Watform Ubuntu Migration

In 2009, we met with the Watform group and agreed to begin a migration of their existing server configuration into a set of Ubuntu servers authenticating against the CS Active Directory and sharing a NAS between them.

ST#67984

NAS settings

Steps for the migration

• Inventory of software running in the existing environment
  • what packages on what server(s)
  • ST#68013

• remove a machine (pedernales voted most likely) from the existing mudge region
  • ST#68014
  • make sure all xhier steps are done to cleanly undo xhier administration configuration
    • check with Jennifer or Dave
  • remove from legato backups
    • talk to Guoxiang

• configure the new Watform NAS
  • name: watform-nas.uwaterloo.ca
  • ST#68012
  • admin: create unique password, plus a cscf-adm if possible
  • network - local or external IP? if local would need a separate switch or a private VLAN
    • LF recommends we just setup an external IP/name and use that. Limit access to specified machines
    • local network would require using the second network port on every machine
    • If so, test second NIC on every server to make sure it's functional.
    • If use the 2 NIC connections - load-balancing, double-throughput,
    • we need two switches and find out how to use it to connect to uwaterloo network.
  • sshfs - prevent sshfs connections directly to the NAS? (or not enable it) - would create too much load

• determine OS to be installed on new server
  • the latest LTS is Ubuntu 8.04 (but 9.10 will be out soon ...)

• create host-selection name, eg: watform-cpu.uwaterloo.ca
  • Note: watform.uwaterloo.ca is used for their web server on www.cs
  • Dave/Dawn can provide advice
  • ST#

• Setup pedernales with Ubuntu LTS
  • configure it to authenticate against CS Active Directory (see item below)

• Work out how to handle authentication for Watform against CS Active Directory
  • refer to ST#66499
  • we will need a "Watform" group in CS AD - talk to Clayton
  • need to figure out how to handle non-CS accounts

Plan of action

Here is our proposed plan of action to send to watform-faculty@lists

1) setup a NAS (the one from Sebastian for now) and prepare to mount home directories, backup space and shared software installation directory using Samba
   - NAS, Questions to be answered by Watform Group:
     - name: watform-nas.uwaterloo.ca ok?
     - RAID 1 or RAID 5?
       If RAID 5, we'll need to convert the NAS from RAID1 to RAID 5

2) Remove a server from the existing mudge region (original plan was aransas, but since aransas has specialized software installed on it (rulebase), we plan to use pedernales instead)
    - Create an inventory of current software running on pedernales
    - Install software on aransas (or one of the other severs) that is currently only available on pedernales.
    - Apply xhier procedures to remove pedernales from the Watform (mudge) region.

3) install Ubuntu LTS (8.04 for now) on the removed server (pedernales)

4) Setup authentication using CS's Active Directory, configuring it to create home directories as needed (similar to PLG)

5) Create a "round robin" DNS name, eg: watform-cpu, for connecting to the server(s)
   - is that name ok?  We can't use "watform.cs" as that is in use for the web site

6) Once the above is working, start removing machines one-at-a-time from the mudge region and add to the new environment, adding mudge last.

7) In future, when a new Ubuntu LTS comes out (roughly every 18 months), begin the update process of all the servers within two months.

Software

Pedernales

• Software installed on Pedernales: See attachments section at the end of this page (2 documents)
• WatformPedernalesSoftware - list of software on Pedernales
• Text file of software list

See also: Watform Servers