Thread: Kusu Installation Guide

Introduction


Project Kusu is the open source base for the next generation of Platform Open Cluster Stack 5 (OCS). It is designed from the ground up with the following goals in mind:

• Simplified cluster management, operation and deployment
• Support for multiple Linux Distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Fedora, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server, OpenSuSE and Ubuntu Linux
• Modular and hybrid stack that transparently integrates open source and commercial software into a single consistent cluster operating environment
• Standards-based, open and vendor-certified

Obtaining Kusu


You can get Kusu ISO from the downloads page. The bootable ISO contains the Base, HPC, Lava, Nagios and Cacti kits. Note that you will also need the complete installation media (either the CD sets or DVD) from one of the supported distros below:

• Fedora Core 6 for x86 or x86_64
• Centos 5.X for x86 or x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x for x86 or x86_64

Machine requirements

• 512 MB RAM
• 40 GB Hard Drive
• DVD drive
• 2 Ethernet NICs

Network configuration

Installation

Booting

Insert the Kusu ISO into the CD-ROM drive and boot from it.


We are installing a Fedora Core 6 system, so we type 'fedora' at the splash screen.



Soon the installer comes up. Read the Welcome message then choose your language and keyboard.







Networking

The default network settings are geared for a basic setup described above.



eth0 is configured for the provisioning network called 'cluster'. This installer node's IP on the provision network will be 172.20.0.1. eth1 is the public interface on a network called 'public'.

You will likely want to configure eth1 to specify its public IP so the installer can talk with the world.



A Kusu cluster requires at least one provisioning network. Any nodes in the cluster can only be installed over a provisioning network.

Next we specify the cluster administrator's email address, default gateway, and DNS servers.



The Host & Domain screen has two fields. Here you identify how the machine will be known on the public network, as well as the domain to use for the machines within the cluster.



Let's assume the machine we are installing is connected to your corporate network, osgdc.org. With the configuration as shown above, the machine can be accessed at mixmaster.osgdc.org. All the nodes in the cluster will belong to the domain specified, for example node-00.kusu.

Time Zone

Specify the time zone your cluster is in.



Root Password

Enter a secure root password. This password will grant access to all nodes in the cluster.



Partitioning

If the disk has existing partitions, the installer may provide you with the option to preserve them. Selecting "Use Default" will re-partition the drive with reasonable defaults, erasing all data on the drive. "Use Existing" will allow you to keep any data on the disk, so long as the required partitions exist (i.e.: /depot. "Clear All Partitions" gives you a clean slate to partition with.



Partitioning can be complex, so we recommend the default partition configuration, shown below. We have a 100 MB /boot partition and 2 GB for swap. The other partitions are inside an LVM volume group VolGroup00. 12 GB is allocated for /, 10 GB for /depot, with the rest distributed between /home and /var.



The installer permits for the editing of partitions, logical volumes and volume groups.







Pressing "Next" brings up a summary of the settings entered in previous screens. If everything looks OK, we continue and confirm that we understand all the data will be wiped out when the disk is formatted.






Adding Kits

The Kusu ISO will likely contain the Base kit, so it should be present when the Kits screen appears.



Adding the OS

The Base kit and the appropriate OS are required for installation to complete. The Base kit is already there, so we add the OS kit.



Since we are installing a Fedora Core 6 flavor, we now remove the Kusu ISO from the CD-ROM drive and insert the FC6 DVD. The contents of the DVD are copied to disk (into /depot), and the OS is recorded in the Kusu database. The FC6 DVD weighs in at more than 3 GB, so this will take a few minutes.





Once the Base kit and OS are added, we can continue. You can add other kits before moving on, but it is also possible to add kits after installation has completed. Pressing "Finish" will prepare the repository from which to install the node, then hand things off to Anaconda.





Remember to remove the FC6 DVD from the drive before the machine reboots to prevent accidental FC6 installation, wiping your fresh Kusu system. Ensuring the hard disk is before the CD-ROM drive in the boot order also prevents this.

Post installation tasks

References to other documentation