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This page describes how to install and configure the VCL management node components including the required Linux packages, Perl modules, VCL daemon (vcld), and Windows utility dependencies.
Assumptions
The following instructions assume the VCL database has been installed and configured and that the managment node information has been added to the database as described on the web code installation page.
Install the VCL Management Node Code - Perl Daemon
- Download and extract the VCL release files to the management node:
- Copy the managementnode directory to the location where you want it to reside (typically /usr/local):
cp -r apache-VCL-2.2-incubating/managementnode /usr/local/vcl
Install the Required Linux Packages & Perl Modules
Run the install_perl_libs.pl script:
perl /usr/local/vcl/bin/install_perl_libs.pl
The last line of the install_perl_libs.pl script output should be:
Note: The script will hang or terminate if it encounters a problem. If this occurs, you will need to troubleshoot the problem by looking at the output.
The VCL management node daemon (vcld) requires the additional Linux packages and Perl modules in order to run. The install_perl_libs.pl script will attempt to download and install the required Linux packages and Perl modules. It uses the yum utility to install the required Linux packages. The yum utility should exist on any modern Red Hat-based Linux distribution (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora). You will need to download and install the required Linux packages manually or by using another package management utility before running the install_perl_libs.pl script if yum isn't available on your management node OS. The required Perl modules are available from CPAN - The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. The script attempts to download and install the required Perl modules by using the CPAN.pm module which is included with most Perl distributions.
Required Linux Packages:
- expat
- expat-devel
- gcc
- krb5-libs
- krb5-devel
- libxml2
- libxml2-devel
- nmap
- openssl
- openssl-devel
- perl-DBD-MySQL
- xmlsec1-openssl
Required Perl Modules:
- DBI
- Digest::SHA1
- Mail::Mailer
- Object::InsideOut
- RPC::XML
- YAML
-
- Create the /etc/vcl directory:
- Copy the generic vcld.conf file to /etc/vcl:
cp /usr/local/vcl/etc/vcl/vcld.conf /etc/vcl
- Edit the /etc/vcl/vcld.conf file:
The following lines must be configured in order to start the VCL daemon (vcld) and allow it to check in to the database:
- FQDN - the fully qualified name of the management node, this should match the name that was configured for the management node in the database
- server - the IP address or FQDN of the database server
- LockerWrtUser - database user account with write privileges
- wrtPass - database user password
- Save the vcld.conf file
-
The SSH client on the management node should be configured to prevent SSH processes spawned by the root user to the computers it controls from hanging because of missing or different entries in the known_hosts file.
Edit the ssh_config file:
Locate the UserKnownHostsFile and StrictHostKeyChecking lines lines and change them to the following:
Note: If you do not want these settings applied universally on the management node the SSH configuration can also be configured to only apply these settings to certain hosts or only for the root user. Consult the SSH documentation for more information.
Install and Start the VCL Daemon (vcld) Service
- Copy the vcld service script to /etc/init.d and name it vcld:
cp /usr/local/vcl/bin/S99vcld.linux /etc/init.d/vcld
- Add the vcld service using chkconfig:
/sbin/chkconfig --add vcld
- Configure the vcld service to automatically run at runtime levels 3-5:
/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 vcld on
- Start the vcld service:
You should see output similar to the following:
Note: the vcld service can also be started by running the service script directly:
- Check the vcld service by monitoring the vcld.log file:
tail -f /var/log/vcld.log
You should see the following being added to the log file every few seconds if the management node is checking in with the database:
-
If you will be deploying Windows environments your institution's Windows product key and/or KMS server addresses must be entered into the VCL database. This can be done by running the following command:
/usr/local/vcl/bin/vcld -setup
Select "Windows OS Module" and follow the prompts.
Download Sysprep Utility & Drivers (Optional)
If you will be using VCL to deploy bare-metal Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 environments via xCAT, the appropriate versions of the Microsoft Sysprep utility must be downloaded to the management node. The following steps do not need to be completed if you only intend to deploy VMware virtual machines.
- Sysprep for Windows XP and Server 2003
The Sysprep utility is included in the Deployment Tools available for free from Microsoft. You do not need to download Sysprep for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 because it is included in the operating system.
- Download Sysprep
Windows XP: Windows XP Service Pack 3 Deployment Tools
Windows Server 2003: System Preparation tool for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Deployment
- Extract the Sysprep Files
The Sysprep files need to be extracted from the file you download which is in Microsoft's .cab format. It is easiest to extract the files on a Windows computer. Windows Explorer is able to open the .cab file and then the files contained within can be copied elsewhere. There are also some Linux utilities which claim to be able to extract .cab files.
- Copy the extracted Sysprep files to the following directories the management node after they have been extracted:
Windows XP:
Windows Server 2003:
The Sysprep directories should already exist on the management node because they exist the Subversion repository. The Sysprep directories should contain the following files at a minimum:
- setupcl.exe
- sysprep.exe
- Windows Drivers
Drivers which aren't included with Windows must be downloaded and saved to the management node. The drivers required will vary greatly depending on the hardware. The only way to know what additional drivers you need is to install Windows on a computer and check for missing drivers.
The drivers must be copied to the appropriate directory on the management node. The VCL image capture process copies the driver directories to the computer before an image is captured. Drivers from multiple directories will be copied based on the version of Windows being captured. There are driver directories under tools for each version of Windows (Windows XP, Windows 7) and for each version group of Windows (version 5, 6). This allows drivers which are common to multiple versions of Windows to be shared in the management node tools directory structure.
Examples:
If a chipset driver works for all versions of Windows it should be saved in:
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows/Drivers/Chipset
If Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 both use the same network driver it can be saved in:
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Version_5/Drivers/Network
If a storage driver only works for Windows XP it should be saved in:
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_XP/Drivers/Storage
During the image capture process, each Windows version directory is copied to the computer under C:\Cygwin\home\root\VCL. The order in which the Windows version directories are copied goes from most general to most specific. In the example above, the order would be:
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows/*
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Version_5/*
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_XP/*
The following list shows which driver files should be saved in the driver directories:
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows/Drivers - drivers common to all versions of Windows
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Version_5/Drivers - drivers used by Windows XP and Server 2003
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_XP/Drivers - drivers only used by Windows XP
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Server_2003/Drivers - drivers only used by Windows Server 2003
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Version_6/Drivers - drivers used by Windows Vista and Server 2008
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_7/Drivers - drivers only used by Windows 7
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Server_2008/Drivers - drivers only used by Windows Server 2008
The directory structure under each Drivers directory does not matter. It is helpful to organize each directory by driver class, and each directory should be organized using the same theme. For example:
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Version_XP/Drivers/Chipset
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Version_XP/Drivers/Network
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Version_XP/Drivers/Storage
/var/lib/vcl/tools/Windows_Version_XP/Drivers/Video