<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Hi folks,<br>
<br>
So per advices and suggestions, we started to look for booting our
nodes throught Gbit Ethernet. The OS of our choice is Scientific
Linux 6.3 - SL6.3 (for all master and client nodes). There are
bunches of guides/instructions out there in the net, but I focused
and learnt from mainly two guides:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Storage_Administration_Guide/diskless-nfs-config.html">https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Storage_Administration_Guide/diskless-nfs-config.html</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/red-hat-31/building-a-diskless-redhat-enterprise-linux-cluster-765393/">http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/red-hat-31/building-a-diskless-redhat-enterprise-linux-cluster-765393/</a><br>
<br>
After few days struggling with the system, here are what I have
done:<br>
* install SL6.3 on master node<br>
* install DHCP server (using dhcpd) on master node<br>
* install xinetd and enable tftp<br>
* open firewall for tftp and dhcpd using iptables<br>
<br>
The aboves were enough for me to boot up SL6.3 LiveCD on a client
node using PXE. The liveCD boots fine, I was able to get into the
desktop, but was unable to proceed next :(. Cant install because
these are diskless nodes.<br>
<br>
What I have done next:<br>
* install/enable nfs server<br>
* open firewall (iptables) for nfs services<br>
<br>
Then booting SL6.3 LiveCD, i still cannot see nfs mount point to
install the system. Then next trial was rsync. First rsync was for
the current system on master node (with a lot of different services
such as dhpcd, nfs, xinetd, tftp)<br>
<br>
<meta charset="utf-8">
$ rsync -a -e ssh --exclude='/proc/*' --exclude='/sys/*' localhost:/
/diskless/hostroot<br>
<br>
where hostroot is exported through nfs server:<br>
<br>
$ cat /etc/exports <br>
/diskless *(rw,sync,no_root_squash)<br>
<br>
After editing /diskless/hostroot/etc/fstab as instructed:<br>
<br>
$ cat /diskless/hostroot/etc/fstab <br>
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0<br>
none /dev/shm tmpfs
defaults 0 0<br>
none /dev/pts devpts
gid=5,mode=620 0 0<br>
sysfs /sys sysfs
defaults 0 0<br>
proc /proc proc
defaults 0 0<br>
<br>
Finally I have in tftp server:<br>
<br>
$ ls -l /var/lib/tftpboot/<br>
total 781140<br>
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 32149978 Nov 16 17:07
initramfs-2.6.32-279.14.1.el6.x86_64.img<br>
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 730839030 Nov 14 16:22 initrd0.img<br>
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 26828 Nov 14 16:22 pxelinux.0<br>
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Nov 19 14:40 pxelinux.cfg<br>
-r--r--r--. 1 root root 3987376 Nov 14 16:22 vmlinuz0<br>
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 3989680 Nov 15 23:22
vmlinuz-2.6.32-279.14.1.el6.x86_64<br>
<br>
Ok, booting this system, I was able to see desktop client on the
node, but can't log in (actually, I was able to log in and was
kicked out right after that). ssh to the client node got the same
thing: in and being kicked out. Dont know what was wrong :(.<br>
<br>
OK, next I tried not to rsync the current master system, but tried
to install using groupinstall:<br>
<br>
$ yum -y groupinstall "Base" "Server Platform"
--installroot=/diskless/root<br>
<br>
but then I got a bunch of errors with dependencies. Asking SL
forum/mailing list with the above errors but I have not gotten any
good solution yet.<br>
<br>
So finally I tried to put a USB stick on the client node, booted up
LiveCD again, installed the new system on client node on the usb
stick, and then rsync using this system instead of the master node's
sytem:<br>
<br>
$ rsync -a -e ssh --exclude='/proc/*' --exclude='/sys/*'
192.168.200.2:/ /diskless/clientroot<br>
<br>
Unfortunately this system could not boot up. I got stuck at
something like<br>
<br>
INFQ: task flush-0:18:1924 blocked for more than 120 seconds.<br>
<br>
So to summarize:<br>
* boot using liveCD -> OK, logging in fine<br>
* boot using rsync of master node's system -> OK, cant log in<br>
* boot using rsync of client node's sytem -> cant boot<br>
* install client node using groupinstall -> cant do<br>
<br>
So, what should I do next? Please advise,<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
<br>
D.<br>
</body>
</html>