After one year of hard work, debugging, rewriting and testing we are proud to present: OSCAR 5.0

  1. Release features
    • Supported distributions
    • Completely reworked infrastructure:
      • smart package managers
      • yum based image build and package install
      • supporting multiple distros on the same cluster
      • repository based
      • easier client updating from repositories
      • simple update path for master, clients, images
      • new package and database structure, prepared for debian support
      • optimized and faster startups
      • new prerequisites handling
      • better pre-installation system configuration checking
      • more flexible OS detection framework
    • modular distribution tarballs, smaller downloads
    • Latest systemimager with many new features:
      • deployment monitoring
      • scalable bittorrent deployment
      • 2.6.18.1 deployment kernel + UYOK (use your own kernel)
    • New and updated packages:
      • Open MPI 1.1.1
      • Maui 3.2.6p14 + Torque 2.0.0p8
      • SGE 6.0u8
      • LAM/MPI 7.1.2
      • MPICH 1.2.7
      • Ganglia 3.0.3
      • SC3: scalable C3 tools with image based addressing.
      • Netbootmgr: manages PXE boot behavior of nodes.
      • sync_files 2.4: handles user databases in heterogeneous clusters.
      • packman 2.8: package manager abstraction. Now uses smart tools like yum(e), (r)apt.
      • systeminstaller-oscar 2.3.1: uses packman abstraction to build images, i.e. yume, rapt, smart package managers.
      • systemconfigurator 2.2.7-12ef: post-install configurator framework. Added tools for selecting boot kernel and manipulating boot options.
    • management panel: single entry point for simple management tasks
    • ...
  2. Quick install guide

To get installation tarballs, see Download page.

  • The OSCAR distribution comes in two OSCAR tarballs and a set of repository tarballs
    • oscar-base-5.0.tar.gz: the base OSCAR tarball stripped of almost every binary packages (rpms)
    • oscar-srpms-5.0.tar.gz: the SRPMS, you only need this if you want to rebuild rpms
    • oscar-repo-common-rpms-5.0.tar.gz: repository of noarch rpms used on all supported distributions
    • oscar-repo-DISTRO-VERSION-ARCH-5.0.tar.gz: repository of distro and architecture specific rpms.
  • Online documentation Is located at: http://svn.oscar.openclustergroup.org/wiki/oscar:5.0:install_guide. The installation procedure of OSCAR 5 is quite different to that of previous versions. Please read the documentation!
  • OSCAR installation
    1. Download the oscar-base tarball. Unpack it in /opt. Rename the unpacked directory, if you want (e.g. /opt/oscar)
    2. In the unpacked directory execute as root the command: 
      env OSCAR_HOME=`pwd` scripts/distro-query
      Remember the paths printed in the first two lines under "Distro repository".
    3. Copy all RPMs of the master node's distribution into the directory /tftpboot/distro/DISTRO-VERSION-ARCH or /tftpboot/rpm. Check the table at the beginning of this page for the correct DISTRO-VERSION-ARCH combination for your distribution!
    4. Download the oscar-repo-common-rpms and the oscar-repo-DISTRO-VER-ARCH tarballls suitable for the distribution(s). Unpack them in the directory /tftpboot/oscar/.
    5. In the unpacked directory (e.g. /opt/oscar) execute: 
      ./install_cluster ETH_INTERFACE
      (ETH_INTERFACE is the cluster internal interface on the head node, e.g. eth0).
  • Repositories Instead of copying RPMs locally to the master node you can use online repositories: /wiki/oscar:5.0:install_guide:ch3.5_advanced_repo