3. Manual RPM Installation

It is of course possible to manually install the RPM packages on the nodes and the frontend. This section describes how to do this if it should be necessary.

3.1. RPM Package Structure

The Dolphin Express software stack is organized into a number of RPM packages. Some of these packages have inter-dependencies.

Dolphin-SCI

Low-level hardware driver for the adapter. Installs the dis_irm kernel module, the node manager daemon and the dis_irm and dis_nodemgr services on a node. Only needed if you are using the Dolpin D Interconnect

To be installed on all nodes.

Dolphin-SISCI

User-level access to the adapter capabilities via the SISCI API. Installs the dis_sisci kernel module and the dis_sisci service, plus the run-time I library and header files for the SISCI API on a node. Required by Dolpin benchmark and diagnostic tools.

To be installed on all nodes. Depends on Dolphin-SCI.

Dolphin-SuperSockets

Standard Berkeley sockets with low latency and high bandwidth. Installs the dis_mbox, dis_msq and dis_ssocks kernel modules and the dis_supersockets service, and the redirection library for preloading on a node.

To be installed on all nodes. Depends on Dolphin-SCI.

Dolphin-NetworkHosts

Installs the GUI application dishostseditor for creating the cluster configuration files on the frontend. Also installs some template configuration files for manual editing.

To be installed on the frontend (and additionally other machines that should run dishostseditor).

Dolphin-NetworkManager

Contains the network manager on the frontend, which talks to all node managers on the nodes. Installs the service dis_networkmgr.

To be installed on the frontend. Depends on Dolphin-NetworkHosts.

Dolphin-NetworkAdmin

Contains the GUI application sciadmin for managing and monitoring the interconnect. sciadmin talks to the network manager and can be installed on any machine that has connection to the frontend.

To be installed on the frontend (or any other machine).

Dolphin-SISCI-devel

To compile and link applications that use the SISCI API on other machines than the nodes, this RPM installs the header files and library plus examples and documentation on any machine.

To be optionally installed on the frontend, or any other machine on which SISCI applications should be compiled and linked.

3.2. RPM Build and Installation

On each machine, the matching binary RPM packages need to be built by calling the SIA with the --build-rpm option. This will take some minutes, and the resulting RPMs are stored in three directories:

node_RPMS

Contains the binary RPM packages for the driver and kernel modules to be installed on each node. These RPM packages can be installed on every node with the same kernel version.

frontend_RPMS

Contains the binary RPM packages for the user-level managing software to be installed on the frontend. The Dolphin-SISCI-devel and Dolphin-NetworkAdmin packages can also be installed on other nodes, not being the frontend or any of the nodes, for development and administration, respectively.

source_RPMS

The source RPM packages contained in this directory can be used to build binary RPMs on other machines using the standard rpmbuild command.

To install the packages from one directory, just enter the directory and install them all with a single call of the rpm command, like:

# cd node_RPMS
# rpm -Uhv *.rpm