Before you start, make sure you have the latest version of
autocluster. To download autocluster do this:

  git clone git://git.samba.org/tridge/autocluster.git autocluster

Or to update it, run "git pull" in the autocluster directory

To setup a virtual cluster for SoFS with autocluster follow these steps:


 1) download and install the latest kvm-userspace and kvm tools 
    from http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki/Code

    You need a x86_64 Linux box to run this on. I use a Ubuntu Hardy
    system. It also needs plenty of memory - at least 3G to run a SoFS
    cluster.

    You may also find you need a newer version of libvirt. If you get
    an error when running create_base.sh about not handling a device
    named 'sda' then you need a newer libvirt. Get it like this:

       git clone git://git.et.redhat.com/libvirt.git

    When building it, you probably want to configure it like this:

       ./configure --without-xen --prefix=/usr


 2) You need a cacheing web proxy on your local network. If you don't
    have one, then install a squid proxy on your host. See
    host_setup/etc/squid/squid.conf for a sample config suitable for a
    virtual cluster. Make sure it caches large objects and has plenty
    of space. This will be needed to make downloading all the RPMs to
    each client sane

    To test your squid setup, run a command like this:

      http_proxy=http://10.0.0.1:3128/ wget http://9.155.61.11/mediasets/SoFS-daily/


 3) setup a DNS server on your host. See host_setup/etc/bind/ for a
    sample config that is suitable. It needs to redirect DNS queries
    for your SOFS virtual domain to your windows domain controller


 4) download a RHEL-5.2 install ISO. You can get it from
    fscc-install.mainz.de.ibm.com in
      /instgpfs/instsrv/dists/ISO/RHEL5.2-Server-20080430.0-x86_64-DVD.iso


 5) create a 'config' file in the autocluster directory. I suggest you
    create it like this:

       . config.sample
       MEM="what ever mem you want"
       KVM="path to your kvm"
    
    That way when you upgrade autocluster with "git pull" you will
    inherit the new addtions to config.sample   

    Then look through config.sample and check for any config options
    you want to override. Add them to your config file.

    If you want any extra files to be installed on all the nodes, then
    put them in the right directory in base/. You can do substitutions
    in those files using the syntax @@VARIABLE@@ where VARIABLE is any
    autocluster configuation variable


 6) use ./create_base.sh to create the base install image.  The
    install will take about 10 to 15 minutes and you will see the
    packages installing in your terminal

    Before you start create_base.sh make sure your web proxy cache is
    authenticated with the Mainz BSO (eg. connect to
    https://9.155.61.11 with a web browser)


 7) when that has finished I recommend you mark that base image
    immutable like this:

      chattr +i /virtual/SoFS-1.5-base.img

    That will ensure it won't change. This is a precaution as the
    image will be used as a basis file for the per-node images, and if
    it changes your cluster will become corrupt


 8) now run ./create_cluster, specifying a cluster name. For example:

      ./create_cluster c1

    That will create your cluster nodes and the TSM server node

 9) now boot your cluster nodes like this:

       ./vircmd start c1

   The most useful vircmd commands are:
 
       start    : boot a node
       shutdown : graceful shutdown of a node
       destroy  : power off a node immediately


 10) you can watch boot progress like this:

       tail -f /var/log/kvm/serial.c1*

    All the nodes have serial consoles, making it easier to capture
    kernel panic messages and watch the nodes via ssh


 11) now you can ssh into your nodes. You may like to look at the
     small set of scripts in /root/scripts on the nodes for
     some scripts. In particular:

      setup_tsm_server.sh:  run this on the TSM node to setup the TSM server
      setup_tsm_client.sh:  run this on the GPFS nodes to setup HSM
      mknsd.sh           :  this sets up the local shared disks as GPFS NSDs
      setup_gpfs.sh      :  this sets GPFS, creates a filesystem etc,
                            byppassing the SoFS GUI. Useful for quick tests.


 12) If using the SoFS GUI, then you may want to lower the memory it
     uses so that it fits easily on the first node. Just edit this
     file on the first node:

          /opt/IBM/sofs/conf/overrides/sofs.javaopt


 13) For automating the SoFS GUI, you may wish to install the iMacros
     extension to firefox, and look at some sample macros I have put
     in the imacros/ directory of autocluster. They will need editing
     for your environment, but they should give you some hints on how
     to automate the final GUI stage of the installation of a SoFS
     cluster.