- Sun Fire Link Hardware Overview
- Sun Fire Link Software Overview
- System Configuration
- Fabric Configuration
- References
- Related Resources
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Sun Fire Link Software Overview
The elements of the Sun Fire Link interconnect software stack that are configured in this article are:
Sun Fire 15K or Sun Fire 12K wcapp software.
Sun Fire Link Administration software
Other components of the software stack are described in detail in [1] "Building Secure Sun Fire Link Interconnect Networks Using Midframe Servers" at: http://www.sun.com/solutions/blueprints/0203/817-1656.pdf.
Sun Fire 15K and Sun Fire 12K wcapp Software
The wcapp software is a daemon responsible for implementing Sun Fire Link clustering functionality and so forth. This software runs on the domain, SC, MSP, and so on.
The SC in the Sun Fire 15K and Sun Fire 12K systems controls the assignment of resources. Resource assignment includes which domains are on or off and which components (such as CPUs, I/O cards, and memory) are associated with domains. All of the server's configuration is stored in the SC. Network discovery and fabric configuration services are exported to the FM software through a private Java™ remote method invocation (RMin the domain, SC, and MSP) interface. The RMI allows client applications to locate remote server objects and execute methods on those objects as though they were local objects. The RMI is the object equivalent of remote procedure calls (RPCs). TheRMI interface can use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which will provide integrity and confidentiality across networks in addition to providing authentication.
This article describes how to enable use of SSL to access the RMI interface.
Sun Fire Link Administration Software
The Sun Fire Link software includes tools for administrating Sun Fire Link networks. Administration of Fire Link networks includes the following tasks:
Configuring and reconfiguring Sun Fire Link partitions
Dynamically adding nodes to and removing nodes from partitions
Bringing up and taking down optical links
Enforcing domain topology constraints
Monitoring a configured cluster for faults, such as link failures
The major components of theThus Oct Sun Fire Link Administration software are:
Sun Fire Link Manager
FM proxies
Sun™ Management Center agents
Sun Management Center console
FIGURE 3 shows where the software is located and how it communicates.
Sun Fire Link Manager
The Sun Fire Link Manager (FM) is installed on a host that is external to the Sun Fire Link cluster. The FM must be installed on the MSP. The FM is a Java application that communicates with the managed entities (compute nodes and switches) through the RMI. It is responsible for managing and configuring the Sun Fire Link fabric. The fabric is a collection of RSM partitions, compute nodes, and switch nodes.
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FIGURE 3
Sun Fire Link Software Location and Communication
The major functions of the FM are:
Creating fabrics
Creating switched and direct-connect topologies
Adding and removing nodes in the switch topology
Modifying the striping level of a partition
Given the requested topology, stripe level, and node membership, the FM computes configuration information for each node. The FM then distributes these configurations to every node of the fabric. This configuration information contains items such as striping level (the number of links between each node) and the cluster ID. The configuration data is stored in the FM configuration file. The FM data files represent the persistent form of the FM. If the FM is stopped and restarted, the FM configuration file restores the memory-resident data structures. This file contains the nodes in the fabrics, which partitions exist, and what links are used in which partitions.
Another file that the FM manages is the password file, which contains password information for the domains, switch SCs, and midframe SCs. This data is very sensitive and should always be guarded. The FM has a set of command-line tools that are used in the example given later. These tools allow the FM functionally to be accessed. Role-based access control (RBAC) is used to control access to these files. These files should never be copied to a unsecure location. Copies should never be made using unsecure communication channels. It is also important to treat these files as sensitive data when they are backed up.
The FM executes its functionality through an RMI interface that is called by the FM command-line interface tools. It is the access point when the Sun Management Center executes the FM functionality.
All FM command-line interface tools must be executed on the MSP. Access to the RMI interface is protected by a community password, and the FM RMI interface refuses connections from systems other than the MSP. The wcapp configuration must be modified so that it uses RMI between the FM and wcapp.