XCAT_iDataPlex_Cluster_Quick_Start

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xCAT Installation on an iDataplex Configuration

This document is specific to iDataplex, but gives the basic instructions for setting up any x86_64, IPMI-based, rack mounted xCAT cluster quickly. It is meant to get you going as quickly as possible and therefore only goes through the most common scenario. For additional scenarios, see [XCAT_iDataPlex_Advanced_Setup]

Example Configuration Used in This Document

This configuration will have a single dx340 Management Node with 167 other dx340 servers as nodes. The OS deployed will be RH Enterprise Linux 5.2, x86_64 edition. Here is a diagram of the racks:

In our example, the management node is known as 'mgt', the node namess are n1-n167, and the domain will be 'cluster'. We will use the BMCs in shared mode so they will share the NIC on each node that the node's operating system communicates to the xCAT management node over. This is call the management LAN. We will use subnet 172.16.0.0 with a netmask of 255.240.0.0 (/12) for it. (This provides an IP address range of 172.16.0.1 - 172.31.255.254 .) We will use the following subsets of this range for:

  • The management node: 172.20.0.1
  • The node OSes: 172.20.100+racknum.nodenuminrack
  • The node BMCs: 172.29.100+racknum.nodenuminrack
  • The management port of the switches: 172.30.50.switchnum
  • The DHPC dynamic range for unknown nodes: 172.20.255.1 - 172.20.255.254

The network is physically laid out such that port number on a switch is equal to the U position number within a column, like this:

Overview of Cluster Setup Process

Here is a summary of the steps required to set up the cluster and what this document will take you through:

  1. Prepare the management node - doing these things before installing the xCAT software helps the process to go more smoothly.
  2. Install the xCAT software on the management node.
  3. Configure some cluster wide information
  4. Define a little bit of information in the xCAT database about the ethernet switches and nodes - this is necessary to direct the node discovery process.
  5. Have xCAT configure and start several network daemons - this is necessary for both node discovery and node installation.
  6. Discovery the nodes - during this phase, xCAT configures the BMC's and collects many attributes about each node and stores them in the database.
  7. Set up the OS images and install the nodes.

Distro-specific Steps

  • [RH] indicates that step only needs to be done for RHEL and Red Hat based distros (CentOS, Scientific Linux, and in most cases Fedora).
  • [SLES] indicates that step only needs to be done for SLES.

Command Man Pages and Database Attribute Descriptions

Prepare the Management Node for xCAT Installation

Install the Management Node OS

Install one of the supported distros on the Management Node (MN). It is recommended to ensure that dhcp, bind (not bind-chroot), httpd, nfs-utils, and perl-XML-Parser are installed. (But if not, the process of installing the xCAT software later will pull them in, assuming you follow the steps to make the distro RPMs available.)

For details on the hardware requirements for the MN, see [Setting_Up_a_Linux_xCAT_Mgmt_Node#Hardware_features_required].

[RH] Ensure that SELinux is Disabled

In the /etc/selinux/config file, set: 

SELINUX=disabled

In order for a change in this setting to take effect, you must reboot the system, but we will do this later in this section.

[RH] Disable the Firewall

The management node provides many services to the cluster nodes, but the firewall on the management node can interfere with this. If your cluster is on a secure network, the easiest thing to do is to disable the firewall on the Management Mode: 

service iptables stop
chkconfig iptables off

If disabling the firewall completely isn't an option, configure iptables to allow the following services on the NIC that faces the cluster: DHCP, TFTP, NFS, HTTP, DNS.

Set Up the Networks

The xCAT installation process will scan and populate certain settings from the running configuration. Having the networks configured ahead of time will aid in correct configuration. (After installation of xCAT, all the networks in the cluster must be defined in the xCAT networks table before starting to install cluster nodes.) When xCAT is installed on the Management Node, it will automatically run makenetworks to create an entry in the networks table for each of the networks the management node is on. Additional network configurations can be added to the xCAT networks table manually later if needed.

The networks that are typically used in a cluster are:

  • Management network - used by the management node to install and manage the nodes. The MN and in-band NIC of the nodes are connected to this network. If you have a large cluster with service nodes, sometimes this network is segregated into separate VLANs for each service node. See [Setting_Up_a_Linux_Hierarchical_Cluster] for details.
  • Service network - used by the management node to control the nodes out of band via the BMC. If the BMCs are configured in shared mode, then this network can be combined with the management network.
  • Application network - used by the HPC applications on the compute nodes. Usually an IB network.
  • Site (Public) network - used to access the management node and sometimes for the compute nodes to provide services to the site.

In our example, we only deal with the management network because:

  • the BMCs are in shared mode, so they don't need a separate service network
  • we are not showing how to have xCAT automatically configure the application network NICs. See [Configuring_Secondary_Adapters] if you are interested in that.
  • under normal circumstances there is no need to put the site network in the networks table

For more information, see [Setting_Up_a_Linux_xCAT_Mgmt_Node#Appendix_A:_Network_Table_Setup_Example].

Configure NICS

Configure the cluster facing NICs. An example /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1: 

DEVICE=eth1
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=172.20.0.1
NETMASK=255.240.0.0

Prevent DHCP client from overwriting DNS configuration (Optional)

If the public facing NIC on your management node is configured by DHCP, you may want to set PEERDNS=no in the NIC's config file to prevent the dhclient from rewriting /etc/resolv.conf. This would be important if you will be configuring DNS on the management node (via makedns - covered later in this doc) and want the management node itself to use that DNS. In this case, set PEERDNS=no in each /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg- file that has BOOTPROTO=dhcp*.

On the other hand, if you want dhclient to configure /etc/resolv.conf on your management node, then don't set PEERDNS=no in the NIC config files.

Configure hostname

The xCAT management node hostname should be configured before installing xCAT on the management node. The hostname or its resolvable ip address will be used as the default master name in the xCAT site table, when installed. This name needs to be the one that will resolve to the cluster-facing NIC. Short hostnames (no domain) are the norm for the management node and all cluster nodes. Node names should never end in "-enx" for any x.

To set the hostname, edit /etc/sysconfig/network to contain, for example: 

HOSTNAME=mgt

If you run hostname command, if should return the same: 

# hostname
mgt

Setup basic hosts file

Ensure that at least the management node is in /etc/hosts: 

127.0.0.1               localhost.localdomain localhost
::1                     localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6
###
172.20.0.1 mgt mgt.cluster

Setup the TimeZone

When using the management node to install compute nodes, the timezone configuration on the management node will be inherited by the compute nodes. So it is recommended to setup the correct timezone on the management node. To do this on RHEL, see http://www.redhat.com/advice/tips/timezone.html. The process is similar, but not identical, for SLES. (Just google it.)

You can also optionally set up the MN as an NTP for the cluster. See [Setting_up_NTP_in_xCAT].

Create a Separate File system for /install (optional)

It is not required, but recommended, that you create a separate file system for the /install directory on the Management Node. The size should be at least 30 meg to hold to allow space for several install images.

Restart Management Node

Though it is possible to restart the correct services for all settings except SELinux, the simplest step would be to reboot the Management Node at this point.

Configure Ethernet Switches

xCAT will use the ethernet switches during node discovery to find out which switch port a particular MAC address is communicating over. This allows xCAT to match a random booting node with the proper node name in the database. To set up a switch, give it an IP address on its management port and enable basic SNMP functionality. (Typically, the SNMP agent in the switches is disabled by default.) Login to the switches to allow the SNMP version 1 community string "public" read access. This will allow xCAT to communicate without further customization. If you want to use SNMP version 3, the user/password and AuthProto (default is 'md5') should be set in the switches table. It is also recommended that spanning tree be set to portfast or edge-port for faster boot performance. Please see the relevant switch documentation as to how to configure these items.

If for some reason you can't configure SNMP on your switches, you can use the more manual method of entering the nodes' MACs into the database. See [#Manually_discover_a_node].

Install xCAT

There are two options for installation of xCAT:

  1. download the software first
  2. or install directly from the internet-hosted repository

Pick either one, but not both.

Option 1: Download the Software

If not able to, or not wishing to, use the live internet repository, choose this option.

Go to the [Download_xCAT] site and download the level of xCAT tarball you desire. Go to the xCAT Dependencies Download page and download the latest snap of the xCAT dependency tarball. (The latest snap of the xCAT dependency tarball will work with any version of xCAT.)

Copy the files to the Management Node (MN) and untar them: 

mkdir /root/xcat2
cd /root/xcat2
tar jxvf xcat-core-2.*.tar.bz2     # or core-rpms-snap.tar.bz2
tar jxvf xcat-dep-2*.tar.bz2

Setup YUM repositories for xCAT and Dependencies

Point YUM to the local repositories for xCAT and its dependencies: 

cd /root/xcat2/xcat-dep/<release>/<arch>
./mklocalrepo.sh
cd /root/xcat2/xcat-core
./mklocalrepo.sh

Option 2: Prepare to Install xCAT Directly from the Internet-hosted Repository

When using the live internet repository, you need to first make sure that name resolution on your management node is at least set up enough to resolve sourceforge.net. Then make sure the correct repo files are in /etc/yum.repos.d:

To get the current official release: 

cd /etc/yum.repos.d
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/stable/xcat-core/xCAT-core.repo

To get the deps package:

wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/xcat-dep/<release>/<arch>/xCAT-dep.repo

for example: 

wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/xcat-dep/rh6/x86_64/xCAT-dep.repo

For information on installing xCAT on SLES with zypper, see [Setting_Up_a_Linux_xCAT_Mgmt_Node#.5BSLES.5D_Setup_Zypper].

For Both Options: Make Required Packages From the Distro Available

xCAT uses on several packages that come from the Linux distro. Follow this section to create the repository of the OS on the Management Node.

See the following documentation: [Setting_Up_a_Linux_xCAT_Mgmt_Node#Get_the_Requisite_Packages_From_the_Distro].

Install xCAT Packages

[RH]: Use yum to install xCAT and all the dependencies: 

yum clean metadata
yum install xCAT

[SLES]: Use zypper to install xCAT and all the dependencies: 

zypper install xCAT

Quick Test of xCAT Installation

Add xCAT commands to the path by running the following: 

source /etc/profile.d/xcat.sh

Check to see the database is initialized: 

tabdump site

The output should similar to the following: 

key,value,comments,disable
"xcatdport","3001",,
"xcatiport","3002",,
"tftpdir","/tftpboot",,
"installdir","/install",,
     .
     .
     .

Updating xCAT Packages Later

If you need to update the xCAT RPMs later:

  • If the management node does not have access to the internet: download the new version of xCAT from [Download_xCAT] and the dependencies from xCAT Dependencies Download and untar them in the same place as before.
  • If the management node has access to the internet, the yum command below will pull the updates directly from the xCAT site.

To update xCAT:

[RH]: 

yum update '*xCAT*'

[SLES]: 

zypper refresh
zypper update -t package '*xCAT*'

Note: this will not apply updates that may have been made to some of the xCAT deps packages. (If there are brand new deps packages, they will get installed.) In most cases, this is ok, but if you want to make all updates for xCAT rpms and deps, run the following command. This command will also pick up additional OS updates.

[RH]: 

yum update

[SLES]: 

zypper refresh
zypper update

Configure xCAT

Load the e1350 Templates

Several xCAT database tables must be filled in while setting up an iDataPlex cluster. To make this process easier, xCAT provides several template files in /opt/xcat/share/xcat/templates/e1350/. These files contain regular expressions that describe the naming patterns in the cluster. With xCAT's regular expression support, one line in a table can define one or more attribute values for all the nodes in a node group. (For more information on xCAT's database regular expressions, see http://xcat.sourceforge.net/man5/xcatdb.5.html .) To load the default templates into your database: 

cd /opt/xcat/share/xcat/templates/e1350/
for i in *csv; do tabrestore $i; done

These templates contain entries for a lot of different node groups, but we will be using the following node groups:

  • ipmi - the nodes controlled via IPMI.
  • idataplex - the iDataPlex nodes
  • 42perswitch - the nodes that are connected to 42 port switches
  • compute - all of the compute nodes
  • 84bmcperrack - the BMCs that are in a fully populated rack of iDataPlex
  • switch - the ethernet switches in the cluster

In our example, ipmi, idataplex, 42perswitch, and compute have the exact same membership because all of our iDataPlex nodes have those characteristics.

The templates define the following naming conventions:

  • The iDataPlex node names are of the form <string><number>, for example: n1
  • The iDataPlex node IP addresses are 172.20.100+racknum.nodenuminrack
  • The iDataPlex nodes are plugged into 42-port ethernet switches in order of node number
  • The BMC node names are of the form bmc<nodenum>, for example, bmc1
  • The BMC IP addresses are 172.29.100+racknum.nodenuminrack
  • The management connection to each ethernet switch has a hostname of the form switch<number>
  • The management connection to each ethernet switch has IP addresses of 172.30.50.switchnum

If these conventions don't work for your situation, you can either:

  1. modify the regular expressions - see [XCAT_iDataPlex_Advanced_Setup#Template_modification_example]
  2. or manually define each node - see [XCAT_iDataPlex_Advanced_Setup#Manually_setup_the_node_attributes_instead_of_using_the_templates]

Add Nodes to the nodelist Table

Now you can use the power of the templates to define the nodes quickly: 

nodeadd n1-n167 groups=ipmi,idataplex,42perswitch,compute,all
nodeadd bmc1-bmc167 groups=84bmcperrack 
nodeadd switch1-switch4 groups=switch

To see the list of nodes you just defined: 

nodels

To see all of the attributes that the combination of the templates and your nodelist have defined for a few sample nodes: 

lsdef n100,bmc100,switch2

This is the easiest way to verify that the regular expressions in the templates are giving you attribute values you are happy with. (Or, if you modified the regular expressions, that you did it correctly.)

Networks Table

All networks in the cluster must be defined in the networks table. When xCAT was installed, it ran makenetworks, which created an entry in this table for each of the networks the management node is connected to. Now is the time to add to or update in the networks table any other networks in the cluster.

For a sample Networks Setup, see the following example: [Setting_Up_a_Linux_xCAT_Mgmt_Node#Appendix_A:_Network_Table_Setup_Example]

Declare a dynamic range of addresses for discovery

If you want to use hardware discovery, a dynamic range is required to be defined in the networks table. It's used for the nodes to get an IP address before xCAT knows their MAC addresses.

In this case, we'll designate 172.20.255.1-172.20.255.254 as a dynamic range: 

chdef -t network 172_16_0_0-255_240_0_0 dynamicrange=172.20.255.1-172.20.255.254

Declare use of SOL

If not using a terminal server, SOL is recommended, but not required to be configured. To instruct xCAT to configure SOL in installed operating systems on dx340 systems: 

chdef -t group -o compute serialport=1 serialspeed=19200 serialflow=hard

For dx360-m2 and newer use: 

chdef -t group -o compute serialport=0 serialspeed=115200 serialflow=hard

passwd Table

The template created a default passwd table. This includes the system entry which is the passwd that will be assigned to root when the node is installed. You can modify this table using tabedit. To change the default password for root on the nodes, change the system line. To change the password to be used for the BMCs, change the ipmi line. 

tabedit passwd
#key,username,password,cryptmethod,comments,disable
"blade","USERID","PASSW0RD",,,
"system","root","cluster",,,
"ipmi","USERID","PASSW0RD",,,

noderes Table

The template created a basic noderes table which defines node resources during install. In the template, servicenode and xcatmaster are not defined, so they will default to the Management Node.

At this point, xCAT should be ready to begin managing services.

Begin using xCAT to configure system and discover nodes

Setup /etc/hosts file

Since the map between the xCAT node names and IP addresses have been added in the hosts table by the 31350 template, you can run the makehosts xCAT command to create the /etc/hosts file from the xCAT hosts table. (You can skip this step if creating /etc/hosts manually.) 

makehosts switch,idataplex,ipmi

Verify the entries have been created in the file /etc/hosts. For example your /etc/hosts should look like this: 

127.0.0.1               localhost.localdomain localhost
::1                     localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6
###
172.20.0.1 mgt mgt.cluster
172.20.101.1 n1 n1.cluster
172.20.101.2 n2 n2.cluster
172.20.101.3 n3 n3.cluster
172.20.101.4 n4 n4.cluster
172.20.101.5 n5 n5.cluster
172.20.101.6 n6 n6.cluster
172.20.101.7 n7 n7.cluster
              .
              .
              .

Setup DNS

To get the hostname/IP pairs copied from /etc/hosts to the DNS on the MN:

  • Ensure that /etc/sysconfig/named does not have ROOTDIR set

  • Set site.forwarders to your site-wide DNS servers that can resolve site or public hostnames. The DNS on the MN will forward any requests it can't answer to these servers.

    chdef -t site forwarders=1.2.3.4,1.2.5.6

  • Edit /etc/resolv.conf to point the MN to its own DNS. (Note: this won't be required in xCAT 2.8 and above.)

    search cluster
    nameserver 172.20.0.1

  • Run makedns

    makedns && service named start

For more information about name resolution in an xCAT Cluster, see [Cluster_Name_Resolution].

Setup DHCP

This will get the network stanza part of the DHCP configuration (including the dynamic range) set: 

makedhcp -n

The IP/MAC mappings for the nodes will be added to DHCP automatically as the nodes are discovered.

Setup TFTP

Nothing to do here - the TFTP server is done by xCAT during the Management Node install.

Setup conserver

makeconservercf &amp;&amp; service conserver start

Discover nodes

If you want to update node firmware when you discover the nodes, follow the steps in [XCAT_iDataPlex_Advanced_Setup#Updating_Node_Firmware] before continuing.

Walk over to systems, hit power buttons, and on the MN watch nodes discover themselves by: 

#tail -f /var/log/messages

Look for the dhcp requests, the xCAT discovery requests, and the "<node> has been discovered" messages.

A quick summary of what is happening during the discovery process it:

  • the nodes request a DHCP IP address and PXE boot instructions
  • the DHCP server on the MN responds with a dynamic IP address and the xCAT genesis boot kernel
  • the genesis boot kernel running on the node sends the MAC and MTMS to xcatd on the MN
  • xcatd asks the switches which port this MAC is on so that it can correlate this physical node with the proper node entry in the database. Then it:
    • stores the node's MTMS in the db
    • puts the MAC/IP pair in the DHCP configuration
    • sends several of the node attributes to the genesis kernel on the node
  • the genesis kernel configures the BMC with the proper IP address, userid, and password, and then just drops into a shell

After a successful discovery process, the following attributes will be added to the database for each node. (You can verify this by running lsdef <node> ): 

bmcpassword  #the bmc password
mac  #the mac address of the node which gotten by discovery
mtm  #the hardware type
serial  # the hardware serial number

If you cannot discover the nodes successfully, see the next section [#Manually_discover_a_node].

Manually discover a node

If you just have a few nodes and can't configure the switch for SNMP, you can manually set up the xCAT tables instead, and then run the BMC setup process to configure the BMC on the nodes:

  • Add the mac address for each node to the xCAT database:

This mac address can be obtained from the back panel of the machine. This MAC address should belong to NIC which is connected to the management network. 

chdef n1 mac="xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx"
chdef n2 mac="yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy"

  • Add the nodes to dhcp service

    makedhcp n1-n2

  • Setup the current runcmd to be bmcsetup

    nodeset n1-n2 runcmd=bmcsetup

  • Then walk over and power on the node.

Verify state of nodes

After about 5-10 minutes, nodes should be configured and ready for hardware management. You can verify this by: 

# rpower all stat|xcoll
==================================== 
n1,n10,n100,n101,n102,n103,n104,n105,n106,n107,n108,n109,n11,n110,n111,
n112,n113,n114,n115,n116,n117,n118,n119,n12,n120,n121,n122,n123,n124,n125,n126,n127,n128,
n129,n13,n130,n131,n132,n133,n134,n135,n136,n137,n138,n139,n14,n140,n141,n142,n143,n144,n145,
n146,n147,n148,n149,n15,n150,n151,n152,n153,n154,n155,n156,n157,n158,n159,n16,n160,n161,
n162,n163,n164,n165,n166,n167,n17,n18,n19,n2,n20,n21,n22,n23,n24,n25,n26,n27,n28,n29,n3,n30,
n31,n32,n33,n34,n35,n36,n37,n38,n39,n4,n40,n41,n42,n43,n44,n45,n46,n47,n48,n49,n5,n50,n51,n52,
n53,n54,n55,n56,n57,n58,n59,n6,n60,n61,n62,n63,n64,n65,n66,n67,n68,n69,n7,n70,n71,n72,n73,n74,
n75,n76,n77,n78,n79,n8,n80,n81,n82,n83,n84,n85,n86,n87,n88,n89,n9,n90,n91,n92,n93,n94,n95,n96,
n97,n98,n99
==================================== 
on

Install nodes

Create Redhat repository

  • Download Redhat ISOs or load your OS's DVD's and place in a directory:

    mkdir /root/xcat2
    cd /root/xcat2
    wget <ISO of your Redhat OS>

  • Run copycds to setup the install directory for the node diskfull/diskless boots. The copycds commands will copy the contents of to /install/rhel5/<arch>. For example:

    cd /root/xcat2
    copycds RHEL5.2-Server-20080430.0-x86_64-DVD.iso

Begin installation

The following command will commence installation to disk on all of the nodes. Modify the oslevel from rhels5.2 to whatever version you are installing. 

# rinstall -o rhels5.2 all

Monitor installation

It is possible to use the wcons command to monitor a sampling of the nodes: 

# wcons n1,n20,n80,n100

or rcons to monitor one node 

# rcons n1

Additionally, nodestat may be used to check the status of a node as it installs: 

# nodestat n20,n21
n20: installing man-pages - 2.39-10.el5 (0%)
n21: installing prep

After some time, the nodes should be up and ready for general usage

Useful Applications of xCAT commands

For any given command, typing 'man command' should give an in depth document on the workings of that command. Here are some examples of using key commands and command combinations in useful ways.

For a list of all xCAT commands and links to their manpages: [XCAT_Commands]

Adding groups to a set of nodes

In this configuration, a handy convenience group would be the lower systems in the chassis, the ones able to read temperature and fanspeed. In this case, the odd systems would be on the bottom, so to do this with a regular expression: 

# nodech '/n.*[13579]$' groups,=bottom

or explicitly 

chdef -p -t node -o n1-n9,n11-n19,n21-n29,n31-n39,n41-n49,n51-n59,n61-n69,n71-79,n81-n89,
n91-n99,n101-n109,n111-119,n121-n129,n131-139,n141-n149,n151-n159,n161-n167 groups="bottom"

Listing attributes

We can list discovered and expanded versions of attributes (Actual vpd should appear instead of *) : 

# nodels n97 nodepos.rack nodepos.u vpd.serial vpd.mtm 
n97: nodepos.u: A-13
n97: nodepos.rack: 2
n97: vpd.serial: ********
n97: vpd.mtm: *******

You can also list all the attributes: 

#lsdef n97 
Object name: n97
   arch=x86_64
        .
   groups=bottom,ipmi,idataplex,42perswitch,compute,all
        .
        .
        .
   rack=1    
   unit=A1

Verifying consistency and version of firmware

xCAT provides parallel commands and the sinv (inventory) command, to analyze the consistency of the cluster. [Parallel_Commands_and_Inventory]

Combining the use of in-band and out-of-band utilities with the xcoll utility, it is possible to quickly analyze the level and consistency of firmware across the servers: 

# rinv n1-n3 mprom|xcoll 
==================================== 
n1,n2,n3
==================================== 
BMC Firmware: 1.18

The BMC does not have the BIOS version, so to do the same for that, use psh: 

# psh n1-n3 dmidecode|grep "BIOS Information" -A4|grep Version|xcoll 
==================================== 
n1,n2,n3
==================================== 
Version: I1E123A

To update the firmware on your nodes, see [XCAT_iDataPlex_Advanced_Setup#Updating_Node_Firmware].

Verifying or Setting ASU Settings

To do this, see [XCAT_iDataPlex_Advanced_Setup#Updating_ASU_Settings_on_the_Nodes].

Reading and interpreting sensor readings

If the configuration is louder than expected (iDataplex chassis should nominally have a fairly modest noise impact), find the nodes with elevated fanspeed: 

# rvitals bottom fanspeed|sort -k 4|tail -n 3
n3: PSU FAN3: 2160 RPM
n3: PSU FAN4: 2240 RPM
n3: PSU FAN1: 2320 RPM

In this example, the fanspeeds are pretty typical. If fan speeds are elevated, there may be a thermal issue. In a dx340 system, if near 10,000 RPM, there is probably either a defective sensor or misprogrammed power supply.

To find the warmest detected temperatures in a configuration: 

# rvitals bottom temp|grep Domain|sort -t: -k 3|tail -n 3
n3: Domain B Therm 1: 46 C (115 F)
n7: Domain A Therm 1: 47 C (117 F)
n3: Domain A Therm 1: 49 C (120 F)

Change tail to head in the above examples to seek the slowest fans/lowest temperatures. Currently, an iDataplex chassis without a planar tray in the top position will report '0 C' for Domain B temperatures.

For more options, see rvitals manpage: http://xcat.sourceforge.net/man1/rvitals.1.html

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