HP XC System Software Installation Guide Version 3.2

NOTE: If necessary, see “Troubleshooting the Imaging Process” (page 170) for information
about using the imaging log files to troubleshoot the imaging process.
Proceed to “Task 12: Run the startsys Utility to Start the System and Propagate the Golden Image”.
3.12 Task 11: Edit the /etc/dhcpd.conf File
This task is optional. Perform this task only if the system is using a Myrinet interconnect and
you followed the instructions in “Configure Myrinet Switch Monitoring Line Cards” (page 194)
and saved a backup copy of the /etc/dhcpd.conf file:
1. Use the text editor of you choice to open the /etc/dhcpd.conf file.
2. In another terminal window, use the text editor of your choice to open the
/etc/dhcpd.conf.ORIG file.
3. Merge the customizations in the backup copy of the file into the /etc/dhcpd.conf file.
IMPORTANT: Do not perform a global replace of the /etc/dhcpd.conf file with the
entire contents of the .ORIG backup copy because the new version of the /etc/dhcpd.conf
file might contain new or additional information that is not present in the backup copy.
4. Save your changes to the /etc/dhcpd.conf file and exit the text editors.
5. Restart the dhcpd service:
# service dhcpd restart
3.13 Task 12: Run the startsys Utility to Start the System and Propagate
the Golden Image
The first time the entire system is started with the startsys command, power to each node is
turned on, each node boots from its network adapter, and the SystemImager automatic installation
environment is downloaded. This environment automatically installs and configures each node
from the golden image. The startsys command might take several minutes to power on the
nodes on large-scale systems because of scale requirements.
The number of nodes to be installed influences the amount of time it takes to complete the process.
After all nodes are installed, they automatically reboot to the login prompt. This process can take
between two to three hours on a system with 1024 compute nodes.
This release uses the multicast file transfer technology to download software to client nodes
during their image installation. Multicast file transfer technology provides a fast and scalable
method of installing systems. Using multicast imaging sends data to many nodes simultaneously
that have been previously set up to listen to a multicast from the designated image server.
Multicast imaging provides very little resource drain on the image server as compared to other
file transfer technologies, and therefore, allows systems of all sizes to be installed relatively
quickly.
Multicast imaging uses the udpcast open source package, and the flamethrower functionality of
SystemImager. A series of udp-sender daemons are run on the image server, and each client
node runs a series of udp-receiver daemons during the imaging operation. The udp-sender
daemons are managed by the startsys command. The startsys command starts these
daemons when the --image_only or --image_and_boot options are entered on the command
line and then shuts these daemons down after the imaging operation is complete. Therefore, you
must use startsys when performing a full installation through the imaging operation.
Startup Procedure
Follow this procedure to start the system and propagate the golden image to all nodes; the
command-line options depend on the number of nodes in the system:
100 Configuring and Imaging the System