FAQ

As a CM administrator, how do I...

This page aims at giving quick recipes to solve common issues for an administrator.

... change CM administrator's password ?

1. Click on the 'Users' menu item.
2. Click on the account name you want to edit.
3. Enter a new password (it will not be shown).
4. Click the 'Update' button.

Note

The new password is enabled at once.

... reset cmwebadmin administrator's password ?

This should never happen since, as everybody knows it, nobody has ever forgotten a password :-)

This procedure is slightly annoying but as it's a last resort solution.

1. Log in as 'root' on your cmserver (ssh, console).
2. Become the postgres user:

su - postgres

1. Launch the SQL command line client:

psql -U cmu CMDB

1. Enter the password CMDB password (see section cha:default-accounts-passwords)
2. Type:

UPDATE users SET password = '42A0ASfCJSzOg' where login='admin';

1. Type:

\q

1. Type twice (one to exit the postgres user shell, one to exit the root shell):

exit

Note

The new password is 'icatis' (without the quotes).

... register a node ?

See next section.

... add a node ?

1. Click on the 'Nodes' menu item.
2. Click on the 'Add node' tab.
3. Fill the form.
4. Click the 'Add' button.

9.5 ... unregister a node ?

See next section.

9.6 ... make a node disappear ?

1. Click on the 'Nodes' menu item.
2. Click on the node(s) you want to delete.
3. Click the tab 'Delete node(s)'

Notes

• if you deleted a node, it may appear again in the future if it boots through PXE and auto-detection is enabled.
• if you do not want to see detected nodes, then choose to show only the nodes configured in the default screen.

... change the default label used in the nodes management page ?

Edit config.php and replace the line reading:

$GLOBALS['NODE_MANAGEMENT_DEFAULT_LABEL_ID'] = 0; 

by

$GLOBALS['NODE_MANAGEMENT_DEFAULT_LABEL_ID'] = <XXX>; 

where <XXX> is among:

• 0: for all the nodes
• -1: for all the configured nodes
• 1: for the nodes in 'Quarantine'
• 2: for the nodes 'Unconfigured'

Notes

• getting a label ID different outside of -1 .. 2 is currently not supported
• for the record, you may try getting it by looking at the hyper-links generated by the label management pages (for instance http://.../cm/main.php?...&labelid=42 - note well that you use this on your own and this is not supported)

... cope with an owner who no longer wants to be part of ComputeMode ?

See next section.

... black list a machine ?

See next section.

... put a machine in 'Quarantine' ?

1. Click on the 'Nodes' menu item.
2. Select the node you want to blacklist.
3. Click on the tab 'Apply label'
4. Choose the 'Quarantine' label.
5. Click the 'Apply' button.

CM will now act as if it were disabled for this host that is

• if this nodes boots through with PXE, it will tell it to boot in local mode
• if a CM agents, asks what to do, it will never give an order (reboot or other) and will simply acknowledge the request

... remove machines from 'Quarantine' ?

See next section.

... remove machines from 'Unconfigured' ?

1. Click on the 'Nodes' menu item.
2. Select the node on which you want to get out of 'Quarantine'
3. Click 'Remove label'
4. Select the label named 'Quarantine'
5. Click 'Remove label'

Note:

• Though they have special behaviors, these are labels so they can be removed as any other label.

... disable auto 'Quarantine' ?

See next section.

... disable node automatic inhibition ?

To disable automatic 'Quarantine' also called 'node inhibition', edit the CM configuration file config.php (which should be located in /var/www/cm/).

In this file, find the line reading:

$GLOBALS['ALLOW_INHIBIT'] = true; 

Replace it by :

$GLOBALS['ALLOW_INHIBIT'] = false; 

... enable/disable node automatic detection ?

Disabling this feature requires your editing the cmwebadmin configuration file. In config.php, edit the line reading:

$GLOBALS['MODULE_NODE_AUTODETECTION'] = true; 

and replace it by :

$GLOBALS['MODULE_NODE_AUTODETECTION'] = false; 

... enable/disable owner/user's pages ?

Disabling this feature requires your editing the cmwebadmin configuration file. In config.php, edit the line reading:

$GLOBALS['USER_ACCESS'] = true; 

and replace it by :

$GLOBALS['USER_ACCESS'] = false; 

... force reboots at specific times ?

See next section.

... use an agent ?

Such a functionality requires a bit more work and the use and installation of a agent. The work of the agent is basically to ask the server what he should do next - that is reboot the server into computation mode or continue as if nothing.

There are currently 2 agent versions : a Windows and a Linux/Unix one.

Windows agent

Figure: Windows Agent download page Image cm-windows-agent-download

A customized agent may be downloaded directly from a page hosted on cmserver. The figure [*] illustrates the customizations which could be done, namely:

• at which interval the agent has to be woken up
• should it be woken up only when the system has been idle for a certain delay
• after how much time should the mode switch should be forced

Linux agent

The Linux agent page is currently not shipped with the CM version. This will be fixed in a next revision. Feel free to contact us if you need one (see section [*]).

... handle specific bank holidays ?

CM does not support calendar exceptions such as bank holidays.

A workaround consists in editing the calendar prior to event, then restoring it after.

Let's assume the standard 'evening and week end schedule' and that next Monday happens to be a bank holiday. The trick is to edit the schedule on the Friday to enable CM during all the Monday, then on Tuesday, restore the previous Monday schedule.

... upgrade the operating system ?

Server

The server is a classical Debian OS so you may use Debian standard tools (apt-get, aptitude, dpkg, ...)

Note

   some packages are more sensitive than others to upgrade (kernel, web, dhcp, nfs, etc.) that's why some are put on 'hold' in dpkg. 

Client image OS

To update a client OS (let us say the Debian image), you have first to do a : chroot in /cm/<image_name>/orig/

A sample update script is given in /usr/local/sbin/updateall.sh but you should only apply it if you feel very confident with messing with the system - wreaking havoc by updating is quite easy: if disk space is not an issue, you should really backup the /cm/<image_name> folder.

As for the server, some packages are in 'hold' state in dpkg and should be updated with care (such packages are related to: kernel, perl, sudo, etc.)

... login as root on the client nodes ?

For security reasons, logging in as root is disabled on the client nodes on the console. Yet, this can be reactivated by editing the client image OS.

Logging in as root is allowed through ssh from the root account on the CM server.

... add a grid user account ?

See next section.

... add an Unix account ?

1. Log in as root
2. Execute:

adduser <the_login>

1. Fill the requested information
2. If you are using NIS - this is enabled by default set up - you have to rebuild the NIS maps, which may be obtained by typing:

make -C /var/yp

1. If you want to let this user submit jobs through OAR, you have to add him/her to the oar group, type:

adduser <the_login> oar

... use an extra NFS server for home, system or data ?

This can be done by configuring the ComputeMode boot mode parameters.

Thorough explanations will be given in a future version of this manual - meanwhile, feel free to contact us (see section sec:contacting-icatis).

... change the server public IP ?

This is currently done the Debian way:

• fire up a text editor and open, as root, /etc/network/interfaces
• go to the eth0:0 stanza
• replace the current line with 'address x.y.z.t' by the new address you want to use
• if necessary, edit the 'netmask' and 'gateway' lines

For further information, you may want to read interfaces(5) man page.