Diskful Installation

  1. Prepare dependency packages in the pkglist

    In order for the Mellanox installation script to execute successfully, certain dependency packages are required to be installed on the compute node. xCAT provides sample package list files to help resolve these dependencies. The samples are located at /opt/xcat/share/xcat/ib/netboot/<os>/.

    To use the /opt/xcat/share/xcat/ib/netboot/rh/ib.rhels7.ppc64le.pkglist, edit your existing pkglist file for the target osimage and add the following at the bottom:

    #INCLUDE:/opt/xcat/share/xcat/ib/netboot/rh/ib.rhels7.ppc64le.pkglist#
    
  2. Configure the mlnxofed_ib_install script to install the MNLX_OFED drivers

    xCAT has a concept of postscripts that can be used to customize the node after the operating system is installed.

    Mellanox recommends that the operating system is rebooted after the drivers are installed, so xCAT recommends using the postscripts attribute to avoid the need for a second reboot. To invoke the mlnxofed_ib_install as a postscript

    chdef -t node -o <node_name> \
       -p postscripts="mlnxofed_ib_install -p /install/<path-to>/<MLNX_OFED_LINUX.iso>"
    

    [kernel mismatch issue] The Mellanox OFED ISO is built against a series of specific kernel version. If the version of the linux kernel does not match any of the Mellanox offered pre-built kernel modules, you can pass the --add-kernel-support --force argument to the Mellanox installation script to build the kernel modules based on the version you are using.

    chdef -t node -o <node_name> \
       -p postscripts="mlnxofed_ib_install -p /install/<path-to>/<MLNX_OFED_LINUX.iso> \
       -m --add-kernel-support --force -end-"
    
  3. Provision the node

    rinstall <node> osimage=
    
  4. Verification

    • Check the status of openibd service

      sysVinit:

      service openibd status
      

      systemd:

      systemctl status openibd.service
      
    • Verify that the Mellanox IB drivers are located at: /lib/modules/<kernel_version>/extra/

    • Use the ibv_devinfo command to obtain information about the InfiniBand adapter.