[ This is a reminder to stbc-users ; programmaleiders, this was sent already on 17 january but I did not have permission to send mail to the programmaleiders list. Also note : we have yet to hear from anyone who has a requirement for SL5 plus glusterFS access, nor from anyone who needs SL5 at all. Based on current input, we could upgrade the entire cluster to SL6. So if you need SL5 please read below and then answer before Friday! ]
As announced at the jamboree, the stoomboot cluster will be upgraded. Most
of the installation is finished; before we can proceed in enabling the
expanded cluster, we need to decide how to partition the cluster. The
problem is illustrated in the figure below.
Some of the nodes will have no glusterFS access because the glusterFS service is
not being expanded at this time; it would not be able to handle simultaneous
file accesses from all nodes of the expanded cluster.
When upgrading the cluster we would prefer, for maintenance reasons, to
upgrade the operating system to SL6 at the same time. We understand that
some users may still require access to SL5; indications are that these same
users will also need access to the GlusterFS service, which is why the
picture is drawn as it is (no SL5 partition without GlusterFS access). We
would like to hear from the following users:
- users who need glusterFS and who can work either on SL5 OR SL6
- users who need glusterFS access and who would prefer or even require SL6
- users who need glusterFS access and who absolutely cannot run on SL6
- users who do not need glusterFS access and who cannot run their code on SL6
With this information we can determine where to draw the boundaries.
*Please send your replies before Friday, January 24th per email to
stbc-admin@nikhef.nl*
We remind you that an interactive node running SL6 is available for testing:
stbc-isl6.nikhef.nlNote our current plans are to upgrade two of the existing interactive
stoomboot nodes to SL6, leaving the other two on SL5.
Providing legacy support for SL5 is a temporary situation; new developments
should not rely on SL5 support!
We will organise a short presentation / Q&A session sometime in the coming
weeks to introduce the new features of the system.
JT and RonaldS