Preparations for SLC5

Tuesday 6 May 2008, 10:30 → 12:30 Europe/Zurich

513/1-024 (CERN)

We need to - define timescales (hw arrivle ? burning tests ? First services on slc5 ?) - define what will change between SLC4 and SLC5 - share tasks Please look into (and update) https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/ELFms/ScientificLinux5Port And, for the new CDB structure, look at: https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/FIOgroup/CdbStructrureProposal

Present: Jan Iven, Matthias Schroder, Ignacio, Olof, Ricardo, Jan vE, Miro, Veronique

Brief report by Jan I from lxcert:

• user will be happy to have resources on slc5 ready as soon as possible (build facilities etc)
• Quattor support for SL5 will be welcome
• people interested are Atlas and Lhcb online, CMS offline, Atlas lxbuild, lxplus. CMS will test their slc4 sw on slc5.
• Linux team is waiting for sl 5.2
  

Platforms:

• we will need to support 32 bits and 64 bits. Maybe also ia64
• We will try to get rid of the 32bit-compatible libs on 64bits architectures. To be negotiated with the experiments.
• Not clear if we need rhes5. To be checked with the DB people.

Timelines:

• have a preprod lxplus/lxbatch by end of September 2008
• (phase out slc4 by Q1 2009 ?)
• Have AIMS and PrepareInstall ready by end of this week (9 may 2008)
• Have a fully quattor-managed lxdev box by end of May 2009 (minimal setup)
• What about lxburn ? to be checked with Tim Bell
  • input from Tim after the meeting: "need Castor for the evaluations of new machines before we decide which machine to buy.  Well, we need rfio in particular.when the machines are delivered, we run the stress tests.  These do not use the rfcp suite.Next evaluations due in May 2008 and September 2008.    If it is available, we will use it.  So, May is out and probably September also since this would require a stable DVD image for download in July from the CERN web site so the vendors could test.
    

What will be new:

• selinux configuration
• /proc content (?)
• better support for xen (32 guests on 64bit hypervisors)
• get rid of krb4
• new xfs, not released yet though
• regisclient replaced by ZUUL
• new CDB structure
• edg-fmonagent renamed to lemon-agent (sensors and agent split)
• filesystem description : update following recipe on https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/ELFms/QuattorUpdateFSLayout
  
• ncm-access_control to be replaced by ncm-sudo and ncm-useraccess

Tasks:

1. swrep ,mirroring and cron jobs for update of defaults: handled by Veronique and Jan Iven. Repository have been created. x86_64_slc4 already populated but not yet mirrored.
   
2. AIMS and PrepareInstall: Jan I and Jan vE, to be fully in place by 9 may 2009
3. setup test machines: lxb6641 can be used for now. 4 boxes to be prepared. 1 per platform. If more needed, we will use Virtual Machines
4. Core Quattor stuff to be ready as soon as step 2 is ok
5. start looking into ncm-sudo and ncm-useraccess (Miro and Veronique: prepare an recipe how to migrate)
6. new CDB structure. See http://lemonweb03.cern.ch/cdb-tpl-view/tpl_view.php?profile=profiles/profile_lxb6641
   1. not clear if we agree on the usage of the env. variables. Do we need to have it rediscussed ?
   2. cern_cc_profile_base to be renamed to cern_cc_declarations
   3. HW monitoring :
      
      1. can it be made so that it is not recompiled for all hw if only one os is touched ?
      2. can it be included in the hw configuration template ?
      3. To be checked with Tim Bell
   4. serial number and mac address to be incorporated in diskinfo file?
      1. to be checked with Tim Bell
7. template for the very minimal installation: list of packages to be finalised by Matthias, by 9th of May.
8. review status of progress end of May
9. Check responsible for all components and complete https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/ELFms/ScientificLinux5Port