6 Outline of Cluster Installation Procedure

The following outline is a general description of how an OSCAR cluster is installed. Users do not manually perform many of the steps in this outline - they are automatically executed as part of the OSCAR installation process.

  1. Server Installation and Configuration
    1. install Linux on the server node
    2. get an OSCAR distribution package
    3. configure the ethernet adapter for cluster
    4. copy Linux distribution RPMs from CDs to /tftpboot/rpm
    5. get updated distribution-specific RPMs
    6. copy updated RPMs to /tftpboot/rpm

  2. Initial OSCAR Server Configuration
    1. create OSCAR directories
    2. install OSCAR-specific software
      • C3
      • LAM/MPI
      • MPICH
      • OPIUM
      • OpenPBS
      • Maui
      • pfilter
      • PVM
      • SIS
      • Switcher
      • Various services:
        1. Network File System (NFS)
        2. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
        3. rsync
        4. OpenSSH
    3. update some system files
    4. update system startup scripts
    5. start/restart affected services

  3. Cluster Definition
    1. build and customize image
      1. install Linux distribution RPMs
      2. install OSCAR RPMs
      3. customize and copy system and user files
      4. setup NFS mount for /home
      5. generate SSH keys
    2. define disk partitioning and filesystems
    3. define clients
      1. update hosts files on server and in images
    4. collect client MAC addresses
    5. setup remote booting (network or diskette)

  4. Client Installations
    1. boot clients to start install
    2. reboot each client when finished installing
  5. Complete cluster setup
  6. Test cluster
    1. test PBS
    2. test OpenSSH
    3. test MPICH
    4. test LAM/MPI
    5. test PVM
    6. test HDF5
  7. Cluster setup complete!

root 2002-11-08