IBM BladeCenter Configuration

Set the boot order of the blades

The blades need to be configured to attempt to boot from the network before booting from the hard drive.

 

Configure SNMPv3

Install xCAT

On the VCL management node:

Download the xCAT yum repository files

wget -N -P /etc/yum.repos.d http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/xcat-dep/rh6/x86_64/xCAT-dep.repo

wget -N -P /etc/yum.repos.d http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/2.8/xcat-core/xCAT-core.repo
Install xCAT
yum clean all

yum install -y xCAT

Configure the xCAT site table

Set the "master" and "nameservers" keys in the site table to point to the xCAT management node's private IP address:

chtab key=master site.value=x.x.x.x

chtab key=nameservers site.value=x.x.x.x

Set the "forwarders" key in the site table to point to a DNS server:

chtab key=forwarders site.value=y.y.y.y

Set the "dhcpinterfaces" key in the site table to the xCAT management node's private network interface. This causes the DHCP server running on the management node to only listen on this interface:

chtab key=dhcpinterfaces site.value=ethX
Configure the xCAT networks table

Disable all networks detected by xCAT except the private network so that xCAT does not attempt to add unwanted information to DHCP or other services.  First, dump the contents of the networks table to determine the network names created by xCAT:

tabdump networks

For each network except the private network, run the following command to set the network to disabled:

chtab netname=<netname> networks.disable=1

Configure the blade node group

Set the nodehm table to use blade control methods:

chtab node=blade nodehm.mgt=blade

Set the noderes table to use the xnba network boot method:

chtab node=blade noderes.netboot=xnba

Set the xCAT master, TFTP, and NFS srever values to point to the xCAT management node's private IP address:

chtab node=blade noderes.xcatmaster=x.x.x.x

chtab node=blade noderes.tftpserver=x.x.x.x

chtab node=blade noderes.nfsserver=x.x.x.x

Configure the xCAT passwd table

Set the username and password for the blade key to the credentials used to log in to the Advanced Management Module:

chtab key=blade passwd.username=<xcatuser> passwd.password=<xcatpassword>

Set the root password for the system key. When a Linux image is loaded via Kickstart by xCAT, this will be the root password initially set on the loaded computer:

chtab key=system passwd.username=root passwd.password=<linuxpassword>
Add a node to xCAT for each chassis Advanced Management Module

nodeadd bcamm-X groups=mm

nodeadd bcamm-Y groups=mm

Add a node to xCAT for every blade controlled by the management node

nodeadd vcl-X-1..vcl-X-14 groups=all,blade,compute

nodeadd vcl-Y-1..vcl-Y-14 groups=all,blade,compute

For each blade, set the mp.mpa value to the AMM node name, and mp.id value to the corresponding blade slot

for i in {1..14} ; do chtab node=vcl-X-$i mp.mpa=bcamm-X mp.id=$i ; done

for i in {1..14} ; do chtab node=vcl-Y-$i mp.mpa=bcamm-Y mp.id=$i ; done

Set the hosts.ip value to the private IP address for each AMM and blade

chtab node=bcamm-X hosts.ip=<x.x.x.x>

chtab node=vcl-X-1 hosts.ip=<x.x.x.x>

...

chtab node=vcl-Y-14 hosts.ip=<x.x.x.x>

Create the /etc/hosts file
makehosts -n
Retrieve MAC address for each blade
getmacs blade -i eth0
Initialize DHCP and create a definition for each blade

makedhcp -n

chkconfig dhcpd on

makedhcp blade

Download a CentOS ISO image
wget -N -P /install/software http://ftp.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/CentOS/6/isos/x86_64/CentOS-6.5-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso
Import the CentOS image into the xCAT install tree
copycds /install/software/CentOS-6.5-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso
Configure the blades to install the CentOS using xCAT's stock "compute" template
chdef blade os=centos6.5 arch=x86_64 profile=compute
Set the blades to install the image on the next reboot
nodeset blade install

Power cycle each blade

rpower blade boot