[Beowulf] more automatic building

[Olli-Pekka Lehto]

We have our latest cluster software stack for a distributed set of clusters built on Ansible: 
https://github.com/CSC-IT-Center-for-Science/fgci-ansible 

A recent presentation at the SLURM User Group on Ansiblizing SLURM: 
https://gitpitch.com/CSC-IT-Center-for-Science/ansible-role-slurm/gitpitch 

I see benefits also in being able to share playbooks and collaborate on improving them with other teams in our organization and the Universities, even ones working in non-HPC areas. 

Best regards, 
Olli-Pekka 
-- 
Olli-Pekka Lehto 
Development Manager 
Computing Platforms 
CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd. 
E-Mail: olli-pekka.lehto at csc.fi 
Tel: +358 50 381 8604 
skype: oplehto // twitter: ople 

> From: "Craig Andrew" <cbandrew at wi.mit.edu>
> To: "Tim Cutts" <tjrc at sanger.ac.uk>
> Cc: beowulf at beowulf.org
> Sent: Wednesday, 28 September, 2016 18:01:59
> Subject: Re: [Beowulf] more automatic building

> I agree with Tim.

> We are finishing up an Ansible install and it has worked well for us.

> Initially, we used it internally to help standardize our cluster builds, but is
> has many more uses. We recently used it to provision a VM that we saved off and
> uploaded to Amazon for building an AMI. You can also use it to change
> attributes on your running systems. I have used at Cobler in the past and it
> works well, too. I just find Ansible to be a little easier.

> Good luck,
> Craig

> Craig Andrew
> Manager of Systems Administration
> Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

> From: "Tim Cutts" <tjrc at sanger.ac.uk>
> To: "Mikhail Kuzminsky" <mikky_m at mail.ru>, beowulf at beowulf.org
> Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2016 10:46:41 AM
> Subject: Re: [Beowulf] more automatic building

> Any number of approaches will work. When I used to do this years ago (I've long
> since passed on the technical side) I'd PXE boot, partition the hard disk and
> set up a provisioning network and base OS install using the Debian FAI (Fully
> Automated Install) system, and then use cfengine to configure the machine once
> it had come in that minimal state. This approach was used across the board for
> all of our Linux boxes, from Linux desktops to database servers to HPC compute
> nodes.

> These days the team uses tools like cobbler and ansible to achieve the same
> thing. There are lots of ways to do it, but the principle is the same.

> Tim

> --

> Head of Scientific Computing

> Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

> On 28/09/2016, 15:34, "Beowulf on behalf of Mikhail Kuzminsky" <
> beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org on behalf of mikky_m at mail.ru > wrote:

>> I worked always w/very small HPC clusters and built them manually (each server).
>> But what is reasonable to do for clusters containing some tens or hundred of
>> nodes ?
>> Of course w/modern Xeon (or Xeon Phi KNL) and IB EDR, during the next year for
>> example.
>> There are some automatic systems like OSCAR or even ROCKS.

>> But it looks that ROCKS don't support modern interconnects, and there may be
>> problems
>> w/OSCAR versions for support of systemd-based distributives like CentOS 7. For
>> next year -
>> is it reasonable to wait new OSCAR version or something else ?

>> Mikhail Kuzminsky,
>> Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry RAS,
>> Moscow

> -- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome Research Limited, a
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