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 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/trac/oscar/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". 1. 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! 1. 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/. 1. 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: [oscar:5.0:install_guide:ch3.5_advanced_repo]