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How to install a disk image on the nodes of a Testbed

If you have not done so yet:

• ​Register for an account
• ​Make a reservation on the Scheduler for a given testbed

Lets assume that you registered as user 'bob' and made a reservation for the 'grid' testbed. You then access the 'grid' console using the command:

 ssh bob@console.grid.orbit-lab.org

Getting Started

Then, to image some nodes on the 'grid' testbed, use the command:

 orbit load all baseline-7.11.ndz 
 # will write the disk image with the name 'baseline-7.11.ndz' on all the nodes on the 'grid'

 orbit load [1..10,1..5] baseline-7.11.ndz 
 # same as above, but only on the nodes that have their coordinates x=[1..10] and y=[1..5]
 
 orbit load [[3,1],[5,6]] baseline-7.11.ndz 
 # same as above, but only on nodes [3,1] and [5,6]

 orbit load [1,1] baseline-7.11.ndz 
 # same as above, but only on node [1,1]

The output of the "imaging" process will look like the following:

Imaging nodes: '[1..20,1..20]' with image 'baseline-7.11.ndz' on default domain (retrieved from hostname)
 INFO init: NodeHandler Version 4.2.0 (1272)
 INFO init: Experiment ID: grid_2007_07_03_03_13_50
 ...
 WARN -:topo:image: Ignoring missing node '5@14'
 ...
 INFO stdlib: Waiting for nodes (Up/Down/Total): 0/387/387 - (still down: n_20_11,n_17_14,n_15_18)
 INFO stdlib: Waiting for nodes (Up/Down/Total): 34/353/387 - (still down: n_20_11,n_17_14,n_15_18)
 INFO stdlib: Waiting for nodes (Up/Down/Total): 61/326/387 - (still down: n_20_11,n_17_14,n_15_18)
 ...
 WARN stdlib: Giving up on node n_4_1
 INFO whenAll: *: 'status[@value='UP']' fires
 INFO exp: Progress(0/0/214): 0/0/0 min(n_20_11)/avg/max (216) - Timeout: 581 sec.
 ...
 INFO exp: Progress(208/14/214): 0/91/100 min(n_18_19)/avg/max (216) - Timeout: 6 sec.
 ...
 INFO Experiment: DONE!

Learning More

The generic orbit command used above is the access point to control various ORBIT functions, such as the imaging of nodes with the sub-command "load". To see a list of all the available orbit commands, you should type "orbit help".

At the end of the imaging process, you will have 3 topology files within your user directory:

• system_topo_active_grid.rb​ - a topology with all the nodes that have successfully been imaged
• system_topo_failed_grid.rb​ - a topology with all the nodes that have failed during the "imaging" process (possibly due to some disk read/write errors)
• system_topo_timedout_grid.rb​ - a topology with all the nodes that have timed out the "imaging" process. These nodes correctly started writing the image on their disk, but they did not finish before the default timeout of 800 sec.

You can then:

• use the information in the topo_grid_active.rb file to check/select which node to use in your experiments
• or directly use the topology defined in this file within your experiment scripts, as described in details in this tutorial.

Finally, the complete available option/commands for imaging function are given by "orbit help load":

  orbit help load

Install a given disk image on the nodes in a testbed
Usage:
      orbit load [-h]
      orbit load [TOPOLOGY] [IMAGE_PATH] [TIMEOUT] [DOMAIN]
 
      With: 
      -h, --help    print this help message
 
      TOPOLOGY      a valid topology description or file without the trailing '.rb'
                    (default is 'all', the entire set of nodes on the default testbed)
 
      IMAGE_PATH    a valid path to a disk image on the image repository
                    (default is 'baseline.ndz', the latest stable baseline image)
 
      TIMEOUT       a duration (in sec.) after which imageNodes should stop waiting for
                    nodes that have not finished their image installation
                    (default is 800 sec, i.e. 13min 20sec)
 
      DOMAIN        the testbed domain for the nodes to image
                    (default is the testbed of the console where this command is running)
 
      Some Examples: 
                    orbit load
                    orbit load all
                    orbit load all baseline-2.4.ndz
                    orbit load [1,1] wireless-2.6.ndz
                    orbit load [[1,2],[1,4]] baseline.ndz 400
                    orbit load [[1,1],[2..6,1..2]]
                    orbit load system:topo:circle my_Own_Image.ndz
                    orbit load my_Own_Topology baseline-2.2.ndz 600 grid