Kernel Profile

Introduction

The BlueGene/P system is capble of assigned different boot images per partition. The system allows us to specify loader program, CN images and ION images. The loader program is loaded into main memory via jtag network and executed first. /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/uloader is only choice for the loader program. No source code of uloader is available. We can can specify multiple CN images. By default, Command Node Service(CNS) image and CN kernel image(IBM CNK) are specified. They are loaded into main memory in order. /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/cns is only choice for CNS. No source code of cns is available. We can also specify multiple ION images. By default, CNS, IBM ION Linux kernel image and ION Linux ramdisk are specified. They are also loaded in order.

To enable Zepto feature, you need to configure the system properly with Zepto Kernel

Cobalt installed system

If your BGP system has the cobalt scheduler installed and its kernel profile feature has been configured properly, it would be easy to boot Zepto kernel.

You can find a directory called kernel profile directory on login nodes (/bgsys/argonne-utils/profiles/ in ANL BGP system for example). Here are steps to create a new kernel profile. Suppose that you have already built your Zepto kernel images.

$ cd KERNEL_PROFILE_DIR 
$ mkdir YOUR_PROFILE_NAME && cd YOUR_PROFILE_NAME 
$ ln -s ZEPTO_DIR/BGP-CN-zImage-with-initrd.elf  CNK 
$ ln -s ZEPTO_DIR/BGP-ION-zImage.elf  INK 
$ ln -s ZEPTO_DIR/BGP-ION-ramdisk-for-CNL.elf ramdisk 
$ ln -s ../factory-default/CNS 
$ ln -s ../factory-default/uloader 

NOTE: Your Zepto images must be readable from others, otherwise your job will fail. Please double check!

For ANL user, we provide a convenient script named mkprofile-ANL.sh which essentially does what mentioned in above but has some other features. The following commen line is equivalent to the steps decribed in above.

$ cd ZEPTO_DIR && ./mkprofile-ANL.sh --profile=YOUR_PROFILE_NAME 

Invoking it with the -h option shows help message. Use -c if you actually need to copy images instead of making symbolic link. Use -cn, -ion or -rd if you have a custom named image.

$ ./mkprofile-ANL.sh -h 
Usage: ./mkprofile-ANL.sh [OPTIONS]   
 
Options: 
-h             : Show this message 
-c             : Copy images instead of making symbolic link 
-f             : Overwrite exsiting profile  
--profile=name : Specify profile name 
--cn=fn        : Compute Node Kernel Image   
--ion=fn       : Specify I/O Node Kernel Image       
--rd=fn        : Specify I/O Node Ramdisk Image 
--ls           : show files in profile 
--dryrun  

Once you have properly configured your Zepto kernel profile, you can boot Zepto kernel by specifying your kernel profile name via the -k cobalt option.

$ cqsub -k YOUR_PROFILE_NAME .... 

MMCS console

If no cobalt kernel profile feature is available on your BGP system, using MMCS console is choice. What you basically do by mmcs console is to assign Zepto kernels statatically to a partition you use.

Assign Zepto images to a BGP partition

Login to the service node and start MMCS

$ ssh sn         
sn $ ./mmcs.sh  

[mmcs.sh] 
#!/bin/sh 
 
export DB2HOME=/dbhome/bgpdb2c/sqllib 
DB2SRC=${DB2HOME}/db2profile 
[ -f "$DB2SRC" ] && . $DB2SRC 
 
cd /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/bin 
./mmcs_db_console 

Memorize that the current configuration. You need to revert the blockinfo to the original configuration after you have done using Zepto kernel.

console $ set_username YOUR_LOGIN_NAME 
console $ getblockinfo BGP_BLOCK_NAME 
OK 
boot info for block BGP_BLOCK_NAME: 
mloader: /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/uloader 
cnloadImg: /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/cns,/bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/cnk 
ioloadImg: /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/cns,/bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/linux,/bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/ramdisk 
status: F 

Assign Zepto images to a parition

console $ setblockinfo BGP_BLOCK_NAME /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/uloader /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/cns,BGP_CN_LINUX_KERNEL_PATH /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor\
/boot/cns,BGP_ION_LINUX_KERNEL_PATH,BGP_ION_LINUX_RAMDISK_PATH 
console $ quit 

Boot Zepto kernel

Once you have configured a partition with Zepto kernels correctly, Zepto kernels will be booted when you run a job on that partition(via mpirun for example)

fen $ mpirun -verbose 1 -partition BGP_BLOCK_NAME  -np 64 -timeout 600 -cwd `pwd` -exe ./a.out 

Restore to the original configuration(Don't forget!!!)

After you have done your work on Zepto kernel, you need to restore to the original configuration. Here is an example.

fen $ ssh sn 
sn $ ./mmcs.sh 
console $ set_username YOUR_LOGIN_NAME 
console $ setblockinfo BGP_BLOCK_NAME /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/uloader /bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/cns,/bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/cnk /bgsys/drivers/\
ppcfloor/boot/cns,/bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/linux,/bgsys/drivers/ppcfloor/boot/ramdisk 
console $ quit