the initial system
configuration and imaging process.
System Configuration Process |
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The system configuration process is the method by which the topology
of the system is automatically discovered, applied, and stored in the configuration
and management database after the installation of the head node has been completed.
The system topology is defined based on the manner in which
the head and client nodes are connected to the administration network when
the nodes are cabled into the appropriate switches.
The system configuration procedure described in this chapter
consists of running the following HP XC commands and utilities:
System Imaging Process |
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The SystemImager, an open source
software component of the HP XC system, provides a simplified method
for automating the installation of large Linux clusters. SystemImager provides
the foundation for the image replication and distribution environment used
to install client nodes in HP XC system.
As part of the initial software installation, the head
node is configured as the golden client, which is the
node that represents the configuration from which all other nodes are replicated.
Next, a golden image is created from the golden client,
which is a replication of the local file system directories and files, starting
from root (/). The golden image is stored on the image server,
which is also resident on the head node in this release.
When nodes are instructed to PXE or
network boot from their network adapter attached to the administration network,
the nodes automatically go through an installation process that replicates
the golden client and does the following:
Partitions the local disk
By default, the first
disk is partitioned because in this release, disks other than the first disk
are not supported because of restrictions in the image replication environment.
Downloads the golden image
Installs the appropriate boot loader
When the automatic installation process completes, each
node is rebooted and continues its configuration process, eventually ending
with the login prompt.
System Configuration and Imaging Log Files |
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A
record of the configuration process is stored in the /var/log/nconfig.log file.
Logging of the system imaging process is stored in the
following files:
/hptc_cluster/adm/logs/imaging.log
/var/log/systemimager/rsyncd
/hptc_cluster/adm/logs/startsys.log
The /hptc_cluster/adm/logs/imaging.log file
contains log information produced during the imaging and node configuration
processes.
Use the information in this file to diagnose imaging issues such as
nodes not booting correctly or failing during the imaging operation. The
node configuration portion of the log file provides useful information during
the first boot after a node has been imaged. If a node configuration fails,
the node is put into single-user mode with network access. The node is not
allowed to join the HP XC system without user intervention. The node
or nodes that are put into single-user mode are listed in the imaging.log file.
Two system services that are based on syslog-ng log the
UDP based information sent by each client during installation and the node
configuration phase (which is called the nconfigure phase). The hptc-ire-serverlog service
runs persistently on the imaging server. It is responsible for accepting
UDP messages from the imaging client and from the hptc-ire-clientlog service
running when a node is running through its nconfigure phase. The hptc-ire-clientlog
service is managed by autoinstall and the nconfig process. It is only started
during these processes and turned off after the processes have been completed.
The rsync log daemon is responsible
for logging start and completion time stamps for imaging and golden image
updates in the /var/log/systemimager/rsyncd file. The
information is sent through TCP for reliability. This is a required service
because imaging completion timestamps are used to generate the per node entries
in the /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg file that denote a system
has imaged successfully.
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