Installation and Configuration of CentOS7 Diskless OS for x86_64, armv7, and aarch64

• Clone the centos7_dist repo from github

git clone --depth 1 https://code.jlab.org/fedaq/coda/utils/centos7_dist.git

or on site

git clone --depth 1 /site/coda/contrib/devel/centos7_dist

Download and install the root and tftp pair for your module(s).

• VTP (armv7):
  • root-rc6 (filesize = 1G) tftp-rc2 (filesize = 26M)
• VME (x86_64):
  • root-rc5 (filesize = 1.5G) tftp-rc2 (filesize = 7.2M)
• MOLLERADC (aarch64):
  • root-rc2 (filesize = 0.4G) tftp-rc2 (filesize = 34M)

• I downloaded these and moved them into the tgz directory

  centos7_dist/tgz/root_x86_64-rc5.tgz
  centos7_dist/tgz/tftp_x86_64-rc2.tgz
  

I put together the following configuration for my system:

# The local paths for NFS exports to diskless paths: /, /home, and snapshot files
#   using base path
#       /usr/local/diskless
#
# Uncomment and set, if running the diskless_* scripts on a machine
#  that's not the indented NFS server.  Otherwise the default is NFS_SERVER_HOSTNAME=$(hostname -s)
#NFS_SERVER_HOSTNAME="daqfs.jlab.org"

NFS_PATH=/usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64

NFS_ROOT_PATH=${NFS_PATH}/root
NFS_SNAPSHOT_PATH=${NFS_PATH}/snapshot
NFS_HOME_PATH=${NFS_PATH}/home

NFS_EXPORTS=centos7-x86_64.exports

#
# The hostname of our vme controller
#
CLIENT_HOSTNAME[0]="davme6"

#
# root filesystem and kernel boot files
#
TGZ_ROOT=tgz/root_x86_64-rc5.tgz
TGZ_TFTP=tgz/tftp_x86_64-rc2.tgz

#
# kernel boot files specific to TGZ_TFTP version
#
VMLINUZ=vmlinuz-3.10.0-1062.9.1.el7.x86_64
INITRD=initramfs-3.10.0-1062.9.1.el7.x86_64.img

#
# tftp files
#
TFTP_PATH=/var/lib/tftpboot
TFTP_PXELINUX_CFG_PATH=${TFTP_PATH}/pxelinux.cfg
TFTP_PXELINUX_CFG_DEFAULT=centos7-x86_64.default
TFTP_KERNEL_PATH=${TFTP_PATH}/CentOS7-x86_64-Diskless

#
# Template files
#
TEMPLATE_PATH=templates
YP_CONF_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/yp.conf
READONLY_ROOT_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/readonly-root
PXECONFIG_ADDR_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/pxelinux.cfg_ADDR
AUTOFS_HOME_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/auto.home
UBOOT_ENV_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/env.txt

• NFS_PATH

  This is where the centos7 x86_64 filesystem will be unpacked.

  • I updated this path to this location on my host system

  NFS_PATH=/usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64
  

• CLIENT_HOSTNAME[n]

  • I only have one VME controller at the moment, it's hostname will be davme6.jlab.org. But's short hostname is what is needed here:

  CLIENT_HOSTNAME[0]=davme6
  

• TGZ_ROOT, TGZ_TFTP, VMLINUZ, INITRD
  • These ought to be defined in an sample configuration file provided with the tgz's. They contain the root filesystem, and boot files needed for the diskless client.

• TFTP_PATH

  Sometimes this path will be different for different types of tftp servers.

  • I'm using tftp-server on RHEL 7. So this path is the default:

  TFTP_PATH=/var/lib/tftpboot
  

The scripts will generate the necessary configuration files and commands to install them (as root or with sudo)

If you've got a VTP, the configuration will be very similar, mostly swapping x86_64 with armv7.

• CLIENT_HOSTNAME[n]

  I only have one VTP, it's hostname will be davtp1.jlab.org. It's short hostname is all that's needed here:

  CLIENT_HOSTNAME[0]="davtp1"
  

• VTP_MAC_ADDR

  This parameter is used in the generation of the VTPs environment file. The MAC address is unique for each VTP, and can be obtained from Ben Raydo.

  VTP_MAC_ADDR="ce:ba:f0:03:cc:ff" 
  

Execute the scripts that were called for the VME OS using the armv7 config file.

The MOLLERADC (aarch64) configuration is similar to the VME (x64_64) configuration. u-boot for the MOLLERADC uses PXE. The MAC address of the POE++ connection should be labeled on the front panel.

• the relevant scripts to use with the example

  ./diskless_ROOTOS.sh molleradc_example.cfg
  ./diskless_NFSexports.sh molleradc_example.cfg
  ./diskless_PXE-TFTP.sh molleradc_example.cfg
  

• skip the home directory and auto.home install
  • a coda user + home directory is already provided within the root_aarch64-rc2.tgz distribution

• I logged in as root and set up the home directory for the daq account and set its password

ssh root@davme6
/usr/sbin/mkhomedir_helper daq
passwd daq

• Change the root password while you're at it.

• Now you can log in as the daq user

ssh daq@davme6

• in serial debug connection, booting stops/halts at

  [  OK  ] Reached target Local File Systems (Pre).
           Starting udev Kernel Device Manager...
  [  OK  ] Started udev Kernel Device Manager.
  [  OK  ] Started Dispatch Password Requests to Console Directory Watch.
  [  OK  ] Reached target Paths.
  [  OK  ] Found device /dev/ttyPS0.