SLinstall: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:51, 15 May 2017

Notes

these instructions are periodically updated to include items needed for older/newer versions of Linux. They are marked like this: (SL4.2+) means Scientific Linux 4.2 and newer; (SL4 is equivalent to FC3). (FC5 only) means Fedora Core 5; etc.
obsolete items are marked by the "#" sign at the beginning of the line and sometimes have a comment about the reason for removal.
typically, we do not "upgrade" machines using the Red Hat "upgrade" function. Instead, we save critical files from the old installation and do a "fresh install" from scratch
starting with RHEL7, the recommended OS is CentOS7 (instead of SL7).

Disk configurations

In the era of SSD storage, 6TB HDDs and $10 USB flash, use these disk configurations:

single SSD - 120GB min - single partition for "/", no swap partition (create a swap file if swap is needed) - for non-critical machine with no local data storage (OS only)
dual SSD - 2x120GB min - all partitions mirrored (RAID1), 30GB "/", 30GB swap, rest for /home1 and data - for machines required for beam data taking, with local user directories
single SSD + 2x4TB or 2x6TB HDD - SSD partition (a) all "/", (b) 30GB "/", 30GB swap, rest "/home1"; HDD partition is mirrored RAID1 "/data" - machine with local user directories and local data storage (complete midas daq server)
single SSD + 6-8x6TB HDD - same as above, HDD partition as RAID6 "/data", use XFS filesystem - for small storage server machines

For VME processors:

network boot - VME-CPU#Network_boot - only option for V7648/V7750, do not use for V7805 (no netboot from GigE), optional for V7865/XVB-602
USB boot - 8GB USB for V7805, 16GB USB for V7865/XVB-602

Preparation

save /etc, /var, /root, /opt, (if needed: /usr/local, /tftpboot) by rsync to some data disk (/ladd/data0/root)
check that "/" partition (it will be overwritten) is different from /home1 and /data partitions
note the MAC addresses of all network interfaces, add them to ladd00 dhcpd.conf to enable PXE boot into the SL "network installer"
shutdown

Running SL installer

Start installation of the new system:
IMPORTANT: if you have WDC "advanced partitioning disks" (4kB sectors), disks have to be repartitioned before use, see special instructions (TBW) (note: use fdisk -H 224 -S 56 /dev/sdx)
(NOT AVAILABLE ANYMORE) boot from latest "SL5 kickstart" CD from Kelvin Raywood or PXE boot the latest SL installation image. after the system enters graphical mode, one can remove the CD- the installation is running over the network
boot from ladd00 PXE server - after power up, during BIOS POST, press BIOS "boot selection menu" key (F8, F12, etc). The MAC of the network interface should be listed in the ladd00 dhcpd.conf file. In the PXE boot menu, select SL6x-64 kickstart install.
linux will boot into the graphical installer
two questions will be asked: how to partition the disks and the root password. The rest of the installation is automatic.
to partition the disks, select "Custom partioning":
- If using a single SSD (30 or 60 GB), use whole disk for "/" partition (no swap partition)
- If using single HD, create 4 primary partitions (see below)
- If using dual HDs (should be same size), create 4 "RAID1" (see below) (DO NOT USE LVM)
- Use these partition sizes:
  - "/" - 40GB - md0 or sda1
  - swap - 32 GB - md1 or sda2
  - "/home1" - 100 GB - md2 or sda3
  - "/data" - remaining disk space - md3 or sda4
if installer asks questions about boot loader, accept default settings
package installation will proceed automatically
when finished will ask "press button to reboot"
boot newly installed system
if installing without a kickstart, some questions need to be answered:
- Firewall: disabled
- SELinux: disabled
- KDump: disabled
- Date and Time: leave kickstart defaults (should be NTP using TRIUMF time servers)
- Create user: skip - will be handled during post-installation
- The system will reboot again
after the final reboot, login as root and proceed with post-installation.

Running installer (CentOS7)

The CentOS7/SL7 installer is very different from the SL6 installer. There are some improvements, and there are several quirks:

the disk management part was completely FUBARed.
boot loader is now installed to the correct disk (no longer overwrites the usb-installer itself)
vanilla installer removed all support for NIS and after first boot requires creation of fake local user. To avoid this, use the usb-installer or a custom kickstart installer (remove package "gnome-initial-setup"

Instructions for using the usb-installer:

disconnect machine from network
plug the usb-installer into usb3 port (blue colour)
reboot machine, select booting from usb (press F8 on ASUS motherboards)
usb-installer boot menu offers to install CentOS7, go there
CentOS7 should boot (many messages scroll on screen)
into graphical mode
into installer main menu
all installer options should "happy" except for the "installation destination"
go to the "installation destination" menu
- unselect all disks except for the SSD where the OS will be installed
- (MOST IMPORTANT: unselect the USB installer disk!)
- select "I will configure..."
- say "done"
- the "manual partitionning" menu will open
- partition the SSD (good luck figuring out this new menu system).
- recommended is to use 120GB SSD, partition the whole SSD as one large partition ("normal partition" choice), use XFS filesystem (BTRFS is still experimental), no swap. (installer will complain, but accept lack of swap):
  - use the "-" button to delete all existing partitions
  - select "standard partition"
  - click on the "+" button
  - in the "Add new partition" dialog, set mount point "/", capacity blank, click "add mount point"
  - check capacity (should be full size of SSD), check filesystem type (should be XFS)
  - say "done", there will be a warning about absent swap partition, say "done" again.
  - in the big useless dialog, say "accept changes"
  - should be back to the "installation summary" screen, "installation destination" should be happy now
after everything is happy, say "begin installation"
as the installation proceeds, set the password for the root user
after installation is complete, reboot the machine
unplug the usb-installer, CentOS7 should boot from SSD into the login screen
click on "not listed?", login as root (what's with that?!?)
setup network connection:
- connect the network cable
- go to the gnome "network settings" (icon on top-right of screen)
- select "wired"
- select "add profile..."
- in "Identity", set "name" to "static"
- in "Identity", check that "Connect automatically" and "Make available..." is enabled
- in "IPv4", set "Addresses" to "manual" instead of "dhcp"
- enter IP address, netmask 255.255.224.0, gateway 142.90.100.18, dns 142.90.100.19
- say "Add", then close/quit the network settings
network should be up, ping something
run: yum update -y
check new kernel is installed: ls -l /boot
logout and restart (good luck finding these buttons in the gui!)
confirm correct linux kernel is selected during boot (-229.20, not the original installer kernel)
login as root, confirm network is up, proceed with the rest of these instructions

Configure SSH

(+CentOS7)

Login from the console
restore the SSH keys from backup (/etc/ssh/*key*)
service sshd restart
ssh into the new machine as root
ssh root@localhost, ctrl-C
### this is done later from Konstantin's git repository - scp root@ladd00:/root/authorized_keys ~root/.ssh/
(not needed for SL5.5 kickstart) check that /etc/ssh/ssh_config contains "ForwardX11 yes" and "ForwardX11Trusted yes":

echo "  ForwardX11 yes" >> /etc/ssh/ssh_config
echo "  ForwardX11Trusted yes" >> /etc/ssh/ssh_config

Configure disks, partitions, raid arrays and filesystems

NOTE1: For compatibility with the SL6 installer, use "fdisk -u" when creating new partitions.

NOTE2a: For 2TB disks or bigger, use "gdisk" to create GPT partitions (yum install epel-release; yum install gdisk)

NOTE2c: (SL6) 3TB, 4TB, 6TB disks do not require anything special - proceed with installation as normal.

Typical disk configuration for DAQ use has 2 large disks with system ("/"), swap, home and data partitions, fully mirrored across the 2 disks using RAID1 software raid (MD).

In this fully mirrored configuration, a DAQ system will continue to operate without interruption and without performance degradation when there is a full or partial failure of either of the two disks.

If disks are hot-swappable, the failed or defective disk can then be physically replaced by a spare, the spare disk can be partioned and added to the RAID1 array, restoring full normal operation, without shutting down or rebooting the system or interrupting data taking. (Since SATA, eSATA and USB are always electrically hot-swappable, disk hot-replacement is more of a mechanical issue).

For small disks using traditional partitions (<=2TB) a typical layout looks like this:

[root@ladd06 ~]# fdisk -l  ### use "fdisk -lu" instead!!!

Disk /dev/sdb: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
...
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        5100    40960000   fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb2            5100        9179    32768000   fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb3            9179       21927   102399603+  fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb4           21928       91201   556443405   fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
...
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        5100    40960000   fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2            5100        9179    32768000   fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda3            9179       21927   102399603+  fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda4           21928       91201   556443405   fd  Linux raid autodetect
...
[root@ladd06 ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] 
md3 : active raid1 sdb4[1] sda4[0]
      556442245 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
      bitmap: 0/5 pages [0KB], 65536KB chunk

md2 : active raid1 sdb3[1] sda3[0]
      102398507 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
      bitmap: 0/1 pages [0KB], 65536KB chunk

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
      32766908 blocks super 1.1 [2/2] [UU]
      bitmap: 0/1 pages [0KB], 65536KB chunk

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
      40959928 blocks super 1.0 [2/2] [UU]
      bitmap: 1/1 pages [4KB], 65536KB chunk
...
[root@ladd06 ~]# df -kl
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/md0              40316208   6222676  32045536  17% /
/dev/md2             100790232    192116  95478192   1% /home1
/dev/md3             547709948    202404 519685432   1% /data6
...
[root@ladd06 ~]# swapon -s
Filename                                Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/md1                                partition       32766900        0       -1

Typical size of partitions:

/dev/md0 : "/" : 40 Gbytes should be sufficient. SL5 fits into an 8GB "/" and SL6 fits into a 16GB "/".
/dev/md1 : swap : 32 Gbytes. Additional swap space can be added using a swap file located on the data disk.
/dev/md2 : "/home1" : 100 Gbytes. User home directories backed up by the amanda site backup system. Space is limited by the capacity and capability of the backup and archiving system used to protect user data against accidental file deletion, filesystem corruption and disastrous system failures.
/dev/md3 : "/data" : data partition uses the remaining space on the disks.

Usually, the "/" and swap partitions are created through the SL installer program. The /home and /data partitions can be created at the same time.

Otherwise, for traditional partitions (disks <2TB) follow these instructions:

create the partitions using fdisk or similar (this example creates a 60 GB partition):
- fdisk -cu /dev/sda
- Command (m for help): n
- Command action ... p
- Partition number ... 2, 3 or 4 according to what has been defined before
- First cylinder ... default
- Last cylinder ... +60000M or default
- Command action ... t
- Partition number ... : 2, 3 or 4 according to what has been defined before
- Hex code ... : fd
- Command action ... p to check all is correct
- Command (m for help): w
- fdisk /dev/sdb and repeat as above
- Reboot the machine

For GPT partitions (disks >=2TB), do this:

install gdisk: yum install epel-release; yum install gdisk
gdisk /dev/sdX
- if this is a new disk, do "o" to create a blank partition table
- "n" to create new partition:
  - accept default for partition number
  - accept default for first sector
  - for last sector, say "+40G" to create 40 Gbyte partition, accept default to use all remaining disk space
  - for partition type, say "fd00" to create an mdadm raid partition
- "p" to print the partition table
- "d" to delete wrong partition
- "w" to save and exit

Typical GPT layout:

[root@isdaq01 ~]# gdisk -l /dev/sdh
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdh: 3907029168 sectors, 1.8 TiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): D4FCDE83-12BD-4118-ACA2-702F0E2E57C2
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 3907029134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2014 sectors (1007.0 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048        83888127   40.0 GiB    FD00  Linux RAID
   2        83888128       150996991   32.0 GiB    FD00  Linux RAID
   3       150996992       360712191   100.0 GiB   FD00  Linux RAID
   4       360712192      3907029134   1.7 TiB     FD00  Linux RAID
[root@isdaq01 ~]#

Check the newly created partitions: fdisk -lu /dev/sda; fdisk -lu /dev/sdb
mdadm --create /dev/md2 --metadata=1.0 --bitmap=internal -l 1 -n 2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3
Check the progress of building the RAID with: more /proc/mdstat
When finished: mkfs -t ext4 /dev/md2; tune2fs -i 0 -c 0 /dev/md2
mkdir /home1
Add to /etc/fstab: "/dev/md2 /home1 ext4 defaults 1 2"
Finally mount this new partition: mount -a
Repeat from "mkfs" for each of the data partitions

At this point you should have these disk partitions (single-disk in parenthesis)
- /dev/md0 (/dev/sda1, sdb1) is the system partition, 40 GBytes or more
- /dev/md1 (/dev/sda2, sdb2) is the swap partition, 32 GBytes or more
- /dev/md2 (/dev/sda3, sdb3) is the /home1 partition, 100 GBytes or more
- /dev/md3 (/dev/sda4, sdb4) is the data partition

Add array descriptions to /etc/mdadm.conf:
- mdadm -Ds >> /etc/mdadm.conf
- emacs -nw /etc/mdadm.conf ### remove duplicate entries

Example /etc/mdadm.conf:

MAILADDR root 
AUTO +imsm +1.x -all 
ARRAY /dev/md0 metadata=1.0 name=isdaq01.triumf.ca:0 UUID=055f0455:18401f41:b12abf53:2b23eca0 
ARRAY /dev/md1 metadata=1.0 name=isdaq01.triumf.ca:1 UUID=dde05275:17961aaf:7c864e3a:c51477d6 
ARRAY /dev/md2 metadata=1.0 name=isdaq01.triumf.ca:2 UUID=e430ba44:361f1807:41f0c491:53c10438 
ARRAY /dev/md3 metadata=1.0 name=isdaq01.triumf.ca:3 UUID=a34d8c5b:cb65a435:be8ee01d:7f988927

(SL5.5 or newer) enable raid1 bitmap files, for each /dev/mdX device: mdadm --grow --bitmap=internal /dev/mdX

Restore data from backups

(on midm15/midm9b/midm20 only) install correct ethernet driver eepro100 not e100
restore /home (non-NIS) or /home1 (NIS) and other required user directories from backup. (Can use /triumfcs/trshare/midas/Disks/rsync_back.csh ).
if needed, for non-NIS only, make a softlink for /home1: ln -s /home /home1
restore users accounts (non-NIS and NIS master only): edit /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow, append users' login info to the end of these files from the backup versions.

Post installation

echo "olchansk@triumf.ca amaudruz@triumf.ca lindner@triumf.ca" >> ~root/.forward
emacs -nw /etc/sysconfig/network
- set "HOSTNAME=" (set it to blank to use hostname from DHCP)
- set "NETWORKWAIT=yes"
(not needed for SL6.1, NEEDED for SL6->6.1 update) in /etc/hosts, remove exteraneous entries - only entries for localhost and localhost6 should remain
disable selinux: edit /etc/sysconfig/selinux, change line to read: SELINUX=disabled, reboot later for change to take effect
chmod a+r /var/log/messages
chmod a+r /var/log/yum.log

Post installation CentOS7

CentOS 7.1 default installer will be stuck at the "create local user" screen. To proceed without creating fake local users, do:
yum erase gnome-initial-setup
killall Xorg

Set hostname: (use full name, i.e. daq11.triumf.ca)

emacs -nw /etc/hostname

echo "olchansk@triumf.ca amaudruz@triumf.ca lindner@triumf.ca" >> ~root/.forward
chmod a+r /var/log/messages
chmod a+r /var/log/yum.log

Activate rc.local:

chmod a+x /etc/rc.local
systemctl start rc-local
systemctl status rc-local

Disable "persistent network names" (DO NOT DO THIS)

/bin/touch /etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules
/bin/rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
#shutdown -r now

Configure NIS master (OPTIONAL)

(do not use SL6.2 for NIS master)

yum install ypserv
domainname DEAP-NIS
cd /var/yp
edit Makefile
- change NOPUSH=false
- change the "all:" entry to read: all: passwd group netgrp shadow auto.master auto.home auto.local ypservers
touch /etc/netgroup /etc/auto.home /etc/auto.local ./ypservers
make
inspect created NIS maps: ls -l DEAP-NIS
chkconfig ypserv on
chkconfig ypxfrd on
chkconfig yppasswdd on
service ypserv start

Configure NIS client

run "authconfig --enablenis --enablepreferdns --nisdomain LADD-NIS --update"
if NIS server is SL6.2, add "--nisserver=ladd00" to above command
(not needed with --enablepreferdns above) run "sed 's/^hosts:.*/hosts: files dns/' -i /etc/nsswitch.conf" (to undo a mistake from authconfig)
On the master NIS node (ladd00), add this new node to /etc/netgroup, and update NIS maps (cd /var/yp; make)
Use "system-config-users" to add local user accounts
NIS: check user accounts: run "ypcat -k passwd"
echo "NISTIMEOUT=5" >> /etc/sysconfig/network
echo "NETWORKWAIT=yes" >> /etc/sysconfig/network

Configure NIS client (CentOS7)

yum -y install ypbind authconfig
echo "NISTIMEOUT=5" >> /etc/sysconfig/network
echo "NETWORKWAIT=yes" >> /etc/sysconfig/network
authconfig --enablenis --enablepreferdns --nisdomain LADD-NIS --nisserver ladd00.triumf.ca --update
ypwhich
ypcat -k passwd
systemctl restart autofs

On the master NIS node (ladd00), add this new node to /etc/netgroup, and update NIS maps (cd /var/yp; make)
Use "system-config-users" to add local user accounts
enable selinux ssh key login to nfs mounted home directories:

setsebool -P use_nfs_home_dirs 1

Configure NIS secondary server (OPTIONAL)

(do this only if needed)

(do not use SL6.2 for NIS secondary server!)

yum install ypserv
ypwhich -m # to identify hostname of nis master for next step:
/usr/lib64/yp/ypinit -s ladd00 # /usr/lib/yp/ypinit on 32-bit machines
chkconfig ypserv on
service ypserv start
edit /etc/yp.conf # change "domain XXX server YYY.triumf.ca" to read "domain XXX server localhost"
service ypbind restart
ypwhich should report "localhost", ypcat auto.master should work
on the NIS master:
- add the new machine to /var/yp/ypservers, run "make -C /var/yp" and also "cd /var/yp; yppush -h newmachine ypservers"
- if using /var/yp/securenets, copy it from NIS master to new NIS secondary server

Configure NIS secondary server (CentOS7) (OPTIONAL)

Enable local NIS server, make local machine use it:

yum install ypserv
/usr/lib64/yp/ypinit -s ladd00 ### (/usr/lib/yp/ypinit on 32-bit machines)
systemctl enable rpcbind ypserv ypxfrd yppasswdd
systemctl start rpcbind ypserv ypxfrd yppasswdd
edit /etc/yp.conf # change "domain XXX server YYY.triumf.ca" to read "domain XXX server localhost"
systemctl restart ypbind
ypwhich # should say "localhost"

Punch hole in the firewall: (or "make" on NIS master will complain)

echo YPSERV_ARGS=\"-p 800\" >> /etc/sysconfig/network
systemctl restart ypserv
firewall-cmd --get-services
firewall-cmd --add-service rpc-bind --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-port=800/tcp --add-port=800/udp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-all

on the NIS master:
- add the new machine to /var/yp/ypservers, run "make -C /var/yp" and also "cd /var/yp; yppush -h newmachine ypservers"
- if using /var/yp/securenets, copy it from NIS master to new NIS secondary server

Configure AUTOFS

(if NIS master or standalone) check /etc/auto.* against backups, particularly auto.master if NIS master
(if needed) add "+auto.master" at the end of /etc/auto.master
restart autofs to use the newly configured NIS maps: "service autofs stop; service autofs start"

Configure AUTOFS (CentOS7)

yum -y install autofs
systemctl enable autofs
systemctl start autofs
ls -l /daq/daqshare

Label Selinux labels

When upgrading non-selinux machines (el6) to el7 (selinux enforcing) the existing user home directories will not have the correct selinux labels and many things will not work, including ssh logins (sshd cannot access ~user/.ssh files).

semanage fcontext -a -e /home /home1 ### selinux has special rules for /home, assign them to /home1
restorecon -R -v /home1 ### apply the new rules to files in /home1
ls -Zd /home1/alpha/.ssh
# should say: drwx------. alpha users system_u:object_r:ssh_home_t:s0  /home1/alpha/.ssh

Configure time with chronyd (SL6)

Use chronyd instead of ntpd.

yum -y install chrony
echo server time1 iburst >> /etc/chrony.conf
echo server time2 iburst >> /etc/chrony.conf
echo server time3 iburst >> /etc/chrony.conf
chkconfig --level 123456 ntpd off
chkconfig --level 123456 ntpdate off
service ntpd stop
chkconfig chronyd on
service chronyd restart
chronyc sources
chronyc tracking

if desired, edit /etc/chrony.conf, remove non-triumf time servers

Configure time (CentOS7)

Time server ntpd was replaced by chronyd.

yum -y install chrony
echo server time1 iburst >> /etc/chrony.conf
echo server time2 iburst >> /etc/chrony.conf
echo server time3 iburst >> /etc/chrony.conf
systemctl enable chronyd
systemctl restart chronyd
chronyc sources
chronyc tracking

if desired, edit /etc/chrony.conf, remove non-triumf time servers

Enable automatic kernel updates (SL6)

enable kernel updates: sed 's/^EXCLUDE=/#EXCLUDE=/' -i /etc/sysconfig/yum-autoupdate

Enable automatic system updates (CentOS7)

Disable yum-cron:

rpm --erase yum-cron
/bin/rm -v /var/lock/subsys/yum-cron
/bin/rm -v /etc/cron.daily/0yum-daily.cron
/bin/rm -v /etc/cron.hourly/0yum-hourly.cron

Enable yum-autoupdate:

yum install -y epel-release
yum install -y yum-changelog yum-protectbase yum-tsflags yum-versionlock
rpm -vh --install http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/cern/centos/7.2/cern/x86_64/Packages/yum-kernel-module-1-5.el7.cern.noarch.rpm
rpm -vh --install http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/cern/centos/7.2/cern/x86_64/Packages/yum-autoupdate-4.4.2-1.el7.cern.noarch.rpm
#rpm -vh --install https://daqshare.triumf.ca/~olchansk/linux/yum-autoupdate-4.4.2-1.el7.cern.noarch.rpm https://daqshare.triumf.ca/~olchansk/linux/yum-kernel-module-1-5.el7.cern.noarch.rpm
systemctl enable yum-autoupdate
systemctl start yum-autoupdate
systemctl status yum-autoupdate

Configure system services

chkconfig --list | grep :on | sort (to see enabled services)
disable unwanted services:

(only if amanda is not used) -> chkconfig --level 12345 xinetd off
chkconfig --level 12345 canna off
chkconfig --level 12345 FreeWnn off
chkconfig --level 12345 hpoj off
chkconfig --level 12345 ip6tables off
chkconfig --level 12345 iptables off
chkconfig --level 12345 isdn off
chkconfig --level 12345 pcmcia off
chkconfig --level 12345 rhnsd off
chkconfig --level 12345 spamassassin off
chkconfig --level 12345 bluetooth off
chkconfig --level 12345 apmd off
chkconfig --level 12345 iiim off
chkconfig --level 12345 fenced off
chkconfig --level 12345 ccsd off
chkconfig --level 12345 cpuspeed off
chkconfig --level 12345 pcp off
chkconfig --level 12345 pmie off
chkconfig --level 12345 yum-updatesd off
chkconfig --level 12345 clvmd off
chkconfig --level 12345 cman off
chkconfig --level 12345 lvm2-monitor off
chkconfig --level 12345 modclusterd off
chkconfig --level 12345 yum-updateonboot off
chkconfig --level 12345 cmirror off
chkconfig --level 12345 lock_gulmd off
chkconfig --level 12345 firstboot off
chkconfig --level 12345 ricci off
chkconfig --level 12345 gfs off
chkconfig --level 12345 scsi_reserve off
chkconfig --level 12345 openibd off
chkconfig --level 12345 arptables_jf off
chkconfig --level 12345 auditd off
chkconfig --level 12345 avahi-daemon off
chkconfig --level 12345 hplip off
chkconfig --level 12345 iscsi off
chkconfig --level 12345 iscsid off
chkconfig --level 12345 mcstrans off
chkconfig --level 12345 pcscd off
chkconfig --level 12345 restorecond off
chkconfig --level 12345 setroubleshoot off
chkconfig --level 12345 xend off
chkconfig --level 12345 xendomains off
chkconfig --level 12345 kudzu off
#chkconfig --level 12345 yum-cron off
chkconfig --level 12345 kdump off
chkconfig --level 12345 libvirt-guests off
chkconfig --level 12345 libvirtd off
chkconfig --level 12345 spice-vdagentd off
chkconfig --level 12345 ksm off
chkconfig --level 12345 ksmtuned off
chkconfig --level 12345 iscsi off
chkconfig --level 12345 iscsid off
chkconfig --level 12345 openct off
chkconfig --level 12345 blk-availability off
chkconfig --level 12345 fcoe off
chkconfig --level 12345 lldpad off

Configure system services (CentOS7)

systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled | sort ### (to see enabled services)
disable unwanted services:

systemctl disable bluetooth
systemctl disable dm-event
systemctl disable dmraid-activation
systemctl disable iscsid
systemctl disable iscsi
systemctl disable iscsiuio
systemctl disable libvirtd
systemctl disable lvm2-lmetad
systemctl disable lvm2-monitor
systemctl disable ModemManager
systemctl disable multipathd
systemctl disable netcf-transaction
#systemctl disable

Erase unwanted packages

yum erase PackageKit # bugs users about security updates

Erase unwanted packages (CentOS7)

PackageKit # bugs users about security updates, hogs yum lock
perl-homedir # creates unwanted $HOME/perl5
ModemManager # thinks that all USB-attached devices are modems
pcp # sends error email to itself, does not work
abrt # sends email to root about useless crashes, i.e. crash of X when machine is rebooted
rear # some kind of backup and recovery tool, not clear what it does, but it sends email complaining how it is broken
bash-completion # "echo $HOME/<TAB>" becomes "echo \$HOME" (notice "\" added before "$") preventing tab-completion from doing anything useful.

yum -y erase PackageKit perl-homedir ModemManager pcp abrt abrt-libs abrt-gui-libs rear bash-completion

Configure external package repositories

yum install elrepo-release epel-release

Configure external package repositories (CentOS7)

EPEL: (addtional packages)

yum install epel-release

ELREPO: (kernel drivers)

rpm --import https://www.elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
rpm -Uvh https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-7.0-2.el7.elrepo.noarch.rpm
yum -y install yum-plugin-fastestmirror

Install packages needed to continue with installation

(+CentOS7)

(these packages are sometimes missing, they are needed to follow following instructions instructions)

(SL6.5: libotf is a dependancy of emacs - SL6.5 installer fails to install it)

yum install ed patch wget git libotf gdisk emacs

Configure TRIUMF packages

(only for machines on the TRIUMF network)

(TRIUMF kickstart usually installs this automatically)

rpm -vh --install  http://mirror.triumf.ca/triumf/6/x86_64/Packages/triumf-release-1.4-1.noarch.rpm
yum install triumf-ssh triumf-syslog

Configure TRIUMF packages (CentOS7)

(only for machines on the TRIUMF network)

# TL Was rpm -vh --install http://mirror.triumf.ca/triumf/6/x86_64/RPMS/triumf-release-1.4-1.noarch.rpm
rpm -vh --install  http://mirror.triumf.ca/triumf/6/x86_64/Packages/triumf-release-1.4-1.noarch.rpm
yum install triumf-ssh triumf-syslog

Configure Konstantin's scripts

(+Centos7)

mkdir ~root/git
cd ~root/git
git clone http://ladd00.triumf.ca/~olchansk/git/scripts.git
cd scripts
git pull

Configure TRIUMF mirror of yum repositories (SL6)

(only for machines on TRIUMF network)

if /daq/mirror is available: /bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/daq-mirror-SL6.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/
if /triumfcs/mirror is available: /bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/triumfcs-mirror-SL6.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/
otherwise: /bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/triumf-SL6.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/

then disable external repositories:

yum clean all
yum-config-manager --disable epel
yum-config-manager --disable elrepo
yum-config-manager --disable sl
yum-config-manager --disable sl-security
yum-config-manager --disable sl6x
yum-config-manager --disable sl6x-security
yum clean all

Configure trusted ssh keys

(+CentOS7)

ssh localhost
interrupt by Ctrl-C
/bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/authorized_keys ~/.ssh/

Configure hardware sensors

yum install lm_sensors kmod-k10temp kmod-coretemp
sensors-detect (accept default answer to all questions - press ENTER)
service lm_sensors restart (to reload the kernel modules)
sensors (to see available sensors)

If no sensors are detected by standard drivers, follow motherboard-specific instructions at the bottom of this page.

Configure coretemp CPU sensors

On some machines, the coretemp driver for Intel CPU temperature sensors is not loaded after the above steps.

sensors | grep coretemp ### number of sensors reported should be the same as the number of CPU cores
if output is blank, add this to /etc/rc.local

emacs -nw /etc/rc.local
modprobe coretemp

Configure IPMI sensors

Some machines support the IPMI interface for monitoring the hardware: fan speeds, temperatures, voltages.

find out if IPMI is supported. Try this:

dmidecode | grep -i ipmi

if output is not blank, IPMI is maybe supported.

install and enable IPMI software:

yum install "OpenIPMI*" ipmitool
service ipmi start
ipmitool sensor ### to confirm IPMI is present. If output is blank, do not go further.
chkconfig ipmi on
chkconfig ipmievd on
service ipmi restart
service ipmievd restart
tail -100 /var/log/messages ### look at messages logged by ipmievd

(CentOS7) install and enable IPMI software:

yum install "OpenIPMI*" ipmitool
systemctl start ipmi
ipmitool sensor ### to confirm IPMI is present. If output is blank, do not go further.
systemctl list-unit-files | grep -i ipmi
systemctl enable ipmi
systemctl restart ipmi
systemctl status ipmi
systemctl enable ipmievd
systemctl restart ipmievd
systemctl status ipmievd
tail -100 /var/log/messages ### look at messages logged by ipmievd

if ipmievd complains about SEL buffer overflow, clear it manually:

ipmitool sel list ### show ipmi messages in raw format
ipmitool sel elist ### show ipmi messages in useful format
ipmitool sel elist > file ### save ipmi messages into a file
ipmitool sel clear  ### clear all accumulated ipmi messages

useful ipmi commands:
- ipmitool sensor -- read hardware sensors
- ipmitool sel elist -- report all accumulated messages

Configure SMARTD (CentOS7)

Default el7 smartd config files send deficient email notices about disk failures. Overwrite.

/bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/smartd.conf /etc/smartmontools/
/bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/smartd_warning.sh /etc/smartmontools/
systemctl restart smartd
systemctl status smartd

Enable User Disk Quotas (OPTIONAL)

(+CentOS7)

read http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Storage_Administration_Guide/ch-disk-quotas.html
emacs -nw /etc/fstab, add "grpquota,usrquota" to filesystem options, e.g.:

[root@isdaq00 home1]# grep quota /etc/fstab
UUID=5a2aefbd-45db-475e-841e-12ec89220fbd /home1 ext4 defaults,grpquota,usrquota 1 2

cd /; umount /home1; mount /home1
quotacheck -cug /home1
quotacheck -avug
quotaon -av
quota system is now active
increase the soft quota time limit from default 7days to 30 or 60 days: edquota -t
set quotas for all users (see below)
setup warnquota:
- create warnquota config file: emacs -nw /etc/warnquota.conf

# values can be quoted:
MAIL_CMD        = "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t"
FROM            = root
SUBJECT         = User %i@%h exceeded allocated disk quota
CC_TO           = "root"
# If you set this variable CC will be used only when user has less than
# specified grace time left (examples of possible times: 5 seconds, 1 minute,
# 12 hours, 5 days)
# CC_BEFORE = 2 days
SUPPORT         = "root"
# Text in the beginning of the mail (if not specified, default text is used)
# This way text can be split to more lines
# Line breaks are done by '|' character
# The expressions %i, %h, %d, and %% are substituted for user/group name,
# host name, domain name, and '%' respectively. For backward compatibility
# %s behaves as %i but is deprecated.
MESSAGE         = User "%i" on "%h" has exceeded the allocated disk quota.||Please delete any unnecessary files on following filesystems or|contact the system administrato
r to increase your quota allocation:|
SIGNATURE       = --|automated email from warnquota

- note that %i@%h in the SUBJECT line do not seem to work
- create cron job: emacs -nw /etc/cron.daily/warnquota

#!/bin/sh
warnquota
#end

- chmod a+x /etc/cron.daily/warnquota
- touch /etc/crontab

Useful commands for managing quotas:

repquota -a | sort -n -k3 ### show quota of all users sorted by disk usage
edquota -u username ### open "vi" editor to change user quotas
repquote -a | grep username ### report quota for given user
setquota -u username 0 0 0 0 /home1 ### disable quotas for given user
setquota -u username 50000000 100000000 0 0 /home1 ### set quotas for 50GB soft and 100GB hard
edquota -t ### change user quota time limits
edquote -tg ### change group quota time limits

Enable NFS V4 server (CentOS7)

create /etc/exports. example: (fsid numbers should be unique and increase 1,2,3,...)

/home1  @home_export(rw,no_root_squash,async,fsid=1)
/data1  @data_export(rw,no_root_squash,async,fsid=2)

check the netgroup file
- if using NIS: check NIS netgroup: ypcat -k netgroup
- if no NIS, create /etc/netgroup: @daqmachines (deap00,,) (deap01,,) (deap02,,)
- if no NIS, edit /etc/nsswitch.conf, make the netgrooup line read: "netgroup: files"
enable things, start them:

firewall-cmd --get-services
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=nfs
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-all
systemctl enable nfs-server
systemctl start nfs-server
systemctl status nfs

Enable NFS V3 server (CentOS7)

ps -efw | grep rpc.mountd # should be running!
firewall-cmd --get-services
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=mountd
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=rpc-bind
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-all

Enable NFS V3 server

edit /etc/hosts.allow, add or uncomment "mountd: 142.90.0.0/255.255.0.0"
create /etc/exports. example:

/home1  @home_export(rw,no_root_squash,async)
/data1  @data_export(rw,no_root_squash,async)

check the netgroup file
- if using NIS: check NIS netgroup: ypcat -k netgroup
- if no NIS, create /etc/netgroup: @daqmachines (deap00,,) (deap01,,) (deap02,,)
- if no NIS, edit /etc/nsswitch.conf, make the netgrooup line read: "netgroup: files"
chkconfig nfs on
chkconfig nfslock on
service nfs restart

Then on ladd00 need to do

ssh to root@ladd00
edit /etc/auto.daq to add new machine...
make -C /var/yp

Enable NFS V4 SERVER (SL6)

if used with NIS, same as NFSv3
if used as standalone, need to edit idmapd.conf - set the "Domain" name to the same value on NFS server and NFS slave (default automagically determined value does not always work). More TBW.

Enable AMANDA backups

AMANDA backups are already enabled by TRIUMF kickstart installs. For non-kickstart installation, follow instructions at [http://amanda/~amanda], or look at "/triumfcs/trshare/olchansk/linux/amanda/amanda-enable.perl". As final step, use [https://helpdesk.triumf.ca] to contact TRIUMF CS to add this new machine to the amanda backup list.

yum install triumf-amanda

Enable AMANDA backups (CentOS7)

yum install amanda-client
list-unit-files | grep -i amanda
#systemctl enable amanda
systemctl enable amanda.socket
systemctl enable amanda-udp.socket
systemctl restart amanda.socket
systemctl restart amanda-udp.socket
firewall-cmd --get-services
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=amanda-client
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-all
echo amanda.triumf.ca amanda amdump >> /var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts

On amanda server, add new machine to the disklist, then:

amcheck -c daily titan00

Enable DCACHE

DAQ dcache server is mounted as

/daq/pnfs/triumf.ca/data/

This instructions are unnecessary

# mkdir -p /pnfs
# edit /etc/rc.local, add to the end of file: "mount -o intr,rw,noac,hard,nfsvers=3 trdata00:/pnfs /pnfs &"
# . /etc/rc.local

For more information on, see TrdataDcache dcache page.

Configure CPU speed (CentOS7)

In el7 the CPU frequency selection is confused. On some machines the default governor is "conservative", on other machines it is "powersave".

The current configuration can be seen by: "cpupower frequency-info -p"

The actual cpu frequency can be seen by "cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i mhz" and by "cpupower monitor" (run them under "watch -d -n1").

The linux kernel documentation says "powersave" will set CPU frequency to the minimum value, forever. But on some machines (i.e. daq06, daq14) it is easy to see that the CPU frequency actually changes according to the CPU load. This is explained in the documentation for the intel_pstate" driver.

On machines where CPU frequency seems always stuck at mimimum, try this:

set the governor to "performance": cpupower frequency-set -g performance
see if frequency now changes according to load (good) or is stuck at maximum (not so good, but ok)
make it permanent by adding this command to /etc/rc.local - echo cpupower frequency-set -g performance >> /etc/rc.local

Configure Ganglia

SL6 Ganglia instructions (EPEL6 ganglia-3.7.2)

/bin/rm /etc/gmond.conf
yum install "*gmond*"
/bin/rm /etc/ganglia/conf.d/ganglia-triumf-daq.conf
/bin/cp -v /dev/null /etc/ganglia/conf.d/multicpu.conf
/bin/cp -v /dev/null /etc/ganglia/conf.d/netstats.pyconf
/bin/cp -v /dev/null /etc/ganglia/conf.d/diskstat.pyconf
/bin/cp -v /dev/null /etc/ganglia/conf.d/procstat.pyconf
/bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/gmond.conf /etc/ganglia/gmond.conf
chkconfig gmond on
service gmond restart

Configure Ganglia (Centos7)

CentOS7 Ganglia instructions (EPEL7 ganglia-3.7.2)

/bin/rm /etc/gmond.conf
yum -y install "ganglia-gmond*"
/bin/cp -v /dev/null /etc/ganglia/conf.d/multicpu.conf   # collects useless data
/bin/cp -v /dev/null /etc/ganglia/conf.d/netstats.pyconf # spews errors into syslog
/bin/cp -v /dev/null /etc/ganglia/conf.d/diskstat.pyconf # collects useless data
/bin/cp -v /dev/null /etc/ganglia/conf.d/procstat.pyconf # do not create /tmp/gmond.conf
/bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/gmond.conf /etc/ganglia/gmond.conf
systemctl enable gmond
systemctl restart gmond
systemctl status gmond

Configure TRIUMF DAQ packages

(+CentOS7)

cd /etc/yum.repos.d
wget http://daq.triumf.ca/~daqweb/yum/triumf-daq.repo

Install Konstantin's packages

(+CentOS7)

yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=triumf-daq --skip-broken install diskscrub emailonreboot monitor_nfs "ganglia-*" triumf_nodeinfo

Install memtest and PXE boot

cd /boot
wget http://ladd00.triumf.ca/tftpboot/memtest86+-5.01.bin.gz
wget http://ladd00.triumf.ca/tftpboot/memtest86+-4.20.bin.gz
wget http://ladd00.triumf.ca/tftpboot/memtest86+-4.10
wget http://ladd00.triumf.ca/tftpboot/gpxe-1.0.1+-gpxe.lkrn

emacs -nw /boot/grub/grub.conf
title memtest86+-5.01
      root (hd0,0)
      kernel /boot/memtest86+-5.01.bin.gz
title memtest86+-4.20
      root (hd0,0)
      kernel /boot/memtest86+-4.20.bin.gz
title memtest86+-4.10
      root (hd0,0)
      kernel /boot/memtest86+-4.10
title pxeboot
      root (hd0,0)
      kernel /boot/gpxe-1.0.1+-gpxe.lkrn

Install node monitoring

(+CentOS7)

yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=triumf-daq --skip-broken install triumf_nodeinfo
/usr/sbin/sendnodeinfo.perl --config ladd00.triumf.ca:8600
emacs -nw /etc/nodeinfo
/usr/sbin/sendnodeinfo.perl ladd00.triumf.ca:8600

Install latest system updates

(+CentOS7)

yum update -y

Configure TRIUMF Printers

chkconfig cups off
service cups stop
yum install triumf-printers

Configure TRIUMF Printers (CentOS7)

systemctl stop cups
systemctl disable cups
echo "ServerName printers.triumf.ca" > /etc/cups/client.conf
lpstat -a

Disable syslog spam (CentOS7)

Default el7 config is spamming the syslog with useless messages "systemd: Starting Session", etc. Disable this:

echo auditctl -e 0 >> /etc/rc.local
echo /usr/bin/systemd-analyze set-log-level notice >> /etc/rc.local
/etc/rc.local

Install basic system packages (CentOS7)

(if starting from minimal system, basic system packages required:)

yum install -y which psmisc redhat-lsb-core xorg-x11-xauth xterm emacs-nox rsync tcpdump strace nfs-utils sysstat iftop tcsh

yum install -y gcc gcc-c++ gdb glibc-static libstdc++-static zlib zlib-devel openssl-devel httpd-tools

Install packages needed for QUARTUS, ROOT, EPICS and MIDAS DAQ

(+CentOS7)

yum install --skip-broken giflib.x86_64 sysstat "libusb-devel*" unixODBC-devel postgresql-devel libxml2-devel libXpm-devel libgfortran git compat-readline43 "graphviz*" dcap "tigervnc*" telnet glibc"*" strace "fftw*" libpng "freetype*" xpdf "xemacs*" tkcvs xterm mutt "*-g77*" joe "libXmu*" dcap-devel gsl-devel pcre-devel h5py gd-devel xorg-x11-fonts"*" minicom xfig"*" perl-BSD-Resource "net-snmp-*" readline-static git-all nasm imake tcl-devel gv xorg-x11-twm expat-devel screen compat-readline5 ImageMagick ImageMagick-devel wget alacarte scipy numpy nedit gnuplot php-cli php-domxml-php4-php5 php-gd php-fpdf php-cli kdebase cmake tcpdump sqlite sqlite-devel kdegraphics gdisk lsof gconf-editor iftop tk-devel mcelog kdm blt itcl lz4 bzip2 pbzip2 apr-devel apr-util-devel net-tools golang"*" --exclude golang-cover"*"hg"*" --exclude golang-vet"*"hg"*" --exclude golang-pkg"*" --exclude golang-github"*" mesa"*" xerces-c"*" diffuse clang i2c-tools texlive-revtex texlive-revtex4 kile kbibtex xrdp glibc.i686 gimp gimp-data-extras perl-GD"*" perl-Math"*" perl-Statistics-Basic

(do not install boost on 32-bit machines)

yum install --skip-broken "boost-*"

(packages for 32-bit software compilation on 64-bit machines. this is optional)

yum install --skip-broken giflib.i386 giflib.i686 compat-libf2c-34.i386 compat-libf2c-34.i686 mysql-devel.i686 openssl-devel.i686 unixODBC-devel.i686 libstdc++-devel.i386 libstdc++-devel.i686 "zlib-*.i686" "libXext-*.i686" "libXtst-*.i686" glibc-static.i686 freetype.i686 fontconfig.i686 libpng.i686 libXrender.i686 glibc-devel.i686 libX11-devel.i686 libXpm-devel.i686 libXft-devel.i686 mysql-devel.i686 dcap-devel.i686 gsl-devel.i686 pcre-devel.i686 fontconfig-devel.i686 freetype-devel.i686 libpng-devel.i686 libjpeg-devel.i686 libgfortran.i686 libxml2-devel.i686 gd-devel.i686 readline-devel.i686 ncurses-devel.i686 libXdmcp.i686 readline-static.i686 compat-readline5.i686

yum install boost-devel.i686

(separately install these packages - they collide with the big bunch above)

yum install rdesktop

yum reinstall urw-fonts

Install additional desktop environements (CentOS7)

# LXQT (from EPEL)
yum -y install "lxqt*"
# Cinnamon desktop (from EPEL)
yum -y install cinnamon
# KDE5 not available yet
# MATE (from epel)
yum -y groupinstall "MATE Desktop"
yum -y install mate-common mate-icon-theme-faenza mate-netspeed mate-sensors-applet mate-themes-extras mate-utils
yum -y erase ModemManager abrt abrt-libs abrt-gui-libs
# XFCE4 (from EPEL)
yum -y groupinstall xfce
yum -y install "xfce*plugin" xfce4-about --exclude xfce4-hamster-plugin
yum -y erase bash-completion

make the MATE desktop as default

cd ~root/git/scripts/
git pull
/bin/cp -v etc/lightdm_default_mate.conf /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/

lighdm login manager (from EPEL)

yum install lightdm lightdm-kde lightdm-qt lightdm-qt5

and switch from gdm to lighdm

systemctl disable gdm.service
systemctl enable lightdm.service
(systemctl stop gdm; systemctl restart lightdm) &

Make installation smaller (optional)

This is optional. Only do this if reducing the size of the OS image is very important.

yum erase "texlive*" "java*" "boost*"
yum erase "xemacs*"
yum erase "libstdc++-docs"

Install SMART scripts

(+CentOS7)

ln -sf ~/git/scripts/smart-status/smart-status.perl ~/

Install NTFS drivers

yum install ntfs-3g ntfsprogs (from EPEL)

Install HFS and HFS+ drivers (CentOS7)

yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=elrepo install kmod-hfs kmod-hfsplus

Install Google Chrome web browser (64-bit SL6)

Google-chrome 27 is too old to using with recent MIDAS but it has working Flash:

rpm -vh --install https://daqshare.triumf.ca/~olchansk/google-chrome/google-chrome-stable-27.0.1453.110-202711.x86_64.rpm
/bin/rm /etc/cron.daily/google-chrome
yum-config-manager --disable google-chrome
yum-config-manager --disable google-chrome-64
google-chrome

Chromium 38 works with current MIDAS. No Flash, no PDF viewer:

yum install -y policycoreutils-python
rpm -vh --install https://daqshare.triumf.ca/~olchansk/google-chrome/chromium-browser-38.0.2125.111-1.el6.centos.x86_64.rpm
chromium-browser

Install Google Chrome web browser (64-bit CentOS7)

/bin/cp ~/git/scripts/etc/google-chrome-64.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/
yum install google-chrome-stable

Enable monitoring of HTTPS certificates

On SL6, CentOS7:

yum install crypto-utils
/etc/cron.daily/certwatch
strace -f /etc/cron.daily/certwatch  |& grep open  | grep crt

Enable 100dpi fonts for EPICS

(+CentOS7)

ln -s /usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi /etc/X11/fontpath.d/

Enable firewall for MIDAS (CentOS7)

Default el7 configuration prevents all access to servers running on the local machine, including access to MIDAS mhttpd (tcp port 8443) and mserver (all tcp ports).

To enable access to mhttpd:

firewall-cmd --add-port=8443/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-all

To enable access to the mserver from a specific host: (replace 142.90.111.175 with the IP address of the permitted host)

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule="rule family="ipv4" source address="142.90.111.175/32" port protocol="tcp" port="0-65535" accept"
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-all

Disable gdm and X11 (OPTIONAL)

initctl stop prefdm
echo "start on never" > /etc/init/prefdm.override
echo "start on never" > /etc/init/splash-manager.override
initctl reload-configuration

then enable login on default console:

echo "plymouth quit" >> /etc/rc.local
echo "X_TTY=xxx/dev/tty1" >> /etc/sysconfig/init

Install JAVAWS (OPTIONAL)

to run Java "web start" jnlp files (EVO, SEEVOGH, etc): javaws Downloads/spider.jnlp
install javaws:
yum install icedtea-web icedtea-web-javadoc

Install firefox java plugin (OPTIONAL, DO NOT DO THIS)

This installs the Oracle Java plugin:

rpm -vh --install ~deap/jdk-7u15-linux-x64.rpm
ls -l /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/
ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.7.0_15/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/
start firefox, go edit->preferences->general->manage add-ons->plugins
"java plugin 1.7.0_15" should be listed

Configure USB device permissions

(+CentOS7)

Configure USB device permissions for user access to USB-serial devices, Altera USB Blaster, etc.

create file /etc/udev/rules.d/99-usb-chmod.rules with this contents:

emacs -nw /etc/udev/rules.d/99-usb-chmod.rules
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", RUN+="/bin/chmod a+wr /dev/%c"
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", RUN+="/bin/chmod a+wr /proc/%c"
ACTION=="add", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", RUN+="/bin/chmod a+wr $env{DEVNAME}"
ACTION=="add", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", RUN+="/bin/chmod a+wr $env{DEVICE}"
ACTION=="add", ENV{PHYSDEVBUS}=="usb-serial", RUN+="/bin/chmod a+wr $env{DEVNAME}"
ACTION=="add", ENV{DEVPATH}=="/class/tty/ttyS*", RUN+="/bin/chmod a+wr $env{DEVNAME}"
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="tty", DEVPATH=="*ttyUSB*", RUN+="/bin/chmod a+rw $env{DEVNAME}"
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="tty", DEVPATH=="*ttyS*", RUN+="/bin/chmod a+rw $env{DEVNAME}"

apply new permissions: udevadm trigger --action=add

Disable modem-manager

The modem-manager will try to talk to any serial devices attached to USB serial ports. It assumes that those devices are modems and will send out modem-specific commands. if the devices are not modems and do not understand or do not like modem commands, well that's too bad. modem-manager is installed by the ModemManager package required by the NetworkManager package, and there is no configuration setting to turn modem-manager off.

One way to disable it is: chmod a= /usr/sbin/modem-manager

Another way to disable it is by forced uninstall: rpm --erase --nodeps ModemManager

Remember to kill the running copy: killall -KILL modem-manager

Caveat: it is not clear if modem-manager would not be resurrected by an update to the NetworkManager or ModemManager packages.

Configure Altera jtagd

(if needed)

mkdir /etc/jtagd
echo 'Password = "123";' > /etc/jtagd/jtagd.conf
cp -pv /triumfcs/trshare/olchansk/altera/11.0/quartus/linux/pgm_parts.txt /etc/jtagd/jtagd.pgm_parts

start local jtagd: /triumfcs/trshare/olchansk/altera/11.0/quartus/bin/jtagd
test local connection: /triumfcs/trshare/olchansk/altera/11.0/quartus/bin/jtagconfig
test remote connection (add this machine to your .jtag.conf, run jtagconfig

For more information, go to Quartus

Configure GRUB boot loader

edit /boot/grub/grub.conf, remove the "quiet" and "rhgb" options
edit /boot/grub/grub.conf, comment out (with "#") the "splashimage=" line
check that GRUB boot loader is installed on all system disks:
- dd if=/dev/sda bs=1 count=1024 2>&1 | strings | grep GRUB
- dd if=/dev/sdb bs=1 count=1024 2>&1 | strings | grep GRUB
if GRUB is not installed, (i.e. on the 2nd disk of machines with mirrored system disk), (but check that /dev/sdb is the right disk):

# grub
grub> device (hd0) /dev/sdb
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)

Configure GRUB boot loader (CENTOS7)

edit /etc/default/grub, remove "rhgb" and "quiet" from GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg
grub2-editenv list # show contents of boot environement file
/bin/rm /boot/grub2/grubenv # remove stale settings, make grub2 boot from first entry in config file

Configure GRUB boot loader (CentOS7)

DO NOT DO ANY OF THIS.

(maybe) grub2-install /dev/sda
check that GRUB boot loader is installed on all system disks:
- dd if=/dev/sda bs=1 count=1024 2>&1 | strings | grep GRUB
- dd if=/dev/sdb bs=1 count=1024 2>&1 | strings | grep GRUB
if GRUB is not installed, (--- unfinished)

Disable ELREPO

sed 's/enabled=.*/enabled=0/' -i /etc/yum.repos.d/elrepo_triumf.repo
sed 's/enabled=.*/enabled=0/' -i /etc/yum.repos.d/elrepo.repo

Special hardware settings

ASUS Crosshair mobo

use BIOS version 1207 or newer
(before CentOS7) sensors need these drivers from ELREPO: yum install --noplugins kmod-it87 kmod-k10temp; sensors-detect; service lm_sensors restart; sensors
CentOS7: installs correct drivers automatically

ASUS Crosshair-II mobo

use BIOS version 2607 or newer
for the onboard IDE to work, add "all-generic-ide" to kernel boot options in grub.conf
sensors need these drivers from ELREPO: yum install --noplugins kmod-it87 kmod-k10temp; sensors-detect; service lm_sensors restart; sensors

ASUS P7P55D EVO mobo

use BIOS version 2004 or newer
SL6 - install special driver for on board PCIe GigE network port and disable on board PCI GigE network port:
- yum --enablerepo elrepo install kmod-r8168 kmod-r8169
- # do not do this: sed 's/^blacklist/#blacklist/' -i /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-r8169.conf
- reboot
- verify that correct drivers are loaded: ethtool -i eth0; ethtool -i eth1
- note: there will be no eth1 - r8169 driver is disabled.

ASUS P6X58-E-WS mobo

BIOS settings
- F1 or DEL to enter BIOS setup, F8 boot menu
- go to POWER->HW mon, confirm CPU temperature is around 30C. (heatsink is installed correctly. Bad heatsink temperature quickly goes up to 50-70C).
- Main menu: Storage config - SATA change IDE->AHCI
- System information: confirm BIOS version 301, CPU type, memory size
- AI Tweak: set DRAM frequency - AUTO->DDR3-1333
- Advanced->Onboard devices: LAN BOOT: enabled
- Power->HW monitor: CPU Q-FAN: enabled
- Boot->Settings: Quick boot: enabled; Full screen logo: disabled; Wait for F1: disabled
- Save and exit

ASUS E35M1-M PRO mobo

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/E35M1M_PRO/#specifications
use BIOS version 1002 or newer
for CPU temperature: install kmod-k10temp from ELREPO (kmod-k10temp-0.0-4.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm)
for Sensors: yum --enablerepo elrepo install kmod-w83627ehf; modprobe w83627ehf; sensors
for Graphics: yum --enablerepo elrepo install kmod-fglrx fglrx-x11-drv
to enable booting from USB3, edit /etc/dracut.conf, change line "add_drivers" to read: add_drivers+="xhci-hcd"
to use multiple monitors, run "aticonfig --initial --heads=2 --adapter=1 --xinerama=on", to change screen layout, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Only dual monitors DVI+HDMI seem to work. Tripple monitors does not seem to work.

Sensors instructions below are obolete (use driver from ELREPO)

for Sensors, install driver for NCT6776F chip from https://github.com/groeck/w83627ehf/archives/master (in the Makefile, change the line "KERNEL_BUILD=" to read: "KERNEL_BUILD:=/usr/src/kernels/$(TARGET)"):

cd ~root
wget http://ladd00.triumf.ca/~olchansk/linux/groeck-w83627ehf-dd3e543/w83627ehf.ko
echo "modprobe hwmon; modprobe hwmon-vid; modprobe k10temp; rmmod w83627ehf; insmod /root/w83627ehf.ko" >> /etc/rc.local

ASUS E45M1-M PRO mobo

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/E45M1M_PRO/#specifications
use BIOS 1202 or newer
follow the E35M1-M PRO instructions above

ASUS P9X79 WS

http://www.asus.com/Motherboard/P9X79_WS/
use BIOS version 3101, 3401, 4701 or newer. If BIOS is 1305 or older, install P9X79-WS-CAP-Converter.ROM (BIOS 2902/3101), then the new BIOS.
(not needed for CentOS7) for CPU temperature, install coretemp
(not needed for CentOS7) for sensors, install driver for NCT6776F chip same as E35M1-M above.
BIOS Settings:
- enter "Advanced mode"
- Ai Tweaker -> Ai Overclock Tuner -> Set to "XMP" - this enables DDR3-1600 RAM speed vs DDR3-1333 by default
- Monitor -> CPU fan speed low limit -> Set to "200 RPM" - we are using high efficiency slow turning CPU coolers and the default 600 RPM is right on the edge of firing false warnings
- Boot -> Full screen logo -> Set to "disabled"
- Wait for F1 -> Set to "disabled"

ASUS P8B-M

use BIOS version 6103 or newer
for CPU temperature, install coretemp
for sensors, install driver for NCT6776F chip same as E35M1-M above.

SUPERMICRO X9SCL

yum install kmod-w83627ehf.x86_64 coretemp
xemacs -nw /etc/rc.local, add:

modprobe coretemp
modprobe w83627ehf

ASUS Z87-WS

cd ~root
wget http://ladd00.triumf.ca/~olchansk/linux/nct6775/nct6775.ko

Place the modprobe and insmod lines in /etc/rc.local to load the drivers at boot time

modprobe hwmon-vid
insmod /root/nct6775.ko

ASUS AM1M-A

use BIOS 602 or later
SL6.5 installer cannot use USB2 ports and the network. Use USB3 ports (blue colour) to boot USB installer (memtest, rescue, etc)
SL6.5 kernels require boot option "iommu=soft" or USB2 and network do not work. (USB3 - blue ports - seems okey)
install ATI/AMD video drivers from ELREPO (see below)
sensors chip is ITE IT8623E, for SL6, use standalone driver from lm_sensors. (2 fans rpm, 2 temperatures):

cd ~root
wget http://ladd00.triumf.ca/~olchansk/linux/it87.ko
echo modprobe hwmon_vid >> /etc/rc.local
echo insmod /root/it87.ko >> /etc/rc.local
. /etc/rc.local

for el7 use it87.ko driver:

cd ~root
wget https://daqshare.triumf.ca/~olchansk/linux/CentOS7/it87.ko
echo modprobe hwmon_vid >> /etc/rc.local
echo insmod /root/it87.ko >> /etc/rc.local
. /etc/rc.local

sensors output:

[root@midemma02 ~]# sensors
radeon-pci-0008
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +22.0°C  (crit = +120.0°C, hyst = +90.0°C)

fam15h_power-pci-00c4
Adapter: PCI adapter
power1:           N/A  (crit =  25.00 W)

k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +22.2°C  (high = +70.0°C)
                       (crit = +70.0°C, hyst = +69.0°C)

it8603-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
in0:          +0.96 V  (min =  +2.50 V, max =  +2.95 V)  ALARM
in1:          +2.23 V  (min =  +0.94 V, max =  +1.22 V)  ALARM
in2:          +2.03 V  (min =  +0.74 V, max =  +0.77 V)  ALARM
in3:          +2.00 V  (min =  +1.26 V, max =  +0.13 V)  ALARM
in4:          +2.23 V  (min =  +2.95 V, max =  +2.15 V)  ALARM
3VSB:         +3.36 V  (min =  +6.00 V, max =  +2.50 V)  ALARM
Vbat:         +3.22 V  
+3.3V:        +3.36 V  
fan1:         611 RPM  (min =  200 RPM)
fan2:         707 RPM  (min =  600 RPM)  ALARM
temp1:        +38.0°C  (low  = +122.0°C, high = +122.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
temp2:        +22.0°C  (low  = +119.0°C, high = -35.0°C)  ALARM  sensor = thermistor
temp3:       -128.0°C  (low  = +16.0°C, high = +93.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
intrusion0:  ALARM

[root@midemma02 ~]#

AMD "Athlon(tm) 5350 APU" graphics supports 2 monitors maximum (mobo has 3 video outputs, only 2 can be used together)

Intel SE7230NH1

front panel header connector pinout is like this:

PWR LED | 1  2|
        | 3  4|
PWR LED | 5  6|
HDD LED | 7  8|
HDD LED | 9 10|
PWR SW  |11 12| NIC1 LED
PWR SW  |13 14| NIC1 LED
RST SW  |15 16|
RST SW  |17 18|
        |19 20|
NMI SW  |21 22| NIC2 LED
NMI SW  |23 24| NIC2 LED
...     |...  |
        |33 34|

ASUS H110M-A/M.2

use BIOS 2003 or later
sensors chip is ??? for el7, use this driver:

cd ~root
wget https://daqshare.triumf.ca/~olchansk/linux/CentOS7/nct6775.ko
echo modprobe hwmon_vid >> /etc/rc.local
echo modprobe coretemp >> /etc/rc.local
echo insmod /root/nct6775.ko >> /etc/rc.local
. /etc/rc.local

sensors output:

[root@daq03 ~]# sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +27.8°C  (crit = +119.0°C)
temp2:        +29.8°C  (crit = +119.0°C)

nct6793-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
in0:                       +0.34 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +1.74 V)
in1:                       +1.02 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in2:                       +3.39 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in3:                       +3.39 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in4:                       +1.02 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in5:                       +0.15 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in6:                       +0.97 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in7:                       +3.38 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in8:                       +3.12 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in9:                       +1.00 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in10:                      +0.14 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in11:                      +0.12 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in12:                      +0.14 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in13:                      +0.12 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in14:                      +0.13 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
fan1:                     1041 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan2:                     1020 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan5:                        0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan6:                        0 RPM
SYSTIN:                   +119.0°C  (high = +98.0°C, hyst = +95.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
CPUTIN:                    +26.5°C  (high = +80.0°C, hyst = +75.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
AUXTIN0:                   +27.5°C    sensor = thermistor
AUXTIN1:                  +112.0°C    sensor = thermistor
AUXTIN2:                  +111.0°C    sensor = thermistor
AUXTIN3:                  +111.0°C    sensor = thermistor
PECI Agent 0:              +28.0°C  (high = +98.0°C, hyst = +95.0°C)
                                    (crit = +100.0°C)
PECI Agent 0 Calibration:  +25.5°C  
PCH_CHIP_CPU_MAX_TEMP:      +0.0°C  
PCH_CHIP_TEMP:              +0.0°C  
intrusion0:               ALARM
intrusion1:               ALARM
beep_enable:              disabled

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +31.0°C  (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:         +31.0°C  (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:         +28.0°C  (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

[root@daq03 ~]#

Supermicro X11SSH-F

blacklist the mei and mei_me drivers per http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=14537

[root@alpha00 ~]# more /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist mei
blacklist mei_me
[root@alpha00 ~]#

mobo requires M.2 PCIe SSD (M.2 SATA SSD would not work. SATA SATA SSD ok)
boot from M.2 PCIe SSD requires UEFI boot (from an MSDOS partition on the SSD)

Configure X11 graphics

Special settings for DAQ

add the following at the end of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The enables Ctrl-Alt-KP-/ and Ctrl-Alt-KP-* to unlock the keyboard after Altera Quartus crash:

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option "AllowDeactivateGrabs" "true"
        Option "AllowClosedownGrabs" "true"
EndSection

Install NVIDIA drivers

yum --enablerepo=elrepo install nvidia-detect
run: nvidia-detect
as instructed by nvidia-detect, install correct driver:
- yum --enablerepo=elrepo install kmod-nvidia
- yum --enablerepo=elrepo install kmod-nvidia-304xx
- yum --enablerepo=elrepo install kmod-nvidia-173xx
(before SL6.x: if it fails due to conflict with module-init-tools, run "yum --disablerepo \* --enablerepo elrepo update module-init-tools")
yum erase xorg-x11-glamor ### see http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-nvidia (search for glamor)
mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf-xxx
nvidia-xconfig
(SL6) reboot
(SL5) /dev/MAKEDEV nvidia
(SL5) restart the X11 server (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace or "killall Xorg gdm-binary")
observe that X11 server restarts using the NVIDIA driver (big NVIDIA logo on startup)
if needed, login as root and run "nvidia-settings" to setup dual-screen configuration, etc

Install legacy NVIDIA drivers

For old NVIDIA cards:

GeForce FX 5500

wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/173.14.31/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.31-pkg1.run
sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.31-pkg1.run

GeForce 6200 - NVIDIA Corporation NV44A [GeForce 6200]

yum install nvidia-x11-drv-304xx-304.121 --enablerepo=elrepo
nvidia-xconfig
rmmod nvidia
killall gdm-binary
login as root
nvidia-settings to setup multiple displays

Install ATI/AMD drivers

yum --enablerepo elrepo install kmod-fglrx fglrx-x11-drv
check that /etc/X11/xorg.conf section "Device" entry "Driver" says "fglrx"
run "aticonfig --initial" to create xorg.conf if existing one is not good
run "amdcccle" as root to configure dual-screens, etc

 Note: 'amdcccle' is a GUI, so you must run this command from within a running X session

killall Xorg

Install ATI/AMD drivers (CentOS7)

wget http://elrepo.org/linux/testing/el7/x86_64/RPMS/fglrx-x11-drv-15.12-3.el7.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
wget http://elrepo.org/linux/testing/el7/x86_64/RPMS/kmod-fglrx-15.12-3.el7.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
yum install acpid
rpm -vh --install kmod-fglrx-15.12-3.el7.elrepo.x86_64.rpm fglrx-x11-drv-15.12-3.el7.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
amdconfig -f --initial
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
reboot
login as root
amdcccle

NOTE: if both drivers - radeon and fglrx are loaded, boot will hang. the radeon driver is supposed to be blacklisted through grub rdblacklist=radeon entry which is installed by running grub2-mkconfig.

Install Intel drivers for HD4600/Z87

SL6.5 has the required drivers for the socket 1150 machines with Intel HD4600 graphics and Z87 chipset.

ASUS Z87 WS motherboard has these video connections with corresponding Intel video port assignements, as reported by "xrandr":

DisplayPort - DP1/HDMI1
MiniDisplayPort - DP2/HDMI2
HDMI - HDMI3

Due to hardware limitations, 3 HDMI monitors using 2 passive DP-HDMI adapters (and 1 straight HDMI) cannot be used.

To use 3 monitors do this:

1st monitor: DisplayPort - DP-to-HDMI-passive-adapter - HDMI monitor (not tried: DP-to-DP-cable - DisplayPort monitor).
2nd monitor: MiniDisplayPort - MiniDP-to-DP-cable - DisplayPort monitor
3rd monitor: HDMI - HDMI-cable - HDMI monitor

With the monitors I have (Dell 1920x1200 VGA-HDMI-DP), the software thinks that there are 4 monitors: somehow both DP2 and HDMI2 see 1 minitor each, but the hardware cannot drive 4 monitors, so everything goes blank. To fix, disable HDMI2 (xrandr -display :0 --output HDMI2 --off) and enable DP2 (xrandr -display :0 --output DP2 --auto).

How to make this configuration permanent and how to assign monitor locations (left-right, etc), you figure it out.

Manual selection of monitor, video mode and resolution

Automatic selection of monitor and video mode usually works. When it does not, configure it manualls:

physically go to the computer
login as root
run "nvidia-settings" on machines using the NVIDIA driver
run "aticonfig" on machines with the ATI/AMD driver (use "aticonfig --initial" for initial setup, and good luck with anything more complicated)
run "system-config-display".
- In the "hardware" tab, select monitor type: "generic LCD 1280x1024" or "generic LCD 1600x1200".
- In the "settings" tab, select "1280x1024" or "1600x1200" and "Thousands of colors".
- Press "ok", the display settings application should close.
Logout, the new login window should use the new settings.

Disable screen saver

If machine is booted without any monitor connected, current video cards to not enable any video outputs. If a monitor is connected later, there is no video image and there is no easy way to get a video image.

This can be solved by configuring X11 to always enable some video output. Because the monitor type is not known when X11 starts, one has to select some standard video mode (i.e. VESA 1280x1024) on some video output (VGA, DVI or HDMI).

Only NVIDIA cards with the NVIDIA driver (from EPEL) is supported by these instructions.

create default xorg.conf: nvidia-xconfig
edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
add monitor section for the fake monitor:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     59.0 - 61.0
    Option         "DPMS" "off"
    ModeLine "1280x1024"   108.00   1280 1328 1440 1688   1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
EndSection

add output selection in the "Device" section:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 210"
    #Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"
    #Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT"
    Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT-1"
    Option "UseEDID" "no"
EndSection

add fake video mode to the "Screen" section:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes       "1280x1024"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

disable screen saver and DPMS power off in the "ServerLayout" or "ServerFlags" section:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
    Option         "BlankTime" "0"
    Option         "StandbyTime" "0"
    Option         "SuspendTime" "0"
    Option         "OffTime" "0"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags" 
    Option         "BlankTime" "0" 
    Option         "StandbyTime" "0" 
    Option         "SuspendTime" "0" 
    Option         "OffTime" "0" 
EndSection

Finish installation

logout and reboot the computer to have all the changes to take effect

Configure HTTPS server (CentOS7)

This will configure the HTTPS/SSL certificate using "certbot" and "letsencrypt" and configure an HTTPS web server using apache httpd.

First, configure apache httpd:

yum install mod_ssl certwatch
cd /etc/httpd/conf.d/
create new file ssl-daq12.conf # use actual hostname instead of daq12

<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName daq12.triumf.ca
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/daq12.log
SSLEngine on
SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 -SSLv3
SSLCipherSuite HIGH:MEDIUM:!aNULL:!MD5:!SEED:!IDEA:!RC4
SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key
#SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/server-chain.crt
#ProxyPass /elog/ http://localhost:8082/ retry=1
#ProxyPass /      http://localhost:8080/ retry=1
<Location />
SSLRequireSSL
AuthType Basic
AuthName "DAQ password protected site"
Require valid-user
# create password file: touch /etc/httpd/htpasswd
# to add new user or change password: htpasswd /etc/httpd/htpasswd username
AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/htpasswd
</Location>
</VirtualHost>

systemctl enable httpd
systemctl restart httpd
systemctl status httpd
try to access https://daq12.triumf.ca
- you should see a complaint about self-signed certificate
- you should see a request for password (do not login yet)
- if you get "connection refused", HTTPS port 443 may need to be enabled in the local firewall, then try again:

firewall-cmd --add-port=443/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-all

Second, configure certbot:

yum install certbot python2-certbot-apache # (from EPEL)
certbot # then answer questions:
"activate HTTPS for daq12.triumf.ca" - say ok
"enter email address" - enter your own email address
"please read terms..." - read the terms and say "agree"
it will take a few moments...
"please choose..." - say "easy" (http access is disabled (a) by firewall, (b) by local configuration
"congratulations..." - say ok.
enable automatic renewal

cd ~root/git/scripts
git pull
/bin/cp etc/certbot-renew.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/certbot-renew.service # original script is broken
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable certbot-renew.timer
systemctl start certbot-renew.timer
systemctl list-timers --all

NOTE: this certificate will expire in 3 months, automatic renewal should work starting with certbot-0.12.0-4.el7.noarch. Certificate expiration should be automatically detected by "certwatch" and email will be sent to local root user, to be forwarded to an actual person by ~root/.forward.

Third, activate password protection:

as shown in the config file above, create password file and initial user: (replace "midas" with specific username)

touch /etc/httpd/htpasswd
htpasswd /etc/httpd/htpasswd midas

Final test:

access https://daq12.triumf.ca - https status should be "green"
login with password should work
the apache httpd test page should load
check site security using the SSLlabs https tester. (I get grade "A-"): https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

From here:

enable proxy for MIDAS mhttpd - uncomment redirect in the config file above
enable proxy for ELOG - ditto
setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1
systemctl restart httpd

Configure large RAID6 arrays

connect the disks
check the disks health
- run smart-status.perl
partition the disks
- yum install gdisk
- gdisk /dev/sdX
- delete all partitions: o
- create new partition: n, enter, enter, enter, fd00 (default sizes, partition type fd00)
- write and exit: w
check presence of all partitions:
- /bin/ls -l /dev/sd*1
prepare to use an external bitmap file
- touch /md6bitmap
- edit /etc/fstab, change entry for root filesystem from: "defaults 1 1" to "defaults 0 0"
- edit /boot/grub/grub.conf, change entry "kernel ... ro ..." to "kernel ... rw ..."
create raid array:
- mdadm --create /dev/md6 --level=6 --bitmap=/md6bitmap --raid-devices=10 /dev/sd[b-k]1
- mdadm -Ds >> /etc/mdadm.conf
- cleanup /etc/mdadm.conf
- echo "echo 16384 > /sys/block/md6/md/stripe_cache_size" >> /etc/rc.local
- echo "echo 1 > /sys/block/md6/md/sync_speed_min" >> /etc/rc.local
- source /etc/rc.local
observe raid array rebuild:
- watch -d -n1 "cat /proc/mdstat"

Configure ZFS

Install ZFS

(from here: https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/RHEL-%26-CentOS)

Follow the instructions for "kABI-tracking kmod" - dkms modules seem to always mess up the system when upgrading to next release of zfs.

#rpm -vh --install http://archive.zfsonlinux.org/epel/zfs-release.el7.noarch.rpm
#yum install http://download.zfsonlinux.org/epel/zfs-release.el7.noarch.rpm
yum install http://download.zfsonlinux.org/epel/zfs-release.el7_3.noarch.rpm
yum-config-manager --disable zfs
yum-config-manager --enable zfs-kmod
yum install zfs
sed 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=disabled/' -i /etc/selinux/config
echo USE_DISK_BY_ID=\'yes\' >> /etc/default/zfs
echo zpool import -a >> /etc/rc.local
echo exportfs -rv >> /etc/rc.local
echo systemctl start nfs-server >> /etc/rc.local
#echo zpool scrub -s pool8tb >> /etc/rc.local ### replace "pool8tb" with actual name of zfs pool
echo ~root/git/scripts/zfs/zfs-scrub-cancel >> /etc/rc.local
shutdown -r now # required to load the zfs kernel modules and to disable selinux

Note: zfs and selinux and not compatible: with selinux enabled, files on zfs cannot be deleted (files are gone, but "df" does not go down, zfs-0.6.5.7-1.el7.centos.x86_64), see https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/issues/4845

Create "RAID6" filesystem:

zpool create data14 raidz2 /dev/sd[b-h]1

Misc commands

zpool status
zpool get all
zpool iostat 1
zpool iostat -v 1
zpool history
zpool scrub data14
zpool events
arcstat.py 1
cat /proc/spl/kstat/zfs/arcstats
echo 30000000000 > /sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_arc_meta_limit
echo 32000000000 > /sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_arc_max

Create raid0 (mirror) volume:

echo USE_DISK_BY_ID=\'yes\' >> /etc/default/zfs
dracut -vf
zpool create pool8tb mirror /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
zpool set cachefile=none pool8tb
zpool set failmode=continue pool8tb
zpool status
zpool events
zpool get all
df /pool8tb
ls -l /pool8tb

Enable ZFS at boot

systemctl enable zfs-import-cache
systemctl enable zfs-import-scan
systemctl enable zfs-mount

Replace failed disk

pull failed disk out
zpool status # identify failed disk zfs label (it should be labeled FAULTED or OFFLINE
safe to reboot here
install new disk
partition new disk, i.e. "gdisk /dev/sdh", use "o" to create new partition table, use "n" to create new partition, accept all default answers, use "w" to save and exit
safe to reboot here
run tests on new disk (smart, diskscrub), if unhappy go back to "install new disk"
safe to reboot here
identify serial number of new disk, i.e. "smartctl -a /dev/sdh | grep -i serial" yields "Serial Number: WD-WCAVY0893313"
identify linux id of new disk by "ls -l /dev/disk/by-id | grep -i WD-WCAVY0893313" yields "ata-WDC_WD2002FYPS-01U1B0_WD-WCAVY0893313-part1"
zpool replace data11 zfs-label-of-failed-disk ata-WDC_WD2002FYPS-01U1B0_WD-WCAVY0893313-part1
zpool status should look like this:

[root@daq11 ~]# zpool status
  pool: data11
 state: DEGRADED
status: One or more devices is currently being resilvered.  The pool will
        continue to function, possibly in a degraded state.
action: Wait for the resilver to complete.
  scan: resilver in progress since Fri Apr 29 11:51:03 2016
    24.7G scanned out of 795G at 32.3M/s, 6h46m to go
    3.00G resilvered, 3.11% done
config:

        NAME                                                   STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        data11                                                 DEGRADED     0     0     0
          raidz2-0                                             DEGRADED     0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WCAZA3872943-part1     ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WCAZA1973466-part1     ONLINE       0     0     0
            replacing-2                                        DEGRADED     0     0     0
              17494865033746374811                             FAULTED      0     0     0  was /dev/sdi1
              ata-WDC_WD2002FYPS-01U1B0_WD-WCAVY0893313-part1  ONLINE       0     0     0  (resilvering)
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WCAZA1973369-part1     ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA0858733-part1     ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA0819555-part1     ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA0857075-part1     ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD2002FYPS-01U1B0_WD-WCAVY0347413-part1    ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

wait for raid rebuild ("resilvering") to complete
zpool status should look like this:

[root@daq11 ~]# zpool status
  pool: data11
 state: ONLINE
  scan: resilvered 96.2G in 1h44m with 0 errors on Fri Apr 29 13:35:40 2016
config:

        NAME                                                 STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        data11                                               ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2-0                                           ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WCAZA3872943-part1   ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WCAZA1973466-part1   ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD2002FYPS-01U1B0_WD-WCAVY0893313-part1  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WCAZA1973369-part1   ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA0858733-part1   ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA0819555-part1   ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA0857075-part1   ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-WDC_WD2002FYPS-01U1B0_WD-WCAVY0347413-part1  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

Misc

ZFS tunable parameters for hopefully speeding up resilvering:

https://www.reddit.com/r/zfs/comments/4192js/resilvering_raidz_why_so_incredibly_slow/
echo 0 > /sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_resilver_delay
echo 512 > /sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_top_maxinflight
echo 5000 > /sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_resilver_min_time_ms

Enable periodic scrub:

cd ~/git/scripts
git pull
cd zfs
make install

Working with ZFS snapshots:

zfs list -t snapshot
cd ~/git; git clone https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs-auto-snapshot.git; cd zfs-auto-snapshot; make install

If ZFS becomes 100% full, "rm" will stop working, but space can still be freed by using "echo > bigfile", afterwards "rm" works again.

performance notes

Go here: disk_benchmarks

Configure UEFI boot

Some mobo can boot from NVME (PCIe) SSDs only via UEFI boot. Do this:

partition the NVME SSD using gdisk (must be GPT partition table, must have MSDOS EFI partition size 512MiB)

[root@alpha00 ~]# gdisk -l /dev/nvme0n1
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.6 ...
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 500118192 sectors, 238.5 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 1A82CC87-2757-44ED-980F-C78E3681D9D3
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 500118158
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2014 sectors (1007.0 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         1050623   512.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2         1050624       500118158   238.0 GiB   8300  Linux filesystem
[root@alpha00 ~]#

create filesystems

mkfs.msdos /dev/nvme0n1p1
mkfs.xfs /dev/nvme0n1p2

prepare EFI partition

mkdir /mnt/efi
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/efi
mkdir -p /mnt/efi/efi/boot
cp /boot/vmlinuz... vmlinuz # copy the desired linux kernel
cp /boot/initramfs... initramfs.img # copy the matching initramfs file
#from /home/olchansk/sysadm/syslinux/syslinux-6.03 copy
cp .../efi64/efi/syslinux.efi .
cp .../efi64/com32/elflink/ldlinux/ldlinux.e64 .
cp syslinux.efi bootx64.efi

create syslinux config file: syslinux.cfg

default linux
label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append ro root=/dev/nvme0n1p2 nomodeset initrd=initramfs.img

prepare system partition

mkdir /mnt/tmp
mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/tmp
rsync -avx / /mnt/tmp
cd /mnt/tmp
#edit etc/fstab
#edit etc/syslinux/selinux # set selinux to permissive mode because rsync did not copy the selinux labels

unmount and reboot
restore selinux labels after first boot

#login as root
cd /
restorecon -R / # can also add "-v" to see progress, but runs much slower
#edit /etc/sysconfig/selinux # enable selinux
#shutdown -r now # reboot with selinux enabled

@@ Line 1,977: / Line 1,977: @@
 * zpool create data14 raidz2 /dev/sd[b-h]1
+=== Misc commands ===
 * zpool status
 * zpool get all
@@ Line 1,984: / Line 1,987: @@
 * zpool scrub data14
 * zpool events
+* arcstat.py 1
+* cat /proc/spl/kstat/zfs/arcstats
+* echo 30000000000 > /sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_arc_meta_limit
+* echo 32000000000 > /sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_arc_max
 Create raid0 (mirror) volume: