6. Creating the Config File¶
The config file drives the creation of the cluster. It is in YAML format which is stored as readable text. The lines must be terminated with a newline character (\n). When creating or editing the file on the Microsoft Windows platform be sure to use an editor, such as LibreOffice, which supports saving text files with the newline terminating character or use dos2unix to convert the windows text file to unix format.
Sample config files can be found in the power-up/sample-configs directory. Once a config file has been created, rename it to config.yml and move it to the project root directory. YAML files support data structures such as lists, dictionaries and scalars. The Cluster Configuration File Specification describes the various fields.
See Cluster Configuration File Specification.
YAML files use spaces as part of its syntax. For example, elements of the same list must have the exact same number of spaces preceding them. When editing the config file pay careful attention to spaces at the start of lines. Incorrect spacing can result in failure to parse the file.
Schema and logic validation of the config file can be performed with the pup.py command:
$ cd power-up
$ source pup-venv/bin/activate
$ ./scripts/python/pup.py validate --config-file
6.1. Switch Mode¶
6.1.1. Active Switch Mode¶
This mode allows the switches to be automatically configured during deployment.
6.1.2. Passive Switch Mode¶
This mode requires the user to manually configure the switches and to write switch MAC address tables to file.
Passive management switch mode and passive data switch mode can be configured independently, but passive and active switches of the same classification cannot be mixed (i.e. all data switches must either be active or passive).
See Config Specification - Globals Section.
Passive Management Switch Mode:
Passive management switch mode requires the user to configure the management switch before initiating a deploy. The client network must be isolated from any outside servers. IPMI commands will be issued to any system BMC that is set to DHCP and has access to the client network.
Passive Data Switch Mode:
Passive data switch mode requires the user to configure the data switch in accordance with the defined networks. The node interfaces of the cluster will still be configured.
6.2. Networks¶
The network template section defines the networks or groups of networks and will be referenced by the Node Template members.
6.3. Node Templates¶
The order of the individual ports under the ports list is important since the index represents a node and is referenced in the list elements under the pxe and data keys.
See Config Specification - Node Templates Section.
6.3.1. Renaming Interfaces¶
The rename key provides the ability to rename ethernet interfaces. This allows the use of heterogeneous nodes with software stacks that need consistent interface names across all nodes. It is not necessary to know the existing interface name. The cluster configuration code will find the MAC address of the interface cabled to the specified switch port and change it accordingly.
6.3.2. Install Device¶
The install_device key is the disk to which the operating system will be installed. Specifying this disk is not always obvious because Linux naming is inconsistent between boot and final OS install. For OpenPOWER S812LC, the two drives in the rear of the unit are typically used for OS install. These drives should normally be specified as /dev/sdj and /dev/sdk.
6.4. Post POWER-Up Activities¶
Once deployment has completed it is possible to launch additional commands or scripts specified in the Software Bootstrap section. These can perform configuration actions or bootstrap install of additional software packages. Commands can be specified to run on all cluster nodes or only specific nodes determined by the compute template name.