HP XC System Software Installation Guide Version 2.1

4
Configuring and Imaging the System
This chapter contains an overview of the system configuration and imaging process (Section 4.1)
and describes system configuration tasks, which must be p erformed in the following order:
1. Gather information before you begin ( Section 4.2).
2. Prepare for the system configuration question-and-answer session (Sec
tion 4.3).
3. Place the l icense key file in the c orrect location (Section 4.4).
4. Change the default base IP address for the internal networks (optional) (Section 4.5).
5. Discover all system components (Section 4.6).
6. Define and set up the system en vironm ent before propagating the system image to a ll
client nodes (Section 4.7).
7. Configure and image the system (Section 4.8).
8. Modify the SLURM configuration f ile (optional) (Section 4 .9).
9. Start the system and propagate the golden image to all nodes (Section 4.10).
10. Start the Load Sharing Facility (LSF HPC) (Section 4.11).
4.1 Overview
The System Configuration Process
The s ystem configu ration process, custom-tailored by HP, is the method by wh ich the topology
of the system is autom atically discovered, applied, and stored in the configuration d atabase 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 Administrative Network when the n odes were cabled into the appropriate
switches.
The system config uration proced ure described in this chapter consi sts of runnin g the following
commands:
• cluster_prep prepares the system for discovery and configuration
• discover automatically discovers and enables the hardware components
• cluster_config populates the system configuration database with node role
assignments, starts all services on the head node, and creates the golden system image
The System Imaging Process
The SystemImager®, an o pen sou rce software component of the X C system, provides a
simplified metho d for automating th e install ation of large Linux clusters. SystemImager
provides the fo undation f or the image replication and distr ibu tion env ir onment used within an
XC system to install nodes.
As part of the initial sof twar e installatio n, the head node is configured as th e golden client,
which is the nod e that represents the configuration from which all other nodes are replicated.
Next, a golden image is created from the golden client, wh ich is a replication of the lo cal file
system directories and files, starting from root (/). The golden image is stored on the image
server, which is also resident on the h ead node in this release.
Configuring and Imaging the System 4-1