Diskless 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

   Edit the postinstall script on the osimage to invoke the mlnxofed_ib_install install script.

   For example, take rhels7.2-ppc64le-netboot-compute:

   1. Find the path to the postinstall script:

      # lsdef -t osimage -o rhels7.2-ppc64le-netboot-compute -i postinstall
      Object name: rhels7.2-ppc64le-netboot-compute
          postinstall=/opt/xcat/share/xcat/netboot/rh/compute.rhels7.ppc64le.postinstall
      

   2. Edit the /opt/xcat/share/xcat/netboot/rh/compute.rhels7.ppc64le.postinstall and add the following:

      /install/postscripts/mlnxofed_ib_install \
         -p /install/<path-to>/<MLNX_OFED_LINUX.iso> -i $1 -n genimage
      

      Note: The $1 is a argument that is passed to the the postinstall script at runtime.

   [kernel mismatch issue] The Mellanox OFED ISO is built againt 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 argument to the Mellanox installation script to build the kernel modules based on the version you are using.

   /install/postscripts/mlnxofed_ib_install \
     -p /install/<path-to>/<MLNX_OFED_LINUX.iso> -m --add-kernel-support -end- \
     -i $1 -n genimage
   

3. Generate the diskless image

   Use the genimage command to generate the diskless image from the osimage definition

   genimage <osimage>
   

   Use the packimage command to pack the diskless image for deployment

   packimage <osimage>
   

4. Provision the node

   rinstall <node> osimage=rhels7.2-ppc64le-netboot-compute
   

5. 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 comamnd to obtain information about the InfiniBand adapter.