Unable to open socket connection to xcatd daemon on localhost:3001.

When I did a tabedit site to check my configuration, I encountered this error

Unable to open socket connection to xcatd daemon on localhost:3001.
Verify that the xcatd daemon is running and that your SSL setup is correct.

The solution to this error is quite easy. You just need to check your /etc/hosts. Have you # out your. In other words, make sure you have a line like this in your /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain                   localhost

That's it.....

Error when installing xCAT 2.8.2

If you have error such as those below,

Error: Package: xCAT-2.8.2-snap201307222333.x86_64 (xcat-2-core)
Requires: conserver-xcat
Error: Package: xCAT-2.8.2-snap201307222333.x86_64 (xcat-2-core)
Requires: syslinux-xcat
Error: Package: xCAT-2.8.2-snap201307222333.x86_64 (xcat-2-core)
Requires: elilo-xcat
Error: Package: xCAT-2.8.2-snap201307222333.x86_64 (xcat-2-core)
Requires: ipmitool-xcat >= 1.8.9
Error: Package: 1:xCAT-genesis-scripts-x86_64-2.8.2-snap201307222333.noarch (xcat-2-core)
Requires: xCAT-genesis-base-x86_64
Error: Package: xCAT-2.8.2-snap201307222333.x86_64 (xcat-2-core)
Requires: xnba-undi

Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/xcat-dep/rh6/x86_64/ and find the respective rpms that fit the package name

Installing Torque 2.5 on CentOS 6 with xCAT tool

The details of the writeup can be found at my other blog Installing Torque 2.5 on CentOS 6 with xCAT tool . Basically, the write-up shows

1. How torque 2.5.9 can be configured and compiled from source and 
2. How torque can be configured as a service and push to the clients

Dependency issues when installing xCAT 2.7 on CentOS 6

If you are using the yum install for xCAT 2.7, you will need the .repo and putting in /etc/yum.repos.d/

# wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/stable/xcat-core/xCAT-core.repo
# wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/xcat-dep/rh6/x86_64/xCAT-dep.repo

Do a yum check-update

# yum check-update

Do a yum install of xCAT ie

# yum install xCAT

You might get the error

Error: Package: xCAT-2.7.2-snap201205230215.x86_64 (xcat-2-core)
           Requires: elilo-xcat
Error: Package: xCAT-2.7.2-snap201205230215.x86_64 (xcat-2-core)
           Requires: xCAT-genesis-x86_64

You will notice you will have these error. To rectify, you have to download the from http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/xcat-dep/rh6/x86_64/ and do a rpm install

# rpm -Uvh xCAT-genesis-x86_64-2.7.......
# rpm -Uvh elilo-xcat-3.14-4.noarch.rpm

Finally do a yum install xCAT and you should be able to install without issue.

Dynamic server provisioning with xCAT and TORQUE

I have found a good article "Dynamic server provisioning with xCAT and TORQUE" from IBM Developers Network > Open Source > Technical Library

"This article describes a solution for building a dynamically provisioned high-performance computing (HPC) cluster system using the Extreme Cloud Administration Toolkit (xCAT) and Tera-scale Open-source Resource and QUEue Manager (TORQUE) open source packages. The xCAT is a leading solution for dynamically provisioning compute, storage, and network resources. TORQUE is a workload and resource-management system that manages batch jobs and compute nodes and schedules the execution of those jobs."

A interesting article on the history, roadmap and architecture of xCAT

From Clusters To Clouds: xCAT 2 Is Out Of The Bag from Linux Magazine written by Egan Ford

Basic xCAT installation

This Blog entry Basic xCAT Installation is a write-up on how to setup a cluster using xCAT

xCAT Mini HOWTO for 1.2.0

Here are some useful documentation for the older xCAT which is good for pointers and references.

1. xCAT Mini HOWTO (WIP)
2. xCAT HPC Operating Environment HOWTO (WIP)
3. xCAT HPC Benchmark HOWTO (WIP)
4. xCAT Myrinet HOWTO
   
   

Placing user xcat contributed scripted in the xcat directory

This is a continuation of blog entry User Contributed Script ported from xcat 1.x to xcat 2.x

Step 1: Placing addclusteruser in /opt/xcat/sbin

# cd /opt/xcat/sbin 
# wget https://xcat.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xcat/xcat-contrib/admin_patch/xCAT-2-admin_patch-1.1/addclusteruser

Step 2: Placing gensshkeys in /opt/xcat/sbin

# cd /opt/xcat/sbin
# wget https://xcat.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xcat/xcat-contrib/admin_patch/xCAT-2-admin_patch-1.1/gensshkeys

Step 3: Placing shfunctions1 in /opt/xcat/lib

#  cd /opt/xcat/lib
# wget https://xcat.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xcat/xcat-contrib/admin_patch/xCAT-2-admin_patch-1.1/shfunctions1

To add users using addclusteruser

# addclusteruser
......

I'm assuming you have exported the home directory to other nodes

# pscp /etc/passwd compute:/etc/
# pscp /etc/shadow compute:/etc/
# pscp /etc/group compute:/etc/

User Contributed Script ported from xcat 1.x to xcat 2.x

For more information on the User contributed scripts that were ported from 1.x to 2.x, go to
https://xcat.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xcat/xcat-contrib/admin_patch/xCAT-2-admin_patch-1.1/

MAUI Installation in xCAT 2.x

What is MAUI?
Maui Cluster Scheduler (a.k.a. Maui Scheduler) is our first generation cluster scheduler. Maui is an advanced policy engine used to improve the manageability and efficiency of machines ranging from clusters of a few processors to multi-teraflop supercomputers.

Taken and modified from https://xcat.wiki.sourceforge.net/Maui


Step 1: Download the tarball

• Go to http://clusterresources.com/, create an account and download here:
• http://www.clusterresources.com/product/maui/index.php?
• Untar in /tmp

Step 2: Setup Torque for xCAT

# cd /opt/torque
# ln -s x86_64/bin .
# ln -s x86_64/lib .
# ln -s x86_64/sbin .
# export PATH=$PATH:/opt/torque/x86_64/bin/ 

Step 3: Setup MAUI

# cd maui-3.2.6p21
# ./configure --prefix=/opt/maui --with-pbs=/opt/torque/
# make -j8
# make install
# cp /opt/xcat/share/xcat/netboot/add-on/torque/moab /etc/init.d/maui
(Edit /etc/init.d/maui so that all MOAB is MAUI and all moab becomes maui)
# service start maui
# chkconfig --level 345 maui on

Step 4: Configure MAUI

# touch /etc/profile.d/maui.sh
# vim maui (Type: export PATH=$PATH:/opt/maui/bin)
# source /etc/profile.d/maui.sh
# vim /usr/local/maui/maui.cfg
Change: RMCFG[] TYPE=PBS@...@ to: RMCFG[] TYPE=PBS
# service maui restart

Now run:

# showq

You should see all of the processors. Next try running a job to make sure that maui picks it up.

Installing xCAT on Compute Nodes

Some Possible Error faced:

Error: Interface setup failed: pumpSetupInterface failed.

Solution (Due to wrong or missing drivers used in the genimage):

1. cd /opt/xcat/share/xcat/netboot/centos
2. ./genimage -i eth0 -n tg3,e1000,bnx2 -o centos5.2 -p compute

References for xCAT 2.0

xCAT Summary Commands and Database Tables

• Summary of Commands
• Summary of Database Tables

Stateless GFPS

• "How to setup a Atateless GPFS Cluster" (pdf)

MAUI

• "xCAT How-to for MAUI" (pdf)

Torque

• Installing and setting up Torque for xCAT is documented in the xCAT2 Cookbook for LINUX (pdf)

Ganglia

• xCAT How-to for Ganglia (pdf)

xCAT Website

• xCAT Website
• xCAT wiki