Daniel Hilst
ff20388fed
A compute node fetches the legacy Genesis kernel and initramfs, the kernel starts, and then nothing else happens: doxcat never runs, the node acquires no address, sshd refuses every connection and the node stays at status=powering-on. The five genesis test cases in xCAT-test/autotest/testcase/genesis have never passed. VersatusHPC/xcat-internal#78. Three holes in the image, each fatal on its own. dracut_105/el/xcat-cmdline.sh ends in `while :; do tmux attach-session -t doxcat || tmux new-session -s doxcat doxcat; done`, and the image carries no locale data, so tmux exits with "need UTF-8 locale" and the loop spins without ever reaching doxcat. module-setup.sh does not install /usr/libexec/openssh/sshd-session, which OpenSSH 9.8 and later exec for every connection and which EL9 now ships. xCAT-genesis-base.spec does not BuildRequire dhcp-client, so dhclient is absent from the build chroot; dracut_install reports the missing binary and returns, and the module install function keeps going, so the image ships without it. xcat-cmdline.sh now resolves xcat_console_mode() once and runs doxcat directly when the terminal multiplexer cannot start a session; the same shape replaces the screen loop on Ubuntu. module-setup.sh installs the OpenSSH session helpers and the C.utf8 locale where they exist. The spec BuildRequires dhcp-client on the releases that package it, and runs the new xCAT-genesis-builder/verify-genesis-payload over the extracted payload, which fails the build when sshd needs a helper the image lacks, when tmux has no UTF-8 locale, or when a binary the caller named is missing. The same runs exposed four defects in the test cases themselves. test.sh defined its synthetic node as ppc64le whatever the management node was, so nodeset could not find a genesis kernel on x86_64. genesistest.pl get_os() matched neither AlmaLinux nor Rocky and reported the OS as unsupported. The -g check read $? instead of check_genesis_file()'s return value, so it could never fail. And testxdsh() met "REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED" from the second boot on, because Genesis makes new host keys every boot and nothing dropped the stale known_hosts entry. test.sh now derives the node arch from uname and takes the tftp root from TFTPDIR, get_os() recognises the redhat family, report_genesis_files() carries the result to an exit status, and forget_host_keys() runs makeknownhosts -r before each probe. Tests: genesis_console_mode.t drives xcat_console_mode() with the multiplexer shadowed; genesis_payload_verification.t drives the verifier over payload trees carrying each hole; genesis_testcase_helpers.t drives get_os(), check_genesis_file(), report_genesis_files() and testxdsh(); genesis_incorrectmasterip_check.t runs test.sh against a scratch tftp root. Each fails on the parent commit. The verifier also reports all three holes against the released xCAT-genesis-base-x86_64-2.19.0-snap202609021858 payload. Signed-off-by: Daniel Hilst <392820+dhilst@users.noreply.github.com> (cherry picked from commit cb6021eb3cdb3abc75e4dd6704cb42b28074e140) 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
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