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Chapter 1

Before You Install the Software

This chapter describes the steps that need to be taken before you install the N1™ Grid Engine 6 software (grid engine software).

This chapter includes the following topics:

Plan the Installation

Whether you have installed previous versions of the grid engine software or this is your first time, you will need to do some planning before you extract and install the software. This section describes the decisions you must make, and, wherever possible, gives you criteria on which you can base your decisions.

Decisions That You Must Make

You must make several decisions before you can plan the installation:

  • Decide whether your system of networked computer hosts that run N1 Grid Engine 6 software (grid engine system) is to be a single cluster or a collection of sub-clusters, called cells. Cells allow you to install separate instances of the grid engine software but share the binary files across those instances.

  • Select the machines that are to be grid engine system hosts. Determine the host type of each machine: master host, shadow master host, administration host, submit host, execution host, or a combination.

  • Ensure that all users of the grid engine system have the same user names on all submit and execution hosts.


    Note - Hosts running Windows as operating system cannot have the host type master host or shadow master host.


  • Decide how to order grid engine software directories. For example, you could organize directories as a complete tree on each workstation, or you could cross-mount directories, or you could set up a partial directory tree on some workstations. You must also decide where to locate each grid engine software installation directory, sge-root.

  • Decide on the site's queue structure.

  • Determine whether to define network services as an NIS file or as local to each workstation in /etc/services.

  • Use the information in this chapter to gather the information necessary to complete the installation worksheet.

Gather the Necessary Information

Before you install the grid engine software, you must plan how to achieve the results that fit your environment. This section helps you make the decisions that affect the rest of the procedure. Write down your installation plan in a table similar to the following example.

Parameter

Value

sge-root directory

 

Cell name

 

Administrative user

 

sge_qmaster port number

 

sge_execd port number

 

Master host

 

Shadow master hosts

 

Execution hosts

 

Administration hosts

 

Submit hosts

 

Group ID range for jobs

 

Spooling mechanism (Berkeley DB or Classic spooling)

 

Berkeley DB server host (the master or another host)

 

Berkeley DB spooling directory on the database server

 

Scheduler tuning profile (Normal, High, Max)

 

Installation method (interactive, secure, automated, or upgrade)

 

If you are going to install N1GE 6 on a Windows system, acquire and install Microsoft Services For UNIX. See Appendix A for more information.

 

If you are going to install N1GE 6 on a Windows system, create the required CSP certificates before installing N1GE. See the section called "How to Install a CSP-secured System" in Chapter 4 for information about CSP certificates.

 

Check the Other Installations Appendix for applicability.

 

Disk Space Requirements

The grid engine software directory tree has the following fixed disk space requirements:

  • 40 Mbytes for the installation files (including documentation) without any binaries

  • Between 10 and 15 Mbytes for each set of binaries

The ideal disk space for grid engine system spool directories is as follows:

  • 10-200 Mbytes for the master host spool directories

  • 10-200 Mbytes for the Berkeley DB spool directories


Note - The spool directories of the master host and of the execution hosts are configurable and need not reside under the default location, sge-root.



Note - You must satisfy several Windows-specific prerequisites before you can install N1GE on hosts running Windows as operating system. It might be necessary to install additional software on your computer which might require additional disk space. (See Appendix A).


sge-root Installation Directory

Create a directory into which you will load the contents of the distribution media. This directory is called the root directory, or sge-root. When the grid engine system is running, this directory stores the current cluster configuration and all other data that must be spooled to disk.


Note - It is not a requirement that spool areas reside under sge-root. Actually this location may be avoided for efficiency reasons.


Use a valid path name for the directory that is network accessible on all hosts. For example, if the file system is mounted using automounter, set sge-root to /usr/N1GE6, not to /tmp_mnt/usr/N1GE6. Throughout this document, the sge-root variable is used to refer to the installation directory.

sge-root is the top level of the grid engine software directory tree. Each grid engine system component in a cell needs read access to the sge-root/cell/common directory, on startup. When grid engine software is installed as a single cluster, the value of cell is default.

For ease of installation and administration, this directory should be readable on all hosts on which you intend to run the grid engine software installation procedure. For example, you can select a directory available across a network file system, such as NFS. If you choose to select file systems that are local to the hosts, you must copy the installation directory to each host before you start the installation procedure for the particular machine. See File Access Permissions for a description of required permissions.

Directory Organization

When determining the directory organization, you must decide the following:

  • The directory organization (for example, whether you will install a complete software tree on each workstation, directories cross-mounted, or a partial directory tree on some workstations, and so on)

  • Where to locate each root directory, sge-root


Note - Because changing the installation directory or the spool directories requires a new installation of the system, use extra care to select a suitable installation directory up front. Note that all important information from a previous installation can be preserved.


By default, the installation procedure installs the grid engine software, manuals, spool areas, and the configuration files in a directory hierarchy under the installation directory (see Figure 1-1). If you accept this default behavior, you should install or select a directory with the access permissions that are described in File Access Permissions.

You can select the spool areas to put in other locations during the primary installation. See "Configuring Queues" in N1 Grid Engine 6 Administration Guide for instructions.

Figure 1-1 Sample Directory Hierarchy

Browser window. Displays directory hierarchy of sge-root installation
directory.
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