Our cluster does run when all nodes are booted to RedHat 7.2. Currently, a
client that is booted to Windows can not be used by the cluster; we have not
totally given up on tricking Windows into letting the cluster steal CPU
cycles but it's looking doubtful.
For those who are interested in how we set up the clients so that they can
dual boot with Win2K, here are the details. It is simple to have the server
node dual boot; if Windows [any flavor] is already installed then installing
RedHat will set up dual boot automatically.
The following instructions were written primarily by Jeff Williams [a senior
CS major who did most of the dual-booting and Win2K installation for our
team] with the help of many FAQs and hints from various sources. Teresa
Carrigan did some rewording to make it more appropriate for posting here and
added a few minor details.
1. During Oscar 1.3 Wizard step two [or earlier] edit the sample partition
file. Since our machines use IDE drives, we edited sample.disk.ide. We
added this line at the top:
/dev/hda1 20480 vfat
and then renumbered the other partitions [hda?] by adding one to each. The
20480 is the size of the Windows partition, and may be changed to whatever
size suits your purpose. It appears to be crucial to put the Windows
partition first. Windows does not like booting from any other spot. In our
cluster, we also increased the size of the sample swap partition, but that
is not required.
2. Because no mount point is given for the vfat partition, when the clients
are first turned on, an ignorable error will be given, but can be fixed
later. The changes were saved as a new file and selected it as the disk
partition file. The image was then built. Oscar install continued
normally.
3. After Oscar Wizard step 4 completes but before step 5, we decided to
remove the annoying error message about the vfat partition. To do this, we
needed to edit the fstab on each client. Log on to each client as root,
then use vi to edit /etc/fstab. Delete the line that has the vfat partition
defined. This prevents the system from trying to mount the partition every
time the computer is restarted. To save the changes hit escape then type :w
<enter> to save then :q <enter> to quit. You are now ready to continue with
Oscar Wizard step 5.
4. Once we were confident that we wouldn't be installing Oscar yet again
[and wiping the clients yet again], we installed Win2K on each client. When
the setup program began, we selected to set Windows up in the vfat
partition, which appears as unpartitioned space or damaged. We reformatted
this partition and installed Windows there.
5. Headaches caused by each node having two NICs [skip if your clients just
have one]: We never did manage to get our cluster to run on eth1, so the
cluster is using the integrated eth0 cards. After the Windows installation,
Windows will try to use the eth0 card as the outside connection to the
college network and the Internet. To fix this problem a few steps were
followed. The first step was to right click on the Network places icon to
bring up the properties. In the window that popped up were three icons, one
�add new connection� icon and two �local area connection� icons. When the
curser was placed over the local connection icons, the card that was being
used was shown. We then switch the names of the two local connections;
that way Windows would now use the second card as the outside connection.
Then on the properties on the new �local area connection 2�, we changed it
to a specific ip address, the one that it uses on the Beowulf cluster.
6. To get the clients to be dual bootable for both Windows and Linux, we
had to edit the lilo.conf to change the LILO boot loader. This procedure
comes from a Red Hat tutorial, which is located at
http://www.redhat.com/tech/books/RHL_Survival_Kit/ch03_Fa.html .
Using the Linux boot disk created during the setup earlier, boot the
computer into Linux. Then from the shell type df to bring up the disk file
system table. Check which partition has the / partition defined. Then from
some editor, vi on the clients, redo the /etc/lilo.conf file to say
boot=/dev/had
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
linear
default=linux
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.x.x (This is the type of kernel you are using, it
appears label =linux at the top of the
screen
when you start the
read-only computer up under Linux)
root=/dev/hda# (# is the number of the partition that Linux
is on)
other=/dev/hda# (# is the number of the partition that Windows is
on)
optional
label=win2k
After this file is saved, run /sbin/lilo to set the boot loader. Depending
on the size of the hard drive, an error might appear that says lba32 needs
to be used. Change the line that says linear to lba32. You can change
which operation system you want to be first in the boot loader by changing
which label is after the word default.
7. At this point, reboot the client several times to make sure it will boot
cleanly in both Linux and Windows. After that we continued with the normal
things done when setting up a Win2K machine in our lab.
I ran across a post on a discussion board that details a couple of ways to
force dual-boot machines which are up in WinNT to reboot to Linux without
walking around the lab and doing it manually. I haven't tested it as we
have a small cluster, but assume that there are similar tricks for Win3K.
If you need that info, the url is:
http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/1998/08/0007.html
Teresa W. Carrigan
Professor of Computer Science
Blackburn College
Carlinville, IL 62626
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by: Dice - The leading online job board
for high-tech professionals. Search and apply for tech jobs today!
http://seeker.dice.com/seeker.epl?rel_code1
_______________________________________________
Oscar-users mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/oscar-users
