Stacki Documentation

Install Backend via Spreadsheet

Things to check

1. Node network cables are plugged in.
2. Nodes are cabled to the same network as the frontend private interface.
3. Nodes are set to PXE first.
4. Nodes have a system disk.
5. The switch has spanning tree off or the switch ports are set to “edge”
6. Node is not a laptop.

Spreadsheet

You can specify all the information about a host before installation in a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file. The advantage of using CSV files is that it gives fine-grained control over the configuration of the cluster. You also don’t piss-off your networking and security teams.

The disadvantage is you have to know the MAC addresses prior to installing backend nodes. If you didn’t get a listing from the vendor, you’ll have to harvest them with IPMI or use your, or someone else’s, eyeballs.

The Host CSV file needs to have the following columns: Please Note: Headings have changed since 4.0. This is for 5.0.

1. Name: A hostname. (Required)
2. Interface Hostname:
3. Default: True for interface to be the default gateway/route.
4. Appliance. The appliance name for the host (e.g. backend).
5. Rack. The rack number for the host.
6. Rank. The position in the rack for the host.
7. IP. Network address.
8. MAC. Ethernet address.
9. Interface. Ethernet device name (e.g. em1).
10. Network. Network name for the interface (e.g. private).
11. Channel: For bonding
12. Options: For additional network options in ifcfg files (i.e. bonding)
13. VLAN: Vlan id.
14. Installaction. Defaults to “default” mapped to a bootaction in “stack list bootaction” - Replaces “RUNACTION”
15. Osaction: Defaults to “default”
16. Groups: Ad hoc collections of hosts.
17. Box: Default box is “default” See Boxes
18. Comment: Communicate with your friends!

A simple, basic spreadsheet is shown below.

NAME,INTERFACE HOSTNAME,DEFAULT,APPLIANCE,RACK,RANK,IP,MAC,INTERFACE,NETWORK,CHANNEL,OPTIONS,VLAN,INSTALLACTION,OSACTION,GROUPS,BOX,COMMENT
backend-0-0,backend-0-0,True,backend,0,0,10.11.1.254,c8:1f:66:cb:e7:43,em1,private,,,,default,default,,default,
backend-0-1,backend-0-1,True,backend,0,1,10.11.1.253,c8:1f:66:cb:33:74,em1,private,,,,default,default,,default,
backend-0-2,backend-0-2,True,backend,0,2,10.11.1.252,c8:1f:66:cb:e5:7d,em1,private,,,,default,default,,default,
backend-0-3,backend-0-3,True,backend,0,3,10.11.1.251,c8:1f:66:cb:37:75,em1,private,,,,default,default,,default,
backend-0-4,backend-0-4,True,backend,0,4,10.11.1.250,c8:1f:66:cd:d3:c0,em1,private,,,,default,default,,default,

Once the CSV file is created and copied to the frontend it can be loaded by root.

# stack load hostfile file=hostfile.csv

You can verify the data was correctly loaded be listing the host information from the configuration database.

HOST         RACK RANK APPLIANCE OS     BOX     ENVIRONMENT OSACTION INSTALLACTION COMMENT
frontend-0-0 0    0    frontend  redhat default ----------- default  default       -------
backend-0-0  0    0    backend   redhat default ----------- default  default       -------
backend-0-1  0    1    backend   redhat default ----------- default  default       -------
backend-0-2  0    2    backend   redhat default ----------- default  default       -------
backend-0-3  0    3    backend   redhat default ----------- default  default       -------
backend-0-4  0    4    backend   redhat default ----------- default  default       -------

Every time a backend node boots, it will send a PXE request to the frontend. The frontend will tell the backend node to either boot its OS or to install. The default boot action is always os as you can see below.

# stack list host boot
HOST         ACTION NUKEDISKS NUKECONTROLLER
frontend-0-0 ------ False     False
backend-0-0  os     False     False
backend-0-1  os     False     False
backend-0-2  os     False     False
backend-0-3  os     False     False
backend-0-4  os     False     False

In order to install a backend you will need to switch the boot action to install and then reboot.

# stack set host boot a:backend action=install
	       Sync Host Boot

# stack list host boot
HOST         ACTION  NUKEDISKS NUKECONTROLLER
frontend-0-0 ------- False     False
backend-0-0  install False     False
backend-0-1  install False     False
backend-0-2  install False     False
backend-0-3  install False     False
backend-0-4  install False     False

The very first install, you must set “nukedisks” to true. This is no brownfield installer. We want complete control - including partitioning which is another discussion

# stack set host attr a:backend attr=nukedisks value=True

Verify:

# stack list host boot
HOST         ACTION  NUKEDISKS NUKECONTROLLER
frontend-0-0 ------- False     False
backend-0-0  install True      False
backend-0-1  install True      False
backend-0-2  install True      False
backend-0-3  install True      False
backend-0-4  install True      False

Note: You do NOT have to set “nukecontroller” at this point, especially if you are happy with the current hardware RAID controller configuration or your machines don’t have hardware RAID controllers in the LSI family. If these machines are brand new, have LSI controllers, and you want to set them up, look at the Storage Controller configuration on how to set that up.

Now power up the backend machines. The backend machines will first boot into the Stacki installer, install the OS, set their boot action back to os, and reboot.

You should be able to get status messages for the install by watching the output of “stack list host status”.

# stack list host status
HOST         STATE                SSH
frontend-0-0 online               up
backend-0-0  install profile sent ---
backend-0-1  install profile sent ---
backend-0-3  install profile sent ---
backend-0-4  install profile sent ---

When the machines are “online” in the STATE column, and “up” in the SSH column, you should be able to password-less ssh to them.

You can also use the parallel command runner to get to all the nodes from the frontend:

# stack run host command="uptime"

Very few people want the default settings you currently have, so now go to Customization to build out your environment.

Customization is an iterative process. You will be re-installing your machines over and over until you’re happy and you’ve got it right.

Re-Installation

Getting a machine to have a.) a known good state, b.) a refresh of the os, or c.) a complete reinstall including data disks, you’ll want to reinstall.

Stacki manages the PXE boot of all of backend nodes. When a node has been installed, Stacki tells the PXE request to boot from local disk.

If you want to reinstall, use the stack command line to tell the node what to do the next time the machine reboots.

We call “telling the node what to do on next reboot,” “setting the boot action.””

This is how you do it:

To re-install a machine you change the boot action back to install, for example:

# stack set host boot backend-0-0 action=install

The next time you boot backend-0-0, it will rebuild itself. But a rebuild, by default, will only reformat the swap, /var, and / partitions. This means all data in /state/partition1, or any other data disks you’ve partitioned is maintained across re-installations.

The install/reinstall also sets the boot action back to “os” which means “boot from local disk.” It requires no human intervention.

If you want to completely reformat all data on the backend during the re-install, you need to set an Attribute for the given host before you reboot the server.

# stack set host attr a:backend-0-0 attr=nukedisks value=true

To do all backend hosts at once, give the appliance name:

# stack set host boot a:backend action=install
# stack set host attr a:backend attr=nukedisks value=true
# stack run host backend command=reboot

After the backend re-installs, it will automaticaly reset the value of the attribute to false so the next time you re-install, it will do the default and only reformat the /var and / partitions.

Very few people want the default settings you currently have, so now go to Customization to build out your environment.