xcat-core

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Table of Contents

Overview
Pre-requirement
Discover Switches
Configure switches
Error Cases

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Overview

Currently, xCAT supports switch based hardware discovery, the servers are identified through the switches and switch ports they are directly connected to. Use same method, this design document will introduce how to discovery switches use switch-based discovery.

Pre-requirement

In order to do switch-based switch discovery, the admin

Needs to manually setup and configure core-switch, SNMP v3 needs to be enabled in order for xCAT access to it.

Example of core-switch definition:

# lsdef switch-10-5-23-1
Object name: switch-10-5-23-1
    groups=switch
    ip=10.5.23.1
    mac=A8:97:DC:05:2E:00
    mgt=switch
    nodetype=switch
    password=admin
    postbootscripts=otherpkgs
    postscripts=syslog,remoteshell,syncfiles
    protocol=telnet
    snmpauth=sha
    snmppassword=passw0rd
    snmpusername=xcatadmin
    snmpversion=3
    switchtype=BNT
    usercomment=IBM
    username=root

Then pre-define all the top-rack switches which connect to core-switch.

# lsdef switch-192-168-5-22
switch-192-168-5-22:
    objtype=node
    groups=switch
    ip=192.168.5.22
    mgt=switch
    nodetype=switch
    switch=switch-10-5-23-1
    switchport=45
    switchtype=BNT

Setup Dynamic ip range to network table for discovery switches to use.

Discover Switches

xCAT supports switchdiscover command to discover the switches that are attached to the subnets on xCAT management node. Please refer http://xcat-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/advanced/networks/switchdiscover/switches_discovery.html for more info.

For the switch-based switch discovery, we add –setup flag:

switchdiscover [noderange|--range ip_ranges][-s scan_methods] --setup

if –setup flag is specified, it will process following steps:

Use snmp or nmap scan method to find all the switches in the dynamic ip ranges which specified by --range, the available switches will be store to switch hash table with hostname, switchtype, vendor info and mac address.
Use discovered switch’s mac address, call find_mac subroutine. The find_mac subroutine will go thought each switch port for the switch which pre-defined in the xCAT DB and return hostname if mac matches.

If discovered switch didn't match to pre-define, it will log the message to indicate NO predefined switch matched.
If discovered switch matched with one of pre-defined switch, it will update the pre-defined switch with

otherinterface=x.x.x.x (discovered ip)
state=matched
switchtype=type of switch
usercomment=vendor information

after switches matched, will call config files to set up static ip address, hostname and enable the snmpv3. currently, BNT and Mellanox switches are supported. The two config files are located in the ** /opt/xcat/share/xcat/scripts/config.BNT** and /opt/xcat/share/xcat/scripts/config.Mellanox.

Configure switches

The switchdiscover command with –setup options will set up switches with static ip address, change the hostname from predefine switches and enable snmpv3 configuration. For other switches configuration, please refer http://xcat-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/advanced/networks/ethernet_switches/ethernet_switches.html and http://xcat-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/advanced/networks/infiniband/switch_configuration.html

These two config files are located in the /opt/xcat/share/xcat/scripts.

configBNT is for configure BNT switches.

 ./configBNT --help
Usage:
    configBNT [-?│-h│--help]
    configBNT [--switches switchnames] [--all]
    configBNT [--switches switchnames] [--ip]
    configBNT [--switches switchnames] [--name ]
    configBNT [--switches switchnames] [--snmp] [--user snmp_user] [--password snmp_password] [--group snmp_group]
    configBNT [--switches switchnames] [--port port] [--vlan vlan]

configMellanox is for configure Mellanox switch. The script will configure ntp service on the switch with xCAT MN and use rspconfig command to

enable ssh
enable snmp function on the switch
enable the snmp trap
set logging destination to xCAT MN

./configMellanox --help
Usage:
    configMellonax [-?│-h│--help]
    configMellonax [--switches switchnames] [--all]
    configMellonax [--switches switchnames] [--ip]
    configMellonax [--switches switchnames] [--name]
    configMellonax [--switches switchnames] [--config]

Error Cases

if switch type is not BNT or Mellanox, the message will be logged the switch type is not support yet from switchdiscover --setup command. and also from config command: the switch type is not BNT/Mellanox switch, will not config.
the Error message will logged if one of config command failed.

News

Apr 22, 2016: xCAT 2.11.1 released.
Mar 11, 2016: xCAT 2.9.3 (AIX only) released.
Dec 11, 2015: xCAT 2.11 released.
Nov 11, 2015: xCAT 2.9.2 (AIX only) released.
Jul 30, 2015: xCAT 2.10 released.
Jul 30, 2015: xCAT migrates from sourceforge to github
Jun 26, 2015: xCAT 2.7.9 released.
Mar 20, 2015: xCAT 2.9.1 released.
Dec 12, 2014: xCAT 2.9 released.
Sep 5, 2014: xCAT 2.8.5 released.
May 23, 2014: xCAT 2.8.4 released.
Jan 24, 2014: xCAT 2.7.8 released.
Nov 15, 2013: xCAT 2.8.3 released.
Jun 26, 2013: xCAT 2.8.2 released.
May 17, 2013: xCAT 2.7.7 released.
May 10, 2013: xCAT 2.8.1 released.
Feb 28, 2013: xCAT 2.8 released.
Nov 30, 2012: xCAT 2.7.6 released.
Oct 29, 2012: xCAT 2.7.5 released.
Aug 27, 2012: xCAT 2.7.4 released.
Jun 22, 2012: xCAT 2.7.3 released.
May 25, 2012: xCAT 2.7.2 released.
Apr 20, 2012: xCAT 2.7.1 released.
Mar 19, 2012: xCAT 2.7 released.
Mar 15, 2012: xCAT 2.6.11 released.
Jan 23, 2012: xCAT 2.6.10 released.
Nov 15, 2011: xCAT 2.6.9 released.
Sep 30, 2011: xCAT 2.6.8 released.
Aug 26, 2011: xCAT 2.6.6 released.
May 20, 2011: xCAT 2.6 released.
Feb 14, 2011: Watson plays on Jeopardy and is managed by xCAT!
xCAT Release Notes Summary
xCAT OS And Hw Support Matrix
xCAT Test Environment Summary

History

Oct 22, 2010: xCAT 2.5 released.
Apr 30, 2010: xCAT 2.4 is released.
Oct 31, 2009: xCAT 2.3 released.
xCAT's 10 year anniversary!
Apr 16, 2009: xCAT 2.2 released.
Oct 31, 2008: xCAT 2.1 released.
Sep 12, 2008: Support for xCAT 2
can now be purchased!
June 9, 2008: xCAT breaths life into
(at the time) the fastest
supercomputer on the planet
May 30, 2008: xCAT 2.0 for Linux
officially released!
Oct 31, 2007: IBM open sources
xCAT 2.0 to allow collaboration
among all of the xCAT users.
Oct 31, 1999: xCAT 1.0 is born!
xCAT started out as a project in
IBM developed by Egan Ford. It
was quickly adopted by customers
and IBM manufacturing sites to
rapidly deploy clusters.