9.2 Migrating xCAT clusters to CSM

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9.2 Migrating xCAT clusters to CSM

In order to migrate from xCAT to CSM, the information stored in the xCAT tables must be re-formatted such that it can be imported into the CSM node database.

To ease this process, IBM provides a migration tool provided by the IBM alphaWorks emerging technologies organization. Through alphaWorks, anyone can experience the latest IBM innovations at the earliest stages of development, before they are actually licensed or integrated into products. alphaWork's Enhanced Cluster Tools (ECT) for Linux, for example, includes a set of tools for the enhancement of Cluster Systems Management (CSM). One such tool is a xCAT-to-CSM transitional tool allowing the migration of xCAT cluster managed resources to a CSM cluster structure. This xCAT-to-CSM transitional tool is know as xcat2csm and can be downloaded from the following site:

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/ect4linux

9.2.1 Using xcat2csm

The xcat2csm tool will read the node information contained in the xCAT tables and generates two files containing node list and node group definition information in CSM understandable format:

  • /tmp/nodedef

  • /tmp/nodegrpdef

Before running xcat2csm you must set the XCATROOT environment variable. With newer releases of xCAT, this variable is mandatory and will have already been set; otherwise, you must set it to the directory where xCAT is installed (usually /usr/local/xcat or /opt/xcat). Other than that, xcat2csm operation is fully automated.

Example 9-1 shows the output of the xcat2csm command.

Example 9-1: Using xcat2csm

start example
 # export XCATROOT=/opt/xcat # /opt/csm/bin/xcat2csm Let's see where the xCAT directory is..........  /opt/xcat. Let's find out what version of xCAT you have...  1.1.9.9 Now let's see what version of CSM you have.....  1.3.0.0 Okay, now we're going to get data from your xCAT tables. Formatting the data in /tmp/nodedef... Formatting the node group data in /tmp/nodegrpdef... Done. ################################################################### To best make use of the data files you just created, read the man pages for definenode and nodegrp. You should go through /tmp/nodedef and edit it to your liking and read the comments. Once you are satisfied, then run the command: /opt/csm/bin/definenode -f /tmp/nodedef Then, edit /tmp/nodegrpdef to your preference, and run the command: /opt/csm/bin/nodegrp -f /tmp/nodegrpdef These two commands will set up your nodes and node groups in CSM ################################################################### 
end example

9.2.2 Edit the generated files

As you can see from the output in Example 9-1, xcat2csm recommends inspecting the two files it creates before importing them into CSM. In this section, we will examine the files one by one.

The nodedef file

In order to ease the definition of xCAT nodes in the CSM database, xcat2csm creates the nodedef file with as much information as possible about the nodes and in a convenient format. The nodes definitions in the generated nodedef file need then to be complemented with any CSM required node attribute.

For example, at the time of writing, xcat2csm does not recognize terminal server types or correctly convert console ports. If you are using a terminal server, you must manually convert all ConsolePortNum attributes and supply the correct ConsoleServerMethod attributes.

xCAT requires console server port numbers that are specified simply by TCP port. CSM understands the configuration of each supported terminal server and requires port numbers are specified by the physical port number of the unit. For example, on an Equinox ELS-16, TCP port 3001 corresponds to serial port 1, 3002 to serial port 2, and so on. On the MRV boxes, TCP port 2100 corresponds to port 1 and 2200 to serial port 2. You must manually convert these in the nodedef file as well as supplying the correct ConsoleServerMethod attribute. A list of valid ConsoleServerMethod attributes can be obtained from the nodeattributes man page. The two most common are els for Equinox ELS and ELS-IIs and mrv for the MRV In-Reach products.

In Example 9-2, we see the unmodified xcat2csm output for a single node.

Example 9-2: Excerpt from unmodified xcat2csm generated nodedef file

start example
 node01: #    This ConsolePortNum below may need to be changed. #    (e.g. if ELS, then ConsolePortNum - 3000. #    if iTouch, then (ConsPortNum -2000)/100)         ConsolePortNum=2500         ConsoleServerName=itouch1         HWControlNodeId=node01         HWControlPoint=rsa1         InstallAdapterMacaddr=00:06:29:de:9c:cc         InstallDistributionName=RedHat         InstallDistributionVersion=7.3         InstallOSName=Linux         UserComment='generated by xcat2csm' 
end example

Once the correct ConsoleMethod ConsolePortnum changes have been made, the output should look something like Example 9-3.

Example 9-3: Excerpt from updated xcat2csm nodefile

start example
 node01:        ConsoleMethod=mrv        ConsolePortNum=5        ConsoleServerName=itouch1        HWControlNodeId=node01        HWControlPoint=rsa1        InstallAdapterMacaddr=00:06:29:de:9c:cc        InstallDistributionName=RedHat        InstallDistributionVersion=7.3        InstallOSName=Linux        UserComment='generated by xcat2csm' 
end example

For more information on nodedef files, refer to "Second method: Creating a node definition (nodedef) file" on page 135.

The nodegrpdef file

The xcat2csm tool converts the entire collection of xCAT node groups into the nodegrpdef file. You should inspect the file and determine which, if any, of the groups you want to import into CSM.

Example 9-4 contains the nodegrpdef file generated by xcat2csm on our small cluster.

Example 9-4: Sample nodegrpdef file generated by xcat2csm

start example
 all: static,not validated,node01,node02,node03,node04,node05 compute73: static,not validated,node01,node02,node03,node04,node05 nan: static,not validated,rsa1,cws,myri 
end example

Note that these groups are entirely defunct with CSM. The group all has been superseded by the dynamic group AllNodes, The group compute73 by the RedHat73Nodes group, and the nan group is xCAT specific and no-longer required.

In a larger cluster, rackN or other potentially useful nodegroups may still exist. If these are still desirable, remove any unwanted groups from the nodegrpdef file before proceeding.

9.2.3 Importing the files into CSM

Once you are satisfied with the files, you can import them into the CSM database with the following commands. If you have elected not to import any of your xCAT groups, simply omit the nodegrp step:

 # definenode -f /tmp/nodedef # nodegrp -f /tmp/nodegrpdef 

Make sure that all nodes have been properly defined before you proceed with the node group definitions.

Once all the definitions have been made, you can use the lsnode <nodename> -l command to verify its attributes.



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Linux Clustering with CSM and GPFS
Linux Clustering With Csm and Gpfs
ISBN: 073849870X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 123
Authors: IBM Redbooks

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