Booting Over Infiniband for Consolidation Savings 
by Frank Leers
November 2008
InfiniBand, with its high speed and low latency, is becoming the interconnect of choice for large High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters. Many clusters currently use InfiniBand for file sharing and data transfer. Configuring the cluster nodes to boot over the InfiniBand fabric is an attractive option for many environments, as Booting over InfiniBand (BoIB) can offer compelling consolidation and scaling benefits for systems with tens to thousands of compute nodes.
Contents
- Mellanox BoIB Implementation Overview
- Boot over InfiniBand Implementation
- Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE)
- DHCP
- TFTP
- Test Environment
- Hardware Configuration
- Software Components
- Installation and Configuration
- Flash the HCA
- Adjust BIOS Settings
- Patch the DHCP Server Source Code
- Reconfigure DHCP
- Setup Sun HPC Software, Linux Edition and oneSIS Software
- Modify the pxelinux.cfg File
- Future Work
- Conclusion
- About the Author
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Ordering Sun Documents
- Accessing Sun Documentation Online
- Appendix: init File Output
Frank Leers is a Senior Staff Engineer at Sun Microsystems, currently working in the Strategic Engagements Team (SET) as a High Performance Computing Technical Specialist. In his current role, Frank is focused on deploying large HPC projects at diverse Sun customer sites, bringing together best of breed Sun hardware and cutting edge HPC software. Before Joining SET, Frank spent nearly ten years in Sun Services as an escalation resource, working as an Area Systems Support Engineer (ASSE) in the Western US. While working in the Services division, Frank partnered with Sun customers to solve complex problems across many disciplines including systems, storage, operating environments, and customer applications. Frank is an active member of several Sun communities, including the High Performance Computing ACES, Technical Systems Ambassadors, and Storage ACES.
The author would like to recognize the significant contributions made by Matthew Bohnsack during the creation of content for this Sun BluePrints article.
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