C H A P T E R  2

Preparing for Installation

Before installing Sun HPC ClusterTools software, you need to ensure that the hardware and software that make up your cluster meet certain requirements. These requirements are described in the following sections:


General Prerequisites

Before installing Sun HPC ClusterTools software, be sure that all hardware is installed and configured. The system from which the installation is to be initiated must have rsh, ssh, or telnet network connections to the target nodes.

TABLE 2-1 outlines additional prerequisites for installation.


TABLE 2-1 General Prerequisites for Installing Sun HPC ClusterTools Software

Description

Requirement

Hardware

Sun UltraSPARC or x64-based systems. For Sun UltraSPARC systems, the minimum compatible processor is the UltraSPARC III.

Disk space

Approximately 22 Mbytes per node.

Operating system

Solaris 10 11/06 or any subsequent Solaris release that supports Sun HPC ClusterTools 8 software.

Resource management

Sun HPC ClusterTools 8 software includes Open MPI Runtime Environment (ORTE) for launching and control of parallel jobs. One example of a distributed resource management framework operating under integration with ORTE is Sun Grid Engine Version 6.

/etc/init.d/nfs.server file settings

For installations from an NFS server, you need to increase the number of concurrent server requests from 16 to 256. See Adjusting Server Requests for NFS Installations.



Using Sun HPC ClusterTools Software in Solaris OS Non-Global Zones

Non-global zones set up in the Solaris 10 OS do not inherit the links that were created when Sun HPC ClusterTools 8 software was installed in the global zone. This means that you must either type out the full path to the Sun HPC ClusterTools executables on the command line (for example, you would type /opt/SUNWhpc/HPC8.0/bin/mpirun instead of /opt/SUNWhpc/bin/mpirun), or run the ctact utility in the non-global zone to set up the links.

For more information about the ctact utility, see Activating Sun HPC ClusterTools Software. For more information about Sun HPC ClusterTools 8 software and Solaris zones, refer to the Sun HPC ClusterTools 8 Software User’s Guide.

 


Supported Compilers

Sun HPC ClusterTools software supports Suntrademark Studio 10, 11, and 12 C, C++, and Fortran compilers.


Cluster Console Tools

The Cluster Console tools, cconsole, ctelnet, and crlogin, are available in the package SUNWcconf, which is bundled with the Solaris Cluster software. Solaris Cluster software can be downloaded from the following URL:

http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=4581ab9e

Although you do not need Cluster Console for centralized installation of Sun HPC ClusterTools software, it can be a convenient tool for various administrative operations, such as booting cluster nodes in a Custom JumpStart installation.

Centralized command initiation provides a command execution summary for each initiated activity. This summary reports the results of the operation, identifying the nodes on which the operation was successful and the nodes on which it failed. Such reports are not available when using the Cluster Console tools.


Setting Up a known_hosts File

If you are using ssh to connect to your remote nodes, you must set up your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file to contain the remote nodes’ host key, especially if you try to run on a cluster with many nodes for the first time.

Setting up the known_hosts file avoids having to respond to the following prompts when running mpirun to the remote nodes:


TABLE 2-2
% /opt/SUNWhpc/HPC8.0/bin/mpirun -host host04,host05,host06 hostname
 
The authenticity of host ’host04 (129.148.9.88)’ can’t be established.
RSA key fingerprint is ff:73:0e:91:7b:19:e6:a3:9a:f8:6c:07:0a:ce:1a:f2.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? 
The authenticity of host ’host05 (129.148.9.84)’ can’t be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 11:f6:bd:f7:a9:5b:05:ab:73:ee:81:0f:c8:2f:ac:cb.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? 
The authenticity
of host ’host06 (129.148.9.86)’ can’t be established.
RSA key fingerprint is c1:24:c4:9c:86:33:25:3b:08:59:12:b5:1b:9d:b2:c6.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
Host key verification failed.
yes
Please type ’yes’ or ’no’: yes
Please type ’yes’ or ’no’: yes
Please type ’yes’ or ’no’: yes
Please type ’yes’ or ’no’: yes
Please type ’yes’ or ’no’: yes
Please type ’yes’ or ’no’: yes
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