BMCBeowulfSuperComputer:HOWTO

BMC Beowulf Super Computer - HOWTO

This page provides assembly instructions for BMC's Beowulf build party, Feb 9, 2004. These instructions tell you how to build a single node for the cluster.

Step 1: Assemble materials

Materials that you will need:

Step 2: Scavenge for parts

Grab an old Dell. Open the left side panel by sliding the release at the bottom of the back and pushing the button on the bottom of the front. Remove the front bezel by pushing down on the green button on top.

Remove the hard drive

Unplug the cables from the back of the drive. Remove the screw from the side of the carrier and swing the carrier out and up to remove. Unscrew the hard drive from the carrier. Be careful with the exposed circuit board on the bottom of the hard drive. Set the hard drive, four screws and IDE cable aside for later use. Replace the carrier in the Dell case.

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Remove the CD-ROM

Unplug the IDE cable and power cable from the CD-ROM. Unplug the small 4-pin connector from the motherboard and leave the other end attached to the CD-ROM. Squeeze the tabs on the sides of the drive at the front of the case and pull the drive out. Unscrew the drive from the carrier and set it aside with the screws. Replace the carrier in the Dell case.

Everything else

We won’t be using anything else for the new computers we will be building, but we may as well remove all of the other potentially useful stuff.

Remove the zip drive and floppy drive by disconnecting the cables from the back and pulling them out from the front. Remove the cables from the motherboard.

Pull the green lever on the bottom of the computer out and remove the PCI carrier. Remove any PCI cards such as a sound card and video card. Replace the empty PCI carrier.

Next, we will remove the case fan. Pull up on both sides of the green air duct near the processor heatsink. Remove the green air duct and discard. Push down on the black tab on the top of the case fan. The fan should slide down a bit and then be easy to remove from the case.

Remove the memory by simultaneously (in the reference frame of the computer) pushing the white tabs at either end out. Remove the CPU by pushing in on the clip that faces the center of the motherboard. The heatsink will just fall off at that point. Pull out and up on the lever and the CPU will pop up and out. Pop out the battery in the center of the board (it looks like a quarter.)

Put the front and side covers back on the old dell.

We’re done scavenging.

Step 3: Prepare the new case

Unpack the new case. Remove both side covers. Take out the bag of hardware and power cord.

Click for larger view	Click for larger view

Install the CD-ROM

Remove the cover from the top drive bay by pushing it out from the inside. Slide the CD-ROM into this drive bay and secure with three screws. Make sure the drive is aligned with the front of the case.

Install the hard drive

Install the hard drive in the third bay from the bottom of the case. Make sure the connectors face the back of the case and secure with four screws. Remove the rear I/O panel from the case. Install the six brass standoffs in the positions indicated in the picture.

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Click for larger view

Step 4: Prepare the motherboard

Unpack the motherboard and gently place it in the case to make sure all of the standoffs are in the right place, aligned with the holes on the motherboard. Now take the motherboard back out of the case and place it on the foam pad it came with and place this on the antistatic bag it came in.

Click for larger view

Snap the new I/O connector panel into the back of the case from the inside. There are two tabs that must be bent up slightly so they don’t catch when you install the motherboard. One is above the hole for the mouse connector and the other is above the hole for the network connector.

Memory

Now back to the motherboard. Install the memory in DDR1. First ground yourself. Then open the blue clips on the ends of the slot on the motherboard by pushing them outward. Now take out the memory and align it in the slot (note the alignment tab – it only goes in one way). Placing your thumbs on each end press it straight down very firmly until the clips at each end lock into place.

Processor

Time to install the processor. Unpack the processor. Pull the lever on the side of the processor socket up. Ground yourself before touching the processor. Gently set the processor onto the socket with the arrow on one corner pointing toward the lever. This is called a zero insertion force socket for a reason – NO FORCE IS NECESSARY TO INSTALL THE PROCESSOR. If it doesn't drop into place on its own then it is probably not aligned properly. Once the processor is in push the lever back down so that it latches on the side.

Heatsink

Next we install the heatsink onto the processor. There’s not a lot of room to work here so go slowly, be careful, and ask questions. The heatsink is not symmetric. The side with the wires coming out of it face away from the center of the motherboard. Before you start make sure there is no tape over the bottom of the heatsink. There should be a gray square of thermally conductive goo. First hook the clamp on the side near the four cylindrical capacitors next to the orange heatsink. You might need to hold the clip down with a small screwdriver, but don’t let the screwdriver slip off and jam into the board. Once that side of the clip is securely in place, take the small flat screwdriver and put it into the slot on the tab. Carefully push down and out on the tab until it hooks into place. Carefully inspect the heatsink to make sure that it is properly installed. Plug the fan cable into the JCFAN1 header and tuck the cable out of the way under the edge of the heatsink.

Bus speed

Find the frequency selection header JCLK1 near the memory. The jumper is currently set for a bus speed of 100 MHz by connecting pins 3 and 4. Change this to a speed of 166 MHz by removing the jumpers. See page 13 of the manual for more details.

Step 5: Final hardware assembly

Using the spare standoff find the six screws that fit the standoff. Place the motherboard into the case and carefully align the I/O connectors at the back of the board with the appropriate holes. MAKE SURE NONE OF THE TABS BEND DOWN IN FRONT OF THE CONNECTOR. As you are doing this be careful not to scrape the back of the motherboard on the standoffs. Screw the motherboard in place with the six screws.

Front Panel Connector

Make the connections to the Front Panel Connector, JPANEL1, with the bundle of wires near the bottom of the case (p. 9). Our case has no SLP or IR connections. All of the connector labels should face the bottom of the case. If you get the switches in backwards it won’t matter, but if you get the lights in backwards they won’t light. The power led is split into two. When looking from the bottom of the case, place the + to the left (on pin 10) and the – to the right (on pin 12).

USB Connectors

Connect the two USB wires to the Front USB Header. Again, the label should be down. Connect the four-pin socket to the bottom row of the header and connect the extra ground to pin 8 adjacent to the ground on the four-pin connector (p. 12).

Power

Connect the main power cable to the power connector JATXPWR1.

Hard drive

Connect the hard drive. First connect the blue end of the IDE cable to the motherboard at IDE1. Then connect the other end of the IDE cable to the hard drive. The middle connector of the cable is left unused. Finally connect a power cable to the hard drive.

CD-ROM

Connect the CD-ROM. The small four pin audio cable connects to the CD-ROM Audio-In Header JCDIN1 in the lower left corner of the motherboard. A second IDE cable connects IDE2 on the motherboard to the IDE connector on the CD-ROM. Finally, a power cable is connected.

Case fan

Plug the fan into the JSFAN1 connector.

Final step: Testing and cover

Replace the cover on the far side of the computer, but leave the other one off for a moment so you can still see the motherboard.

Take the label maker and name your node, then take your computer to one of the testing areas. Plug in the power cord and the keyboard, video and mouse cable. Flip the switch on the back of the power supply to on (1 is on 0 is off). Go around to the front of your machine and press the power button. The power light should come on. The CD-ROM light should flash on. The hard drive should flash as the disk is accessed. If the lights don’t come on the connectors were probably reversed. Also check to see that all of the fans are running. Take a look at the monitor. It should be prompting you to make a decision by pressing one of the function keys. If everything seems to be running properly you should replace the final side cover on your machine. Remove the funnel from the airduct on the panel, and screw onto the case.

Congratulations! You have just built a computing node for the cluster.

Step 6: Installing the Software

The last step for this evening is to install the operating system (OS). We will be using GNU/Linux, a freely available, freely modifiable, and freely distributable operating system and applications. Linux makes a dandy server or desktop, but we will use it for its use in the cluster.

Connect your computer to the cluster

Place your computer on the shelf in the next open location in Park 340. Plug in the monitor, keyboard, and mouse cables using the long cables to the central computer monitor. There is only one, so you may have to wait. Also, plug in a power cord, and networking cable. One end of the networking cable (looks like a big phone cord) goes into the port on the back of the computer, and the other end should go into the next open port on the network hub on the top shelf.

Prepare for installation

Take a CD labeled "Shrike Disk 1" and get ready to put it into the CD-ROM drive. You will also need the next node number that is associated with your node's position. Make a label with your node's number, and place it on the front of the computer case.

Power up and install

Now, turn on the computer and place the CD into the CD-ROM drive. You'll get an error about not having a floppy drive, so press the Del key to enter the BIOS. Select Standard CMOS Features (the top-most option), and down-arrow to the Drive A option. Press Page Up until it reads None. Press Escape to go back to the main menu, and select Advanced CMOS Features. Select Boot and Floppy Setup, and change the sequence so that the boot order is:

1. CD-ROM drive (CDROM)

2. Hard drive (HDD-0)

Press F10 to save the settings and press Enter to exit. The computer should begin to boot from the CD-ROM. Once it comes up with a Red Hat screen, enter the following:

linux ks=http://10.0.0.1/

That will tell the system to look on the server computer for its kickstart (ks) configuration file. After a minute or so, you will be prompted to enter the computer's IP number. You will press the spacebar to disable DHCP, and will enter the following on the lines provided.

In the following, replace IDNUMBER with the ID number of your computer:

10.0.0.IDNUMBER
255.255.255.0
10.0.0.1
10.0.0.1

For example, if you were assigned 9 above, then you will enter 10.0.0.9. After entering this information, press the TAB key until you are on the Ok button and press the spacebar.

You can now remove the CD from the CD-ROM drive. In a few minutes, the software will finish installing, and your node will be ready to use.

Congratulations! You have just installed your computing node in the cluster.

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Immutable page (last edited 2005-02-09 20:16:28 by MikeNoel)

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