Daniel Hilst
3fcc781fdd
The ubuntu-26.04-ppc64el diskless node never starts its kernel. SLOF reports W3411 and E3406 and falls through to disk. The node fetches the kernel and the initrd in under a minute and fails six minutes later, with no network activity in between: grub2 has the payload and cannot start it. genimage copies the whole lib/firmware tree of the root image into the initrd. That tree is 666 MB on Ubuntu 26.04, which takes the initrd to 719 MB. A 687 MB initrd boots the same kernel on the same node; a 719 MB one does not. The firmware copy now takes only the firmware that the drivers in the initrd ask for, which modinfo reports for each module. The root image keeps its whole tree, so the node that boots is unchanged. ubuntu_genimage_initrd_firmware.t drives the firmware step over a root image whose firmware tree holds files no driver asks for. It fails on the previous commit. 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
Documentation
xCAT Documentation is hosted on Read The Docs: https://xcat-docs.readthedocs.io
Status
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xCAT is made available under the EPL license: https://opensource.org/licenses/eclipse-1.0.php
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