Provision x86 DiskfulΒΆ

In order to provision x86_64 ipmi-based machines from Power-based xCAT management node, there are a few required xCAT dependency RPMs that must be installed:

  • elilo-xcat
  • xnba-undi
  • syslinux-xcat

Install these RPMs using the following command:

yum install elilo-xcat xnba-undi syslinux-xcat

On the Power-based management node, obtain an x86_64 operating system ISO and add it into the xCAT osimage table by using the copycds command:

copycds /tmp/RHEL-6.6-20140926.0-Server-x86_64-dvd1.iso

Create a node definition for the x86_64 compute node, here is a sample:

lsdef -z c910f04x42
# <xCAT data object stanza file>

c910f04x42:
    objtype=node
    arch=x86_64
    bmc=10.4.42.254
    bmcpassword=PASSW0RD
    bmcusername=USERID
    cons=ipmi
    groups=all
    initrd=xcat/osimage/rhels6.6-x86_64-install-compute/initrd.img
    installnic=mac
    kcmdline=quiet repo=http://!myipfn!:80/install/rhels6.6/x86_64 ks=http://!myipfn!:80/install/autoinst/c910f04x42 ksdevice=34:40:b5:b9:c0:18  cmdline  console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8r
    kernel=xcat/osimage/rhels6.6-x86_64-install-compute/vmlinuz
    mac=34:40:b5:b9:c0:18
    mgt=ipmi
    netboot=xnba
    nodetype=osi
    os=rhels6.6
    profile=compute
    provmethod=rhels6.6-x86_64-install-compute
    serialflow=hard
    serialport=0
    serialspeed=115200

Verify the genesis packages:

  • [RHEL/SLES]: rpm -qa | grep -i genesis
  • [Ubuntu]: dpkg -l | grep -i genesis

If missing, install the packages xCAT-genesis-base and xCAT-genesis-scripts from xcat-deps repository and run mknb <arch> to create the genesis network boot root image.

Provision the node using the following commands:

# The following prepares the boot files in /install and /tftpboot
nodeset c910f04x42 osimage=rhels6.6-x86_64-install-compute

# Tells the BIOS to network boot on the next power on
rsetboot c910f04x42 net

# Reboots the node
rpower c910f04x42 boot