Qlustar Feature Update 07/21

A number of new Qlustar features were completed recently and published together with the latest security updates.

QluMan 12.0.3.1 has the following new capabilities:

  • Pre-systemd node customization has been introduced via a new config class. Files and scripts placed in a particular path may be transferred to the booting node, and scripts being subsequently executed. This is a powerful and flexible new dynamic node customization feature.
  • Active Directory user import into the Qlustar LDAP server is now possible via the GUI. This allows for an AD integration without compromising HPC features also on large clusters.
  • QluMan monitoring 1.0: This is the first milestone of the upcoming new Qlustar monitoring architecture eventually replacing Nagios. It implements a filesystem-based check/trigger mechanism controlled by QluMan execd. First usage example: Start slurmd only once checks are successful and drain/undrain if they fail/recover later.
  • Support for DHCP-less boot (see below).
  • Support for routed networks as primary boot networks and in NetworkFSMounts was added.

Other new features:

  • Update from CentOS 8.3 to 8.4 with integration of OpenHPC 2.3.
  • DHCP-less boot: DHCP is now only used during the initial BIOS/UEFI/PXE stage. All necessary node configuration data previously provided by DHCP is now provided via QluMan in the pre-systemd boot phase.
  • To control user access by ssh on slurm nodes, a new UNIX group node-ssh was introduced. Members of this group are always allowed to ssh into a node, even without slurm job.
  • A new image module virtualGL was added for experimental usage. Using it in a node image, Qlustar can provide 3D remote visualization on nodes with the required hardware.