Installing Ubuntu 10.04 Enterprise Cloud (on Dell PowerEdge R510 using iDRAC6)

This is done as a two step process - first, we need to configure the machine, then we can actually install Ubuntu.

1. The network setup here is that each cluster node has two network cards, a local and a public one, but all of the public traffic is, initially, routed through the cluster's head node. So, in order to access Dell's iDRAC6 on the worker nodes, it is necessary to first setup port forwarding through the head node for HTTPS and VNC:
(local): sudo ssh -L 443:[node IP]:443 -L 5900:[node IP]:5900 -l [head node user name]  -N [head node IP]

2. Open https://localhost:443 and enable Virtual Media -> Status -> Auto Attach under Console/Media -> Configuration. This will allow us to actually mount a CD-ROM as a virtual device to the node. 

3. Launch the node's virtual console from the Properties tab and reboot the system; load BIOS and disable internal interfaces, disable memory checking, and enable hardware virtualization

4. On the head node, download and mount bootable FreeDOS ISO as a virtual CD for the node so we can boot off of it:
(head node): sudo vmcli -r [node IP]  -u root -p -c [path to FreeDOS ISO on head node]

5. Boot FreeDOS, through the Virtual Console, select 'Install to hard drive', then run from CD (this will enable networking):

(node): UX_Diag, uediag.exe, -mba 1

Now, the machine is ready to have an OS of choice installed.

6. Mount Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud ISO as a virtual CD from the head node again so we can boot off of it and install:

(head node): sudo vmcli -r [node IP] -u root -p -c [path to Ubuntu ISO on hed node]

7. Reboot from virtual console, enter BIOS and choose CD as the first boot device; boot into Ubuntu configuration screen and install Ubuntu. Subsequent instructions on how to install Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud are available here.

Profile SGE queues

As root, run the command "qconf -tsm" on your head node. That will cause a one-time scheduler profiling run to be dumped to a text file called "schedd_runlog" in your $SGE_ROOT/ $SGE_CELL/common/ directory. This file can then be examined for any anomalies if things are otherwise not running smoothly.

Installing Xen dom0 on Ubuntu 9.04

The overall structure of a 'Xen-enabled' system can be visualized by the following figure:

As shown in the figure, and contrary to my prior belief, Xen hypervisor is represented by another GRUB entry at system boot time (as opposed to simply replacing the OS that it was installed from). As a result, you can choose to boot into original OS without Xen availability or into the Xen system even after you have installed Xen on given system. This was just used to show a high-level picture of system layout...

Following are a set of commands that will install Xen hypervisor. These commands are to be executed within the original OS currently existing on the machine:
$ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-686_2.6.26-19_i386.deb
$ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-modules-2.6.26-2-xen-686_2.6.26-19_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i linux-modules-2.6.26-2-xen-686_2.6.26-19_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-686_2.6.26-19_i386.deb
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-xen-server

Then, restart the machine and in the grub loader, Xen should appear as a bootable OS.

After booting up, the following command should tell you that you are in dom0:

$ sudo xm list
Name ID Mem VCPUs State Time(s)
Domain-0 0 702 1 r----- 312.9

When it comes to installing guest OS's (i.e., domU's), the following websites were helpful:

• A brief and technical process can be found here
• The same process but where each step is explained in more detail can be found here
• Another example process that shows contents of many files that need to be edited can be found he

Installing R

1. Download R from http://www.r-project.org/.
2. Untar the downloaded archive using command: $ tar -xvzf [R-version.tar.gz]
This will create a new directory named ./[R-version] in the current directory.
3. Enter newly created directory: cd [R-version]
4. Issue command: ./configure --prefix=/path/to/install (e.g., /home/afgane/R/[R-version])
In order to link BLAS and CLApack libraries, the following set of commands can be used (the export statements specify desired compiler, also make sure library paths are edited to match current resource):
export CC=icc
export CXX=icpc
./configure --prefix=/store/R/R-2.7.2 --enable-threads=posix --with-blas="-L/opt/intel/cmkl/10.0.011/lib/em64t -lmkl -lguide -lpthread" --with-lapack="-L/opt/intel/cmkl/10.0.011/lib/em64t -lmkl_lapack"
5. Type tow following commands to make and install:
$ make
$ make check
$ make install

Installing Mozart Oz and Cygwin on Windows XP

1. Mozart-Oz needs to be installed using typical Windows installation procedure
2. Cygwin needs to be installed using typical Windows installation (this is bare bones, so install packages such as vi and gcc - also, 'more' command does not work in cygwin so create alias in .bashrc file to use 'less' command then typing 'more'). Windows drives can be accessed from cygwin by going to /cygdrive directory.
3. Emacs needs to be installed. Install Windows version (not the cygwin package).
4. Run addpm.exe in emacs bin subdirectory from windows explorer. This will integrate/install emacs into the Windows environment.
5. Create symbolic link in /usr/bin to point to emacs (e.g., ls -s /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/emacs/bin/emacs.exe emacs)
6. Define environment variable OZEMACS in Windows (Ctlr Panel->System->Advanced->Env. Var) to point to emacs.exe.
7. Start cygwin and type oz to get going...