Version 10 (modified by ibaldin, 8 years ago)



Software prerequisites

Build ORCA from source

Deploy an ORCA master

Deploy Node Agents and Drivers

NOTE: if you are using standard ORCA handlers (for networks switches and NEuca), Node Agent is no longer needed. Refer to specific sections on NEuca and other substrates on setup details.

This page describes how to convert an emulated ORCA instance set up previously to use real resources. This page merely describes the process of setting up node agents and drivers. A functioning cluster managed by ORCA requires several decisions by the cluster administrator regarding network management, connectivity, storage resources and boot methods. At Duke and RENCI, we use ZFS and iSCSI-backed VMs. A deployment at Williams college using lvm storage is documented here.

All the instructions below assume you are in the $ORCA_HOME/tools/config directory.

Installing the Node Agent Host

The node agent host is a simple axis server that hosts and runs our drivers. It needs to be installed on every host that will be executing drivers.

1. Run ant get.packages

2. Create the file 'ant/' which contains the following lines

2.1 machines=<space separated list of hosts on which to install the node agents>

2.2 domain=<domain name>. If no domain name is required, leave it blank. Otherwise, make sure it begins with a period.

2.3 ssh.key=<location of the root private key>. In order for ORCA to log into these machines automatically, a root key must be registered as an authorized key on all the machines. This line asks for where the corresponding private key is located.

3. Run ant nah.install. This will install the nodeagent hosts on all the machines named above.

Installing the Node Agents

1. Run ant security.create.admin.config. This will generate a root admin certificate for ORCA to use. This is different from any ssh key you may have installed on the machines.

2. Run ant na.install. This installs the node agents themselves into the running axis servers.

3. Run ant na.status to verify that the node agents are all up. If any of them are down, run either ant na.start or ant na.restart.

NOTE: You will need nmap installed in order for this to work.

Installing the Drivers

1. Run ant security.prepare

2. Run ant security.setup. This will register the previously generated admin certificate with the newly installed node agents. The node agents are now authorized to talk to you.

3. Run ant drivers.install to install ALL the drivers to ALL the node agents. This step will take a while to complete.

NOTE: There are tasks in ant/drivers.xml that define installation of specific drivers. It is recommended you do not install ALL possible drivers but select an ant target that best fits your needs. E.g. you can install all BEN-relevant drivers by executing ant drivers.BEN.install

De-authorizing Node Agent

In tools/config

  1. ant security.unauth
  2. ant security.prepare
  3. ant security.setup

You may also need to restart the node agent service after that (ant na.restart)


You now have a set of machines configured to run driver actions on behalf of anybody with the admin certificate you just generated. However, there is much more to running a full ORCA-managed cluster. Refer to the Williams case study for more details on what is needed.