[H]ardFolding
Diskless Farm 1.3
This document details how to setup a diskless Folding @ Home
server. The procedure was gleaned from two diskless farm documents, which are
referenced below and should be read to understand the process better.
I have
attempted to automate this setup using RedHat Linux 9 for the HardFolding
community. The network topology is assumed with a cable/dsl router such as a
LinkSys running on the default port of "192.168.1.1". It also assumes
you have a more modern motherboard with built-in everything and the LAN
supports PXE 2.0. In other words this is what I did to make it work, as the
reference documents are more generic.
For
clients I have personally used five brands of all-in-one motherboards.
Shuttle
MK32N, Shuttle MK35N, Shuttle MK35VN, Biostar M7VIG Pro, ASRock P4M266.
The
following clients have been verified by fellow [H]ardFolders.
Biostar M7VIZ – Lockheed
Asus A7V8X-MX – valve1138
Many of
these boards use the VIA Rhine II MAC, which is the VT6103 chip. If your board
has the VT6103 it has a very good chance of working too.
NVidia
boards will NOT work “out-of-the-box” if they use the NVidia MAC
(network). This is because NVidia will not release a specification for their
MAC. Thus the LTSP org cannot write a compatible driver for it. As of
12/10/2003 this is still the case. However, a workaround does exist. You’ll
need to disable the built-in network chip and install a PXE compatible NIC in
one of the PCI slots.
The following
boards have also been invalidated. They do NOT work “out-of-the-box”.
Biostar
M7VKQ Pro
ASRock M810LMR
The three ISO images to burn to CD are
currently located here.
http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/iso/i386/shrike-i386-disc1.iso
http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/iso/i386/shrike-i386-disc2.iso
http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/iso/i386/shrike-i386-disc3.iso
This is what adds the diskless server to
Linux.
ltsp_core-3.0.9-0.i386.rpm
ltsp_kernel-3.0.10-0.i386.rpm
ltsp_local_apps-3.0.0-0.i386.rpm
pxestuff-3.0.5-i386.tgz
tftp-server-0.32-4.i386.rpm (available on 3rd
ISO too)
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ltsp/ltsp_core-3.0.9-0.i386.rpm
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ltsp/ltsp_kernel-3.0.10-0.i386.rpm
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ltsp/ltsp_local_apps-3.0.0-0.i386.rpm
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ltsp/pxestuff-3.0.5-i386.tgz
ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/redhat/9/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/tftp-server-0.32-4.i386.rpm
http://home.comcast.net/~bturmelle/diskless_setup.tgz
Determine and write down your network cards
MAC/ethernet addresses.
These are unique for each network card or
BIOS for motherboards with
built-in LAN. It is a 12 digit Hex format
number. (Ex: 00:70:1B:12:8D:4A)
PCI Network cards:
For cards it should be printed on the
circuit board.
Motherboard LAN:
Find the LAN setup in your BIOS and enable
LAN and boot from ROM.
Then change the "Fist Boot
Device" to LAN. Reboot and get ready to pause/break
when you see the BIOS attempting to access
the network. One of the first
things it should do is print the MAC
address. Write it down and power
off the system.
Most of this is very straight forward. The
latest distro practically
installs itself. When it comes time for
choosing the base configuration
pick "Server". You are then
presented with more options. I chose the
Gnome Desktop Environment and made sure
these were also installed:
Windows File Server
samba
samba-client
Network Services Packages
dhcp
Log into your Linux machine as user root.
Make sure these services are enabled
(checked).
Select the menu item: System Settings >
Server Settings > Services
dhcpd
netfs
nfs
portmap
smb
xinetd
If any of these are missing something went
wrong in a pervious step.
A common problem is that the pxe
service is enabled. This must be disabled as it will conflict with dhcpd.
Select the Main Menu item: System Settings
> Network
You should have an "eth0"
interface.
Edit this and use "static IP
address" with:
value "192.168.1.254"
subnet "255.255.255.0"
gateway "192.168.1.1"
Save config and close the network settings.
1) Copy
all the downloaded files into a directory such as "/usr/download".
2)
Extract the main setup archive.
[root@localhost download]# tar zxvf diskless_setup.tgz
3) Edit
the "dhcpd.conf" and enter your MAC addresses in the
"hardware ethernet" fields. The
template has all 0's and
only has 2 clients enabled (hf001, hf002)
as that's all the
script will setup. If you have more than
two see the "ADDING
ADDITIONAL CLIENTS" section AFTER the
first ones have been
verified.
4) Edit
the "client.cfg". Change the username to your F@H handle.
5) Now
run the installation script. At one point an ltsp initialization
will pop up. Leave the default selections
and say yes.
[root@localhost download]#
./install_diskless
The script has completed when you see:
"ALL DONE! YAYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
If any errors display make sure to write
them down. This is an
exact process so if something fails it will
probably not work.
The main problem has been missing files
(from above).
6)
Select the menu item: System Settings > Server Settings > Services
Make sure this service is enabled
(checked):
tftp
Leave the other services as they are.
7)
Cross your fingers and Reboot the Server
8) Turn
on one of your diskless clients and verify it works.
It should get an IP from your Server, download
it's operating
system, and start folding.
The
format is very straight forward. You'll need to edit all these files.
Add
additional client names, MAC addresses and IPs.
/etc/dhcpd.conf
/etc/exports
/etc/hosts
/opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf
You'll
also need to make additional fah directories in "/fah".
Copy
just the client.cfg and FAH3Console-Linux.exe into them.
Then
turn on your new client.
Fold
On!
The
install sets up a basic samba configuration which lets windows
machines
access the Linux server. As long as it's (smbd) enabled and
turned
on you should be able to browse to it on your network.
In EM3
I use:
Box
Name: DL_HF001
Box
Path" "\\192.168.1.254\fah_clients\hf001"
Box
Name: DL_HF002
Box
Path" "\\192.168.1.254\fah_clients\hf002"
Please
visit the [H]ardocp “Distributing Computing” forum to comment on your results.
Particularly of interest are any motherboards you get to work or don’t get to
work with this install.
Building
A Diskless Folding @ Home Farm
by
Jason Rabel
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/articles/howto/FAH_Diskless_Farm_1.html
Recipie
for a Yatta-Monster
by The
Gator
http://www.pickleloaf.com/team32/howto_yatta.zip
Linux
Terminal Server Project (LTSP)