SP1 is here
Windows HPC 2008 SP1 (version 2.1.1703) shipped on July 7, 2009. I have installed it on several HPC clusters and have the following tips for anyone considering installing the patch.
Download the patch here.
Close all HPC management components and run the patch on your Head Node. You will be warned that the system may require a reboot. This is not entirely true. The system WILL REBOOT without any warning upon applying the patch.
To deploy the latest version of HPC bits to the Compute Nodes you must re-deploy them. For most installs, this means simply re-imaging them.
To verify that you are running a consistent HPC version on your cluster, use the Column Chooser in Node Management to add 'version' to your view. This is a sortable column.
Note: If you are monitoring your HPC cluster with System Center Operations Manager 2007, there is an upgraded management pack available as well. Download here.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Customize your HPC Deployment Boot Image
Customizing driver support for Boot and Install images in HPC is quite easy. You just associate the drivers with an Image and they become available automatically. But the method used by the HPC tools to load the drivers in the Boot image tends to load them late in the boot process, via the drvload command.
What if your driver is not compatible with drvload?
I have come across instances where loading INF files via drvload prompts for a reboot to take effect. This breaks your HPC node deployment. You still have a need to get your chipset or network drivers loaded. What do you do?
Customize your Boot.WIM file manually
Using tools included in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), you can inject drivers into your Boot.wim. Install WAIK and add its install directory to your system path.
NOTE: This customization must be done to the Boot.WIM that is provided by HPC after your Head Node is built and configured. You can't copy the Boot.WIM file from one Head Node to another, as there are network calls in each that are hard coded to call home to the Head Node that created it.
Follow the instructions included with WAIK to mount your boot.wim image.
Copy boot.wim from your data\boot\x64 share. Place it in a temp directory on a machine with WAIK installed. Create a new directory in the same folder with the name 'mount'. Then mount the image for Read/Write.
Imagex /mountrw boot.wim 1 mount
Inject drivers using PEIMG.
peimg /inf=C:\Temp\Drivers\*.inf mount\windows (subsititue actual driver location path).
Dismount the image and commit changes.
Imagex /unmount /commit mount
Copy the image back to your head node deployment share, overwriting boot.wim. Deploy your compute nodes.
Now your custom drivers will load along with Windows and your deployment will no longer be held up by reboot prompts.
What if your driver is not compatible with drvload?
I have come across instances where loading INF files via drvload prompts for a reboot to take effect. This breaks your HPC node deployment. You still have a need to get your chipset or network drivers loaded. What do you do?
Customize your Boot.WIM file manually
Using tools included in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), you can inject drivers into your Boot.wim. Install WAIK and add its install directory to your system path.
NOTE: This customization must be done to the Boot.WIM that is provided by HPC after your Head Node is built and configured. You can't copy the Boot.WIM file from one Head Node to another, as there are network calls in each that are hard coded to call home to the Head Node that created it.
Follow the instructions included with WAIK to mount your boot.wim image.
Copy boot.wim from your data\boot\x64 share. Place it in a temp directory on a machine with WAIK installed. Create a new directory in the same folder with the name 'mount'. Then mount the image for Read/Write.
Imagex /mountrw boot.wim 1 mount
Inject drivers using PEIMG.
peimg /inf=C:\Temp\Drivers\*.inf mount\windows (subsititue actual driver location path).
Dismount the image and commit changes.
Imagex /unmount /commit mount
Copy the image back to your head node deployment share, overwriting boot.wim. Deploy your compute nodes.
Now your custom drivers will load along with Windows and your deployment will no longer be held up by reboot prompts.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)