Linux_hpc_swstack - Jul 2008 - Comments/Concerns on the Linux HPC Preview Release

Good morning.  I downloaded the HPC Preview release yesterday to 
experiment and see if solved some of the deployment issues I am having 
with just regular Centos 5 + Lustre + Multiple MPI stacks.  I did manage 
to get it to install on the head node after a little bit of creativity 
on my part and am checking out the userland now.

Installation issues:
On Centos 5.2, the yumdownloader syntax doesn''t match the 
sunhpc-linux-iso script.  When it was attempting to download the RPMS 
for Centos 5, it had all the repositories enabled, and was getting 
confused when Centos 4 and Centos 5 had similar packages available.  I 
solved that problem by changing --enable=<centos 5 repo> to 
--disablerepo=<centos 4 repo> and the reverse for Centos 4.  Once I did 
that and removed the ss12 repo file, I had no problems generating the 
ISO images.

I''m currently using a V20z as my "master" node for testing
purposes.
One small problem with those machines is a lack of DVD-ROMS and virtual 
media devices.  I managed to install by copying the kernel and initrd to 
my kickstart server and netbooting the machine and doing an NFS install 
from the iso image loopback mounted on my current install server.

My overall impression so far has been pretty good, and it doesn''t feel 
as limiting to me as Rocks and xCat have.  The big test for me after I 
get the software working, is how well the system plays with non-Sun 
hardware that lacks any sort of IPMI or iLOM cards.
-- 
Bob Healey
Systems Administrator
Physics Department, RPI
healer at rpi.edu