GE XVB601

Company site: GE Intelligent Platforms

Board page on company site: XVB601

Documentation: Datasheet Hardware Reference Transition Module Installation Guide Product Configurations Ruggedization

Customization for the CLON cluster

List of boards

• [01] 00:20:38:04:23:5E / 129.57.68.88 / croctest1

• [02] 00:20:38:04:23:60 / 129.57.68.89 / croctest2

General software structure

• following is installed in /tftpboot area on clon10 server:

linux-install/Centos5PAE_new/initrd.img
                            /initrd.img.backup
                            /vmlinuz
             /msgs/boot.msg
                  /expert.msg
                  /general.msg
                  /param.msg
                  /rescue.msg
                  /snake.msg
             /pxelinux.0
             /pxelinux.cfg/81394458 -> croctest1
                          /81394459 -> croctest2
                          /croctest1
                          /croctest2
                          /default
                          /pxeos.xml
         

Every client must has a file in /pxelinux.cfg/ area with the name containing IP address in HEX format, for example croctest1's IP is 129.57.68.88, so file name must be 81394458. It can be a symbolic link. The contents of the file for croctest1:

default Centos5PAE_new
label Centos5PAE_new
    kernel Centos5PAE_new/vmlinuz
    append  initrd=Centos5PAE_new/initrd.img root=/dev/ram0 init=disklessrc NFSROOT=129.57.167.16:/vol/diskless/Centos5 ramdisk_size=31809 ETHERNET=eth0 SNAPSHOT=croctest1.jlab.org NISDOMAIN=CCCHP acpi=force vga=0x305 vmalloc=256MB console=ttyS0,9600

It is more or less generic. To customize it for another client only SNAPSHOT=croctest1.jlab.org must be changed. Statement NFSROOT=129.57.167.16:/vol/diskless/Centos5 defines the fileserver IP and directory where diskless Linux is located, in our case it is clonfs1.

• diskless Linux is installed on clonfs1 fileserver in /vol/diskless/Centos5 volume. That volume is mounted on the clonpc3 RHEL machine as well, and all Centos5 installation was performed on clonpc3, as it described in EXPERT section below. Directory /diskless/Centos5/root will be mounted as / level on all diskless clients, so that part is generic for all clients. Custom areas in /diskless/Centos5/snapshot will be client-specific, for every new client new directory with appropriate name must be creates there, usually by coping one of existing directories, for example croctest1.jlab.org.

After expert installation is done, following changes must be applied.

Customizing kernel installed on the FLASH

• /usr/bin/system-config-network

• fix /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group

• fix /etc/nsswitch.conf

• fix /etc/yp.conf (add lines domain CCCHP server clon00.jlab.org and ypserver clon10.jlab.org)

• fix /etc/sysconfig/network (add line NISDOMAIN=CCCHP)

• /etc/init.d/ypbind start

• chkconfig ypbind on

• set RHEL-style automounts

• /etc/init.d/autofs restart

• fix symbolic links to /apps, /home, /usr/local etc