HP XC System Software Installation Guide Version 3.0
Table 4-1 Information Required During System Configuration
Description and User ActionItem
Information Requested by the cluster_prep Command
During the system discovery process, each node is automatically assigned a name. This name
consists of a user-defined prefix and a number based on the node's topographical location in
Node name prefix
the system. The default node prefix is the letter n; a 6-character maximum is allowed in the node
prefix.
You have the option to change the node naming prefix before the system is configured. For
example, you may want to be able to differentiate easily between nodes in two different systems,
or you may want to customize your node names according to corporate policy.
Enter the maximum number of nodes you expect to have in your system, taking future expansion
into consideration.
Maximum number of nodes in the
system
For flexibility, consider entering the maximum number of nodes allowed by the interconnect. For
instance, the interconnect might allow a maximum of 128 nodes, but your system contains only
64 nodes. In this case, enter the number 128 when prompted.
Define and set a password to protect the MySQL database. Make this password different from
the root password.
Database administrator's password
You will be prompted for this password any time you log into the database.
See “Setting Strong Passwords” (page 101) for recommendations on choosing strong passwords.
Configuring an Ethernet device on the head node connects the node directly to your public
network. The most likely Ethernet device to use as the external network device is presented to
you by default. You can use this value or provide a different value.
Ethernet device to use as the
external network device
If you need more information to verify that you are selecting the correct Ethernet device on the
head node, open a new terminal window and use the ethtool ethernet-device-name
command to provide more information about the Ethernet devices on the node.
Provide the IP address in dotted quad format that identifies the head node's connection to the
external network. This is the address assigned by your site's network administrator. The IP address
must be in your site's Domain Name Service (DNS) configuration.
IP address for the external network
connection
Provide the network mask (netmask) for your site.Network mask
The network mask is used for each of the addresses in the address range and is specified in
dotted quad format (for example, 255.255.252.0).
Provide the network gateway IP address for your site.IP address for the network gateway
The network gateway is the next-hop router that the system uses to direct any traffic to a host that
is not directly on your site's local network. This address is specified as a dotted quad address
(for example, 192.0.2.51) rather than a name.
Provide the IP address for your site's DNS server. This address is specified in dotted quad format
(for example, 192.0.2.50).
IP address for the DNS name
server
When the following prompt is displayed, provide a list of name server domains to search to
resolve host names:
Domains to search to resolve
names
Enter your Name Server search paths, one per line,
and enter a dot (.) on a line by itself after the last one,
or enter just a carriage return to accept the default.
Search path:
The domain name is typically in the form my-domain.com (assuming that the head node is
intended to be HeadNodeName.my-domain.com). Enter your search entry in the following
format:
DomainName.something[.something....]
The search entry can have from one to six DomainName variables. The DomainName variable
is the name of a domain that should be included in the search list. The first DomainName variable
is interpreted as the default domain name.
Information Requested by the discover Command
Enter the total number of nodes in your system configuration that are to be discovered at this
time. Make sure the number you enter includes the head node and all compute nodes.
Total number of nodes in this
cluster
You will not be prompted for this information if you are discovering a multi-region, large-scale
system.
You can include the node= keyword and value on the discover command line to bypass this
question during the discovery process.
Task 1: Prepare for the System Configuration 37