Bright Cluster head node installer Ansible collection examples

This repository contains usage examples for the brightcomputing.installer100 Ansible collection.

To immediately jump to one of the example Playbooks, see

• AWS
• Azure
• Non-cloud

The remainder of this document provides a high-level overview of the installer Ansible collection.

Introduction

An Ansible collection is the standard way for shipping and consuming Ansible distributables (playbooks, roles, plugins) since version 2.10. This document assumes that the user has practical knowledge of Ansible and Bright Cluster Manager.

This document briefly describes the procedure for deploying a Bright Cluster head node through an Ansible playbook using the head node installer Ansible collection. The collection defines the brightcomputing.installer100.head_node role that deploys the Bright Cluster Manager head node when defined with the correct parameters in the user’s playbooks and roles. The head node installation also includes deployment of the default software image and node-installer image components, which is required for provisioning compute nodes.

Terminology

Throughout this document, control node refers to the machine from where the Ansible playbook is being run and where the Ansible collection is installed. Managed node or host refers to the machine where the Bright head node is being deployed.

Supported versions

Linux distributions:

• Rocky Linux 8
• Rocky Linux 9
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 8
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 9
• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Bright versions:

• Nvidia Base Command Manager 10.0

Using this collection

Requirements

See the Ansible Galaxy README for a comprehensive overview of requirements.

In short, there are several configuration requirements for target host machines.

• Minimal hardware requirements
• Fresh installation of a supported Linux distribution
• Software
  • Python 3 and required modules
  • MySQL or MariaDB service
  • SELinux disabled
• Access to Bright software
  • local: using a manually defined repository
  • network: using a repository defined by Bright packages
  • dvd: using an ISO file or DVD

Installation

Install the collection using the ansible-galaxy command-line tool:

ansible-galaxy collection install brightcomputing.installer100

See Ansible Using collections for more details.

Running the head node installer

The head node installer collection can be referenced by its name in a Playbook. Assign the head_node role to a host pattern in order to use the installer.

- name: <play name>
  hosts: <pattern>
  roles:
    - role: brightcomputing.installer100.head_node
      vars:
        <parameters>

Parameters

See the Ansible Galaxy README for a comprehensive overview of parameters.

There are mandatory parameters related to the product license.

Parameter	Type/Format	Description
product_key	XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX	A Bright Computing product key used to request a license for the deployment
license.country	string	The country value to use for the certificate request
license.state	string	The state or province name to use for the certificate request
license.locality	string	The locality name to use for the certificate request
license.organization	string	The organization name to use for the certificate request
license.organizational_unit	string	The organization unit name to use for the certificate request
license.cluster_name	string	The cluster name (common name) name to use for the certificate request
license.mac	mac	The mac address value to use for the certificate request

There are also mandatory credential parameters. It is strongly recommended to manage these (and similar parameters) using Ansible Vault.

Parameter	Type/Format	Description
db_cmd_password	string	CMDaemon service database password
ldap_root_pass	string	LDAP root password to configure ldap service with
ldap_readonly_pass	string	LDAP read only password to configure ldap service with
slurm_user_pass	string	SLURM user password for database access

Furthermore, there are connectivity-related parameters. management_interface needs to be set for all types of cloud deployment. Depending on the platform (AWS, Azure, non-cloud), there are additional mandatory parameters. See the specific examples for details.

Parameter	Type/Format	Description
management_interface	string	The head node management network interface

And then there are install medium parameters. Depending on the choice of install medium (dvd, network, or local), there are different mandatory parameters to be specified.

Parameter	Type/Format	Description
install_medium	choice of [dvd, network, local]	Medium type that the installer will use for the installation of Bright
dvd
install_medium_dvd_path	path	Path to Bright-provided iso or path to device with the DVD on it
install_medium_dvd_checksum_path	path	Path to file containing md5 checksum of Bright iso (optional)
network
install_medium_network_packages	list[string]	List of paths to all packages provided by Bright that will define Bright Package repositories
local
install_medium_local_repo_path	path	Path to local file that defines the list of package repositories to fetch Bright package from

All example playbooks in this repository use the network install medium. When basing a playbook on the examples, be sure to set correct paths for the cm-config packages, matching the operating system and architecture. Verify that these network locations are reachable from the target host.

Examples

The example playbooks in this repository specify simple installations for the three cloud types: AWS, Azure, and non-cloud. Their configuration is similar, but every type also requires unique parameters. The cloud type is determined by the cloud parameter.

The examples assume that the necessary machines are present and prepared according to the requirements as specified in the Ansible Galaxy README. This means that in the case of a non-cloud installation, there are live machines reachable from the control node, and in case of a cloud deployment, the respective resources are provisioned beforehand. For the latter, the cloud resources can of course be provisioned using the AWS and Azure Ansible playbooks.

This repository contains three example playbooks.

• AWS
• Azure
• Non-cloud

Licensing

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

See LICENSE for the full text.