================================================================================ README file: Installing a cluster of Windows 2k machines with ka-tools ================================================================================ This document explains the pre-installation procedure you should perform on your Windows 2000 machine source before proceeding to its replication to a whole cluster of Windows machines. Prerequisite: ------------- You must first download the .zip file for windows on the download page of the Ka tools, on sourceforge. The scripts contains in this zip files use the command "sc.exe" which is part of the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit. System Installation: -------------------- The machine source must be installed with a dual boot system (Linux / Windows 2000), as the server program used for the replication process uses Linux standard commands. As this machine will be the reference of your Windows Cluster, you should install every software you think you will need to find on the cluster's machine (let's say cygwin, MPI, Athapascan, VNC...). Don't forget that the settings of the machine source will appear on each machine you are about to install, so you should create the proper users and administrators accounts, connect network drives, start the services you need (think about installing VNC server, telnet server, rsh server, etc...). Pre-installation: ----------------- The zip file you have just uncompressed contains a script file call "PreInst.cmd". You should run this script as soon as you believe your source system is properly configured as it will make it almost ready for replication. Then, you must configure Windows to log automaticaly as administrator, and reboot your machine with Linux. what's inside PreInst.cmd: the script removes the computer from the NT domain, disables the Lan Manager Service (after replication, all the machine hold the same name, raising a name conflict alert), and set the system to run the postinstall script on the next reboot. Replication: ------------ To launch the replication process, please refer to the ka-tools manual. Post-installation: ------------------ You don't have to worry about post-installation as it is unattended. On the first boot, the newly installed machines will run PostInst.cmd. They will then find their real name from the DNS server (or the hosts files if the server is not available, or will invent a new name if they can't find the real one), set the Lan Manager to start automaticaly on the next boot, change the SID and set the system to start the netlogon service on each boot (well, we needed that to use rsh and mpirun on our machines, you may not need it...).Then they will reboot. NB: well, the reboot after post-installation can take time as changing the sid is quite a long process (2-3 minutes). Windows may find some new hardware if you machines differs slightly and pop a message windows hiding the newsid's. Never mind, it's working but long, just be patient. When your machines restart, they will belong to a workgroup. We included in the zip file, a program (joindom.exe) very usefull to join the NT domain from a command line. If your rshd service is properly configured, then we suggest that you use "rsh joindom ..." in a script file to join every machines of your cluster, or rshp (which is a parallel rsh developped in our Labs) for a shorter execution time.
