CERN QMUL
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Introduction
As a companion to the prerequisites page, here we discuss the system setup required (or recommended) for the slice tests and also for smaller systems in home labs.General Configuration
We expect the slice test system to consist of at least one desktop PC together with about six VME based CPUs. Additional desktop PCs will be required for developing software in parallel with the tests.The desktop PC(s) will provide the following services:
- File server: common home and other files systems shared among all desktop and VME based systems.
- NIS server: common accounts and passwords for all systems.
- Bootp server: some (preferably all?) VME based systems may be diskless and need to be booted over the network.
- Screens: at least one system with a screen is required to operate the DAQ (the VME based systems may not have screens).
The common features and services on all machines include:
- Consistent accounts, ie shared password file and home directories.
- Consistent file system for all other software, data etc.
- Consistent time, ie use of (x)ntpd or similar.
Operating Systems
All the systems should run Linux, preferably RedHat 7.2. This version will be certified by CERN and supports supports the latest release (0.0.16) of the ATLAS Online Software.The installation should be a complete installation, including all useful libraries and tools, all the common shells, all standard window managers, editors, etc. The aim should be that all developers have their favourite setup available to them.
Our software and the ATLAS Online software only need a fairly standard system installation, including C++ and java. However any PC on which we may run the Readout Subsystem (ROS) software needs some special setup, including kernel patches.
RedHat Installation
The following notes were for RedHat 7.1. Hopefully 7.2 is not too different?When performing a fresh installation of RedHat 7.1, we suggest choosing "Custom System" as the installation type and selecting (at least) the following packages to be installed on a 3Gb or larger root partition:
- Printer Support
- X Window System
- GNOME
- KDE
- Mail/WWW/News Tools
- Graphics Manipulation
- Multimedia Support
- Networked Workstation
- NFS Server
- Network Management Workstation
- Authoring/Publishing
- Emacs
- Development
- Utilities
A number of addition packages are also required. Most of these are shown in our RPM list.
File Systems
The file server PC should at least export the home filesystem and any filesystems containing common software. These must be available to all desktop and VME based systems.Booting the VME based systems over the network and running them essentially diskless (maybe with local swap?) will ensure that they all have the same system software and will thus ease maintenance. Diskless operation also allows the crates to be switched off quickly without shutting down the system.
For access to CERN and RAL AFS, it will be useful to have AFS clients on our systems. The OpenAFS package is recommended.
Diskless Booting
We have a prescription for how to set up the server to allow diskless booting of VME based systems.Software Configuration
TO BE DESCRIBED...NB some information is available via the prerequisites page. Links to some required or useful packages are given on the rpmlist page.
Last updated on 23-Sep-2002 by Murrough Landon