Fermi RH 7.2 Linux Installation Procedure

 

This document describes the procedure for installing Fermi Linux RH 7.1on a farm node. NOTE: If you are familiar with this procedure, and do not want to consult this document in its entirety, please go through the note on Disk partitions (Before Step 8), and the note on choosing names for machines in the farm (Step 17).

 

            Put the FERMI LINUX DISC 1 in the CD-ROM drive and switch off the machine. Switch on the machine to install the RH 7.1 version of Fermi LINUX.

The following steps will help you in installing LINUX.

 

Step1: When the system boots up, it will ask for which mode to boot in, type in

-         text.

 

Step 2: Do you have a driver disk?

-         No

 

Step 3: What language do you want to work during installation?

-         English [Its your choice]

-         OK

 

Step 4: What type of Keyboard ?

-         US [ probably no choice]

-         OK

 

Step 5: What type of media contains the

-         CD-ROM

-         OK

 

Step 6: Then a message appears, Welcome to RH Linux

-         OK

 

Step 7: What type of system do you like to install?

-         Custom System

 

NOTE ON DISK PARTITIONS:

            If the node that you are currently installing LINUX on is going to be the job-server, then you will need a large /home partition which will contain all the mcfarm software as well as all the D0 products, and this partition will be exported to all other nodes on the farm as described later. If this is a machine dedicated to mcfarm, we suggest partitions with the following mount points:

  1. ‘/’         - 2.5 to 3 GB.
  2. As many swap partitions as there are CPU’s on this machine. Typically, the size of the swap partition should be about twice the amount of memory on the machine.
  3. ‘/home’            - All the rest of disk space!

If this machine is not dedicated to mcfarm, then make sure that there is at least 5.5 GB of space on the /home partition.

 

            If this machine is going to be a file server, then you need a (very) large area for caching minbi data, and archiving jobs that finished on the farm. For example, each of the three file servers on the UTA HEP farm has about 60GB of space exclusively for file serving. Once again, if this machine is dedicated to the farm, then make the ‘/’ and swap partitions and mount the rest of the disk on ‘/scratch’. If there are multiple disks, mount on disk as described above, and mount all the rest of the disks as ‘/scratch2’, ‘/scratch3’, etc. It is highly recommended that the file server is dedicated for farm work as this machine will be flooded with requests for minbi data during the D0SIM stage, and for high CPU utilization on the production nodes, you need a dedicated file server.

            If this machine is going to be a production node, it needs a work area that mcfarm will use during production. If this machine is dedicated to farm work, make the ‘/’ and swap partitions as you would for a job server as described above, and then mount the rest of the disk on ‘/scratch’. This is the farm work area. If this is not a dedicated farm node, make sure that there is a partition mounted on ‘/scratch’ that is at least 3GB.

 

Step 8: What type of partition?

-         Manually Partition.

 

Step 9: Which tool would you like to choose?

-         fdisk

 

Step 10: Then a message appears about Disk setup,

-         OK

 

Step 11: Then a screen appears showing the current Disk partition

·        First delete all the partitions

·        Next add the partitions as suggested.

 

 

Step 12: Choose partition to format

-         *  Check for bad blocks

-         OK

 

Step 13: LILO configuration

-         OK

Step 14: Where do you want to install the boot loader?

-         Master Boot record.

-         OK

 

Step 15: LILO configuration

-         /dev/hda1                        Linux Native

-         OK

         

Step 16: Network Configuration

Setup your IP address and other network parameters as required. You may have to contact your network administrator for this.

Step 17: Hostname:
It is highly recommended that you have uniform names for the nodes in your farm, i.e. names consisting of a farm name, and a node number within that farm. This greatly simplifies the setup process.
IMPORTANT: If you DO NOT want to or cannot follow this kind of uniform naming scheme, please let the UTA team know AS SOON as you finish installing LINUX, and before you start configuring nodes for mcfarm. This is because you will not be able to use the automated install script that we provide, and we will have different instructions for you.

-         Set up a host name according to that machine.

-         Host name = Farm Name (eg hepfm)
                  + Node Number (eg 007)
                  + Domain Name (eg .uta.edu)

For eg: if it’s a HEP machine it would be: hepfm007.uta.edu

-         OK

                 

Step 18: Firewall Configuration

-         Security:  * High

                                 Customize

                                    Choose,    Trusted devices :   * ethc0

                                                        Allow incoming :   * ssh   * mail [SMTP]  .

(We recommend this firewall setting. This can be configured to suit your needs)

-         OK

-         OK

               

 

Step 19: Mouse selection

-         Generic – 3 Button mouse[ps/2]

-         OK

 

Step 20: Language support

-         English [your choice]

-         OK

 

Step 21: Time zone

-         American/Chicago

-         OK

 

Step 22: Root passwd

-         ************ [ choose your password]

-         OK

 

Step 23: User account set up

-         Do not set up any user account while installing. Leave the field blank.

-         OK

 

Step 24: Authentication Configuration

-         The farm needs NIS since all work is NFS based.

-         To setup NIS, choose an NIS domain name.

-         The farm job server machine needs to be the NIS domain server as well. So on all nodes including the job server, type in the name of the job server as the NIS domain server to listen to. We strongly recommend that you DO NOT choose the broadcast option to listen to an NIS domain server as this is apt to cause network problems.

-         OK

Step 25: Package Group

·        X Window

·        GNOME

·        KDE

·        Mail / WWW tools

·        Networked WorkStation

·        NFS server

·        Network Management Workstation

·        Emacs

·        Development

·        Other Development

·        Kernel Development

·        Utilities

·        Fermi Common Offsite

 

-         OK

 

Step 26: A screen appears telling that the packages installed have dependencies

  that also have to be installed.

-         OK

 

Step 27: A screen appears telling that the packages installed have dependencies

  that also have to be installed.

-         OK

 

Step 28: A screen appears showing the various configuration

-         OK

 

Step 28: X probe results [ identified by the system ]

-         OK

 

Step 29: Installation to begin

-         OK

 

  The installation will take some time. The system will prompt for the 

  second disc to be inserted. Remove the first disc and insert the Fermi

  LINUX disc 2.

Step 30: Would you like to create a boot disk?

-         NO

 

Step 31: Monitor Setup

              Choose the monitor accordingly

 

Step 32: Screen Configuration

-         PROBE

 

Step 33: Probing to begin

-         OK

Step 34: Probing finished
(These are the settings that we have found to be optimal – you can adjust this to suit your needs)

-         Do you want to accept the settings or select yourself

-         Let me choose

         8 bit

16 bit

24 bit

*         1024  x  760

*         1024  x  760

*         1024  x  760

*           800  x  600

*           800  x  600

*           800  x  600

 

Step 35: Starting X windows                                                                      

-         OK

 

Step 36: Set up the system according to your needs.

-         Select the X windows at the time it boots if you need.

 

Step 37: Installation Complete

-         OK