900260 Automated Visual Event Detection and Classification : AVED Beowulf Node Build Notes This page last changed on Apr 15, 2010 by dcline. # These are notes for building the MBARI Beowulf cluster nodes. ### Step 1. Unpack system, plug in keyboard, mouse, and compatible monitor. ### Step 2. Turn on system and hit the DEL key to enter into BIOS. ### Step 3. Under SATA Options in BIOS, change from "Enhanced" to "Compatible" hard disk options. This allows the Fedora installation to proceed. Without this, the install fails. ### Step 4. Under Boot options in BIOS, change boot order to boot first from CD and then HD. ### Step 5. Insert Fedora Core 3 (FC3) installation disk and reboot system. ### Step 6. While system is booting, perform a CTL-S to view system information. Write down the system MAC address. Hit F4 to continue. ### Step 7. Install FC3 in "Server" Mode from CD. Erase all system partitions, disable SELinux and firewall, and only install default server applicatons. ### Step 8. Reboot again and change boot order to first boot from HD and then CD. ### Step 9. Copy and unzip this to a USB thumbdrive. ### Step 10. Install network driver from thumbdrive The Beowulf cluster has two different nodes; each group was purchased at different times and each group has a different network driver, thus the need for different drivers noted below.
For nodes 1,5, and 8 | For nodes 2,3,4,6 and 7
--- | ---
Add the following lines to /etc/modprobe.conf:
    alias eth0 e1000
    alias eth1 e1000
    alias bond0 bonding
    mount /media/usbdisk
    cd  /media/usbdisk/e1000-7.4.27/src
    install -D -m 6644 e1000.ko /lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667smp/kernel/drivers/net/e1000/e1000.ko
    /sbin/depmod
| Add the following lines to /etc/modprobe.conf:
    alias eth0 igb
    alias eth1 igb
    mount /media/usbdisk
    cd  /media/usbdisk/igb-2.1.9/src
    install -D -m 6644 igb.ko /lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667smp/kernel/drivers/net/igb/igb.ko
    /sbin/depmod
1. ### Step 11. Setup channel bonding, e.g. for node 1 Configure the following files to support LAN redundancy. Create a bond0 file, ifcfg-bond0 in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory. Include the following information in the ifcfg-bond0 file:
       DEVICE=bond0
       IPADDR=192.168.1.1
       NETMASK=255.255.255.0
       NETWORK=192.168.1.0
       BROADCAST=192.168.1.255
       ONBOOT=yes
       BOOTPROTO=none
       USERCTL=no
2. Create an ifcfg-ethn file for each interface in the bond. All interfaces should have SLAVE and MASTER definitions. Edit the ifcfg-eth0 file to appear as follows:
       DEVICE=eth0
       USERCTL=no
       ONBOOT=yes
       MASTER=bond0
       SLAVE=yes
       BOOTPROTO=none
3. Edit the ifcfg-eth1 file to appear as follows:
       DEVICE=eth1
       USERCTL=no
       ONBOOT=yes
       MASTER=bond0
       SLAVE=yes
       BOOTPROTO=none
4. Add the following lines to /etc/modprobe.conf:
       alias bond0 bonding
       options bond0 miimon=100 mode=1
5. Restarting Networking Restart the networking subsystem. From the console of either node in the cluster, execute the following command :
       /etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart
### Step 12. Change the hostname, e.g. for node 1
    hostname node1.private.net
### Step 13. Modify the fstab file to include mounts in the fstab file on the thumbdrive ### Step 14. Replace the sshd_config with the file on the thumbdrive
    cp -f /mount/usbdisk/sshd_config /etc/ssh
Attachments: thumbdrive.zip (application/zip) thumbdrive.zip (application/zip)

Document generated by Confluence on Feb 03, 2026 14:12