Lustre server machines are simple to setup with CentOS 5.5. Pre-built kernel images are available from Whamclouds build server. A number of different kernels and tools are continuasly built and tested. For this Walk-thru the centos-master-build will be used.

Prerequisite.

Procedure

First step is to download and install a Lustre patched CentOS kernel. The subsequent step is to add in modules and tools necessary to build a Lustre filesystem.

Installing a patched kernel.

  1. Identify the recent, Lustre patched, kernel.
    This can be found by either navigaing from the centos-master-build page or by visiting a link the the last successful build for x86_64.
  2. Identify the most recent kernel RPM.
    Recent kernel builds are of the form kernel-2.6.18-194.17.1.el5_lustre.<buildid>.x86_64.rpm
  3. Download this RPM to the machine client-10.
  4. Install the kernel. 
    [root@client-10 ~]# rpm -ivh ./kernel-2.6.18-194.17.1.el5_lustre.<buildid>.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:kernel                 ########################################### [100%]
[root@client-10 ~]#
  5. Reboot
  6. Verify that the new kernel has been booted: 
    [root@client-10 ~]# uname -a
Linux client-10.lab.whamcloud.com 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5_lustre.gdfe90dc #1 SMP Sun Mar 13 03:18:21 EET 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Installing Ldiskfs.

  1. From the page that linked to the kernel, identify the Lustre modules RPM
    The package will be named in the form lustre-ldiskfs-3.3.0-2.6.18_194.17.1.el5_lustre.<buildid>.x86_64.rpm
  2. Download the Lustre modules RPM.
  3. Install the RPM. 
    [root@client-10 ~]# rpm -ivh ./lustre-ldiskfs-3.3.0-2.6.18_194.17.1.el5_lustre.<buildid>.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:lustre-ldiskfs         ########################################### [100%]
[root@client-10 ~]#

Install Lustre modules.

  1. From the page that linked to the kernel, identify the Lustre modules RPM
    The package will be named in the form lustre-modules-2.0.59-2.6.18_194.17.1.el5_lustre.<buildid>.x86_64.rpm
  2. Download the Lustre modules RPM.
  3. Install the RPM. 
     
[root@client-10 ~]# rpm --force -ivh ./lustre-modules-2.0.59-2.6.18_194.17.1.el5_lustre.gdfe90dc_g98bf9c9.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:lustre-modules         ########################################### [100%]
[root@client-10 ~]#

Install e2fsprogs.

e2fsprogs is built in a project separate from the Lustre kernel builds. e2fsprogs is found at http://build.whamcloud.com/job/e2fsprogs/ on the Whamcloud build server.

  1. Identify the most recent build of e2fsprogs.
    The RPM will have a name in the form: e2fsprogs-1.41.12.2.ora1-0redhat.x86_64.rpm
  2. Download the most recent RPM.
  3. Install the RPM

Testing

Now that you have all the components of a Lustre system installed, you can test them.
This is covered in a separate wiki page: Testing a Lustre filesystem