The first time you log in as root, you'll be prompted about setting up ssh keys. Press Enter three times to accept the default location and enter (and confirm) a blank password for the key pair.

Run the command "ping -c 1 www.ks.uiuc.edu" to test your network setup. If this command fails, swap the master node's network cables, wait a few seconds, and repeat. If you still have problems, feel free to ask for assistance.

Once that finishes, create a normal user for your group to use (you don't always want to use root) by running "useradd username." This will set up a default account with a blank password. Run "passwd username" to set the password for the account.

Test this account by trying to log in as the new user on a different terminal

Back at your root login, run "insert-ethers" to start detecting any nodes that boot.

Press Enter to select "Compute," for the type of nodes to listen for.

Make sure your slave nodes are connected and have one of the Rocks kernel CDs (the one you first booted with) inserted (if done one at a time). Our compute nodes do not have a cd drive and so they have to be PXE booted Boot them all now, and you'll see them appear on the screen as they connect to the master node. Most modern-day motherboards actually have support for this built in.

A bit on PxeBoot.

Each slave entry should contain an empty "( )", which will be replaced by "(*)" when the node properly requests its kickstart file. When all of the nodes have done this, press F10 to exit the insert-ethers program.

Each node will do a full installation and then reboot.

What's happening: When each slave boots, it accesses the network and searches for the master node. The master then sends an entire Linux distribution over to the slave to be installed. This makes the slaves easier to maintain, since you can easily swap nodes in and out with replacements, which are automatically installed and configured without any help from you.

-- Main.echrzano - 14 Nov 2006