Hall C Compute Cluster

Hall C Compute Cluster

Systems and (nominal) Functions

The Hall C compute cluster is composed of roughly 4 'classes' of machines. Hosts within these classes are intended to be largely interchangeable, allowing for easier upgrades and failover. === CODA / DAQ nodes (rackmount)

• cdaql5, cdaql6

Miscellaneous

• cvideo1 -- rackmount machine that handles munin service and runs motion software that handles the cameras
• cvideo2 -- desktop host that handles the 2 left-most large wall display screens
• cvideo3 -- desktop host that handles the 4 newest display screens
• cmagnets (VM) -- A Win10 VM hosted on cdaqfs1 that handles the 'go_magnets' spectrometer magnet controls
• skylla10 -- a rackmount Win10 host that hosts the Rockwell HMI software used to interact with the SHMS/HMS spectrometer PLCs
• cdaqbackup1 -- a rackmount host used to provide backups of (linux) Hall C systems. See #System Backups

• CNAMES (DNS 'aliases' allowing systems to be pointed at a new physical host with a single DNS change)
  • hcpxeboot -> cdaqfs1

Puppet Configuration Management

• The Hall C cluster machines are configured and maintained using the open-source [Puppet] system.
  • Main repo is hosted at: git@hallcgit.jlab.org:brads/hallc-puppet.git
  • Updates/Upgrades are handled manually to minimize any surprises during Production
    • Brad uses 'cssh' to periodically run global updates and/or push out configuration changes -- bug him for support.

System Backups

• cdaqbackup1 is as an older rackmount host repurposed to provide backups of some important systems
  • All cdaqfs1 NFS exports are backed up nightly (rsync images; no snapshotting)
  • cdaqfs1:home/ is backed up nightly with' snapshots
    • The backup software is [Borg Backup]
    • This is handled by the script: cdaqbackup1:/data1/cdaqfs-backup/BACKUP-borg/borg-backup-cdaqfs-home.sh running on cdaqbackup1

Network Configuration / Management

• All systems on the Hall C network should be registered with the central systems. Talk to Brad Sawatzky and he will set you up quickly.
  • Do not throw something on the network with a hardcoded IP address. That was fine 15 years ago, not a good plan in a modern network.

• The network layout is roughly described on the Hall_C_Network page, but that is deprecated and may be out of date. JNET should be considered canonical.

vxworks boot

• vxWorks hosts presently boot off cdaql1 (129.57.168.41)

PXE boot (intel/Linux ROCs)

• Intel/Linux ROCs boot using the PXE mechanism. The PXE stanza is delivered by the CNI DHCP service to hosts on the 168 subnet:

  tftp-host:    hcpxeboot                        # Bootloader program
  tftp-path:    linux-diskless/pxelinux.0        # TFTP server