News

October 2012-January 2013

• Fix node diskless directory
• Fix node shutdown sequence (nfs root unmounted)
• Fix wake-on-lan by enabling acpi on nodes
• Wol is now selected by default in the web interface
• Add a node option to control how localboot is managed (returning to BIOS boot sequence or chainload a disk)
• New ipxe snapshot (fix a few new configuration, including VirtualBox vms)
• Switch the ComputeMode domain name from ".computemode.local" to ".computemode" to not disrupt host using zeroconf

April-October 2012

• Fix the system sshd configuration on nodes to prevent logins outside of the OAR jobs
• Fix a few permissions in /dev (allows to run openmpi) on nodes
• Switch to the debian packaged version of ganglia (bumps version from 3.0.7 to 3.1.7)
• Several enhancements in kameleon recipes

October-November 2011

• The software 'Module' for the environment management is integrated to computemode (and to the node recipe)
• Core/Cpu reservations are shown on the Drawgantt chart
• A field 'Environment' is now available for the bootimage menu to configure a page which contains images environment description
• A new binary for IPXE drivers network UNDI is available, this binary has an admin access to the console. A README file is available to explain how to build it from sources
• cmwebadmin users can be authenticated with a LDAP server defined into the config.php file: when a ldap user is created into the local database, all its informations are filled with the LDAP base. LDAP users can't edit anymore their account.
• The particpant page is available for the cmwebadmin interface, group management available: participants or administrators
• Fix for participant rights: the participant can only configure his nodes
• A file describing holidays planning for the participant can be used to configure nodes availability
• Filesystem for kameleon appliance is now ext4
• Fix the dhcpd.conf file: site-local option codes less than 224 have been deprecated by RFC3942
• Schroot command is used by kameleon to install some packages (bind,oar, watchdog...) and automatically managed /proc mounts
• OAR is now handled power saving according to jobs requests
• Several fixes for the cmwebadmin interface: deprecated call by reference functions, empty variables...

May-September 2011

• OAR and the cmwebadmin interface are now synchronized to manage node's settings
• Kameleon recipes are available to automatically build node system based on Debian Squeeze (32 and 64bit mode) and appliance for the computemode server (Debian Squeeze 32 and 64bit mode)
• Ganglia is now used instead of MRTG to monitor the server
• Computemode node creates OAR node automatically with CPU/CORE definition at boot time. Users can now submit jobs selecting a specific core/cpu
• Watchdog is now fixed and working again
• POVRAY demos are available again with the new OAR version (and new demos are available)
• Computemode system is now using an HTTP-PXE based sytem: IPXE
• The default node has been increased to use Debian Squeeze (instead of Debian Sarge - some thing for the server)
• OAR is now using ping checker to check aliveness of a node
• New appliances are built for Virtualbox and VMWare based on GDM and the windows manager openbox
• Debian Live is used to automatically build node's initrd and filesystem
• Computemode web interface is now using the MDB2 php connector instead of the deprecated DB connector
• Several cmwebadmin interface fixes for deprecated commands, features fixes, cmserver fixes...

April 2011

ComputeMode now based on Debian Squeeze

• A guide to install the server on top of Debian Squeeze is available here
• A guide to manually build a Debian Squeeze node image is available here

April 2008

ComputeMode new website is online

We decided to switch to a wiki website, to easy collaborative work.

The former website is still available here.

February 2008

ComputeMode 1.6-1 virtual appliance is released

and finally ships with the latest drivers for intel (e1000) and Broadcom (tg3) cards (sorry for forgeting about it in the previous release !)

Get it on the download page ! The web packages are available from : http://www.computemode.org/dl/computemode-1.6/

December 2007

ComputeMode 1.6 virtual appliance released

This release features all components from the former Computemode Professional version. Get it on the download page !

The web packages are available from : http://www.computemode.org/dl/computemode-1.6/

September 2007

Icatis stops supporting ComputeMode, since the company does not have resources anymore to support ComputeMode. As a result, ComputeMode will now be released as a open-source only product.

May 2007

Updated images for client nodes The current kernel image shipped with the server does not support the latest Intel (e1000) and Broadcom cards (tg3). An new image has been updated and is available at: http://www.computemode.org/dl/computemode-1.6/kernel+initrd-cm-2.4.27-3-686.tar.gz To install it (as root):

cd /var/lib/tftpboot/PXEClient
mkdir /root/bak
mv debian-initrd-2.4.27-3-686-smp debian-vmlinuz-2.4.27-3-686-smp /root/bak
tar zxvf /root/kernel+initrd-cm-2.4.27-3-686.tar.gz
chmod 0644 debian-initrd-2.4.27-3-686-smp debian-vmlinuz-2.4.27-3-686-smp

Reboot a node through PXE, and voilà ! ComputeMode 1.6 will include this update.

November 2006

ComputeMode 1.5 virtual appliance released

Get it on the download page ! The web packages are available from : http://www.computemode.org/dl/computemode-1.5/ October 2006 Several issues have been reported in the web administration interface of version 1.4.1. You can install updated web interface packages for future version 1.5. Get them from: http://www.computemode.org/dl/computemode-1.4.1/ Once downloaded, backup the /var/www/cm/config.php file, then use dpkg to update the packages. Feel free to drop by our mailing lists if you need help.

Preliminary changelog from 1.4.1 to 1.5

• cosmetic bugfixes (HTML + CSS + hide the 'Display' button if javascript is available + clock showing the server time)
• import bugfix for empty non final labels
• import bugfix to avoid having twice a same label
• better input validation
• simpler import/export format: only 1 file
• bugfix for when multi-operation could fail
• usability: click a label in the nodes management page to automatically select it
• usability: labels/change_schedule = change schedule for a group of labels

September 2006

ComputeMode 1.4.1 is released

• available either as an installable ISO image file or as a VMware virtual appliance.
• documentation: at last a proper and complete manual (English only currently)
• major code + HTML + CSS - pages are now HTML 4.01 strict and should work with (IE5.5, IE6, Opera, Firefox 1+)
• usability improvements
• support for node import / export
• better OAR integration
• simpler integration of virtualization products
• several bugfixes
• improved i18n (English and French currently)

July 2006

ComputeMode is present at the DAC2006 conference.

January 2006

ComputeMode 1.4 release (tagged 20060131)

Statistics chart

• server and clients distrib updates (security fixes, packages - up to date as of 2006-01-30)
• SMP debian kernels are now used
• debian-server+client: fix issues with bcmxx00/tg3/b44 (the 2 latters are disabled)
• debian server: added wine, freedos, distcc
• debian-client: added wine, freedos, distcc and the x libraries
• OAR: updated OAR to version 1.6.1svn40 (fix issues with sudo upgrade + checkpoint warning facility)
• UI: buttons to mass enable/disable wake on lan
• UI: labels used to create groups of nodes
• UI/OAR: mapping between CM labels and OAR properties
• CM: nodes go into inhibit state if they are rebooted while in CM mode (may be disable through config.php)
• CM: agents: windows agent are now available from the main page (let windows hosts be rebooted automatically)
• CM: exceptions now allow a user to let his/her machine to computemode for a few days (vacations for instance) (see config.php)
• UI: user page let user add or remove exceptions on their own machine (see config.php)
• UI: reboot statistics for ComputeMode events (when machines reboot, etc)

September 2005

ComputeMode 1.3 has just been released (tagged 20050808)

• system: the CM reserved network has moved from private class C

192.168.128.0/24 to private class B 172.28.0.0/16 (255 machines are now supported but this limit may easily be increased)

• global: server and clients distribution updated (security fixes)
• debian server: switched to Debian sarge/stable (instead testing)
• debian-client: switched to Debian sarge/stable (instead of testing)
• debian server + client: added LAM package
• UI: nodes detected are now name U_xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx (where xx...xx is replace by their mac addresses)
• UI: new submenu gathering the 'Unconfigured' nodes
• UI: button to enable/disable the wake on lan features on a per-node basis
• UI: some fixes with regard to long lists
• CM clients: improved NFS/network faults handling (reboots should now happen more reliably)
• fixed issues with TFTP daemon
• installer: stronger checks wrt to network configuration
• system: renamed tftp-hpa CM version to cmtftp-hpa version
• system: added a cmwebadmin package to handle smoother upgrades
• installer: stronger checks wrt to network configuration
• system: renamed tftp-hpa CM version to cmtftp-hpa version
• system: added a cmwebadmin package to handle smoother upgrades
• system: OAR upgraded to 1.6.1cvs20050709
• specific timeslots are no longer handled
• Debian Security fixes have been applied to both the client and server (up to and including DSA 804-1)
• bugs reported in v1.2 prior to 2005-09-08 have been fixed (with the batch manager OAR (2005-05-18), with Debian client OS (2005-05-18), with the web interface (2005-09-01), with the online help messages in the ComputeMode bootmode edition (2005-09-01), with the web site and wake on LAN (2005-09-07))

August 2005

Fresh news After the summer break, work resumed on version 1.3. This version will incorporate several bugfixes (UI, client images), improvements (UI, packaging) and upgrades (packages, tools). On a side note, ComputeMode is being tested by our partners in the RNTL IGGI project. On another side, ComputeMode, which was already working with vmware (server and client OS), now works as a client with Fabrice Bellard's qemu with the help of etherboot's PXE mode (see Rom-O-Matic for etherboot images).

May 2005

ComputeMode 1.2 is released (tagged 20050516-1905)

This update brings a batch of fixes, updates, adds support for CCISS and adds the newest Mandriva 10.2/LE2005 computemode-ized (CHANGELOG). Get the new version: ComputeMode 1.2 ISO.

April 2005

ComputeMode 1.1 release (tagged 20050429-1538)

• CD-Rom updated (both client and server parts)
• network driver detection has been improved
• fix possible NFS issues at boot (problem with NFS mount)
• fix possible DHCP issues at boot (problem with IP abandon)
• added local X server to enable smooth local management (try logging in with login/password=guest/guest)
• enhanced web administration interface
• server+client GNU/Linux Debian systems updated to include the latest software version and security fixes
• OAR batch system upgraded to version 1.6

ComputeMode UFRIMA installation counts now up to 60 machines (100 in a near future) : these nodes are available for computation at night and during the week-ends, while still remaining operational for the students during the open hours. The computation power of this virtual cluster is at the disposal of the Grenoble CiGri community. An interesting point is that ComputeMode Server also allows the UFRIMA administrators to deploy the machines daytime system (Microsoft Windows and GNU/Linux Debian) automatically and efficiently (working in conjunction with Norton Ghost).

March 2005

ComputeMode is being deployed in Grenoble University

PCs of the computer classrooms at UFRIMA can now be used by the campus scientists as a powerful cluster during closed hours (at night and during holidays).

January 21st 2005

ComputeMode 1.0 is released (tagged 20050121-1935)

Year 2004

Icatis company is funded and aims at developing and supporting ComputeMode

ComputeMode is redeveloped from scratch. It now features:

• a proper DB system instead of the home-brewed file-based version used in the Oucapo prototype
• new initrd mechanisms with busybox, uclibc
• the UI is heavily redesigned (from Perl cgi for 'engineers' to user-aimed PHP + templates)
• new diskless image building tools (based on the "orig", "patch", and "rules" mechanisms)

At the same time (around April), ComputeMode v0.4 (which is still based on the Oucapo code) is released. Another proof of concept is demonstrated by integrating with a 32 nodes cluster in Total's premises in Pau, France.

Year 2003

A diskless prototype Oucapo is developed as a proof-of-concept within the ID-IMAG Laboratory. This first version (0.1) is deployed inside Total's intranet and is based on Total's customized version of Mandrake Linux 9.0. Workstations can now provide extra-computing power. The job manager used then, is Sun Grid Engine. A sismic analysis application is tested successfully and takes advantage of the power increase and reactivity provided by our prototype. The next version (0.3) is released and deployed at the Grenoble Observatory. Computing nodes are integrated in a cluster thanks to OAR.