Robert G. Brown wrote: > On Wed, 20 Jun 2007, A Lenzo wrote: > >> Hello all, >> >> I am new to Linux and need help with the setup of my Beowulf Cluster. >> Can >> anyone suggest a few good resources? >> >> Here is a description of my current hurdle: I have 1 master node and 2 >> slave >> nodes. For starters, I would like to be able to create a user account on >> the master node and have it appear on the slave nodes. I've figured out >> that the first step is to copy over several files as follows: >> >> /etc/group >> /etc/passwd >> /etc/shadow >> >> And this lets me now log into any node with a given password, but the >> home >> directory of that given user does not carry over. > > I'd suggest getting a good book on Unix/Linux systems administration at > your local friendly bookstore. Most of this is standard stuff for > managing any LAN, and the one by Nemeth, Snyder and Hein (Linux > Administration Handbook) is likely as good as any. > > You want to: > > a) NFS export your home directory from the master. Basically this > involves making an entry in /etc/exports (with PRECISELY the right > format, sorry, RTMP) and doing chkconfig nfs on, /etc/init.d/nfs start. > God willing and the crick don't rise, and after you turn off selinux > completely and drive a stake through its heart and use > system-config-security to enable at least NFS in addition to ssh, then > with luck you'll be able to go to a node/client and do: > > mount -t nfs master:/home /home > > (and add a suitable line to /etc/fstab to make this automagical on boot) > and have it "just work". > > b) There are two ways to handle the user account, password, > /etc/hosts, and other system db synchronization. For a tiny cluster > with one or two users they are pretty much break even. One is to do > what you've done -- create e.g. /etc/[passwd,group,shadow,hosts] on the > master and then rsync them to the nodes as root, taking care not to > break them or you'll be booting them single user to clean them up or > reinstalling them altogether! When a new account is added, rerun the > rsyncs. You can even write a tiny script that will rsync exactly what > is needed. Or, you can learn to use NIS, which scales to a much larger > (department/organization sized) enterprise and cluster with dozens or > hundreds of user accounts. > > For that you'll NEED the systems administration book or one like it -- > NIS is not for the faint of heart. I've done NIS management before, and > know how to use it, but elect to go the other way for my home > LAN/cluster because even 8-10 systems and 4-5 users are about break even > compared to a judicious and infrequent set of rsyncs, and a cluster is > even simpler in this regard. FWIW, local (non-NIS) dbs are somewhat > faster for certain classes of parallel operation although this is not > generally a major issue for most code. > > Hope this helps, > > rgb
What about integrating rsync into the password scripts? Fundamentally, I don't trust NIS. -- Geoffrey D. Jacobs _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
