Daniel Hilst
28dc05c226
servicenode.nfsserver=1 asks a service node to set up file services for the nodes behind it. With site.installloc set, AAsn.pm mounts the install directory from the management node and exports nothing, and setup_NFS only starts the daemon, so the service node serves no NFS at all. Only the branch where installloc is unset ever wrote an export. An Ubuntu compute node boots the live installer with casper, which mounts the install tree over NFS from its own service node. Measured on xcat22-cn: the boot arguments carried nfsroot=192.168.222.21:/install/ubuntu24.04.4/x86_64, and the node stopped at "(initramfs) Unable to find a live file system on the network". On xcat22-sn, showmount -e returned an empty list and /etc/exports was empty while nfs-kernel-server was active. EL never needed this, because anaconda fetches over http. setup_NFS now exports the install directory when nothing exports it yet, then runs exportfs after the daemon. Re-exporting an NFS mount is not the same as exporting a local directory: the kernel cannot derive a filesystem id for one and refuses the export without an explicit fsid, so nfs_export_line adds fsid and crossmnt when the directory is itself a mount. The fsid comes from the path, so a restart does not hand clients a new filesystem identity. An export the kernel refuses is reported and does not fail the service node. The EL cell is re-run on this tree, because an EL service node now writes an export it did not write before. svrutils_nfs_export_line.t drives the routine. Five mutations were tried and each one fails the assertions that name it. Signed-off-by: Daniel Hilst <392820+dhilst@users.noreply.github.com>
xCAT
xCAT is a toolkit for deployment and administration of clusters of all sizes.
The xCAT sunset was only a quick eclipse
Dear xCAT Community,
The xCAT sunset has changed course. VersatusHPC has been invited to join the xCAT Consortium, and future development will move toward direct upstream contributions coordinated with the Consortium and its existing member companies.
That matters most for Enterprise Linux 10 (EL10). EL10 support is coming to xCAT, restoring a future operating-system path for sites that still rely on xCAT. This is an important change from the previous sunset guidance, where the lack of an EL10 path was one of the strongest reasons to move away from xCAT.
The xCAT Consortium continues to recommend Confluent as the long-term successor to xCAT, and that remains the Consortium position. Users planning new cluster-management deployments should evaluate Confluent and its xCAT comparison documentation.
At the same time, xCAT is no longer sunsetted. The Consortium and participating companies will continue updating xCAT while there is community and user demand for it.
In summary:
- xCAT development is continuing upstream through the Consortium and participating companies.
- Enterprise Linux 10 support is coming.
- Confluent remains the Consortium-recommended successor and migration path.
- xCAT updates will continue while there is community and user demand.
We want to thank the xCAT Consortium and community for keeping this project moving. The sun went behind the moon for a moment, but xCAT is still here.
For more information on Confluent and how to get started, please visit the Confluent: Project Page, Documentation or Confluent vs xCAT comparison.
With thanks,
The xCAT Consortium
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