I''m pretty sure this is in a FAQ somewhere, but it bears repeating, if only to make it more likely to show up on Google. This entry in /etc/hosts will make your Lustre installation stop working: 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost $hostname This is the entry you need: 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost $ipaddress $hostname.fqdn $hostname The former is what you get from Debian''s default installer. The latter is what you really, really want. Otherwise only one of your client nodes will make any progress, and your syslog will be full of inscrutable, but clearly bad, error messages. -jwb