Planning Volume 2, Control Workstation and Software Environment

Question 10: What do you need for your control workstation?

When planning your control workstation you can consider it as a server to the SP system applications. The subsystems running on the control workstation are the SP server applications for the SP nodes. The nodes are clients of the control workstation server applications. The control workstation serves as a single point of control for these server applications that provide configuration data, security, hardware monitoring, diagnostics, and, optionally, job scheduling data and a time source.

As in all servers the reliability of the servers will affect the availability of the clients. In this case the availability of the SP system as a whole is affected. See Eliminating the control workstation as a single point of failure for more details and what happens when a single control workstation configuration has a control workstation failure. When configuring your control workstation, availability of the resources should be a key consideration.

IBM offers multiple ways to configure the control workstation and each way enables a different level of reliability for the control workstation and the SP system:

• Single control workstation without using AIX fault tolerant functions.

  This configuration has no redundant or backup functions. Its advantage is a configuration that costs less and is less complex. Its disadvantage is that a single hardware or software component failure can affect the availability of the SP system.

• Single control workstation that utilizes AIX fault tolerant functions.

  This configuration has some redundant or backup functions but does not protect against all failures. Its disadvantage is that most software failures and base system hardware failures are not protected against. Its advantage is that, although it is a slightly more costly configuration than the single control workstation without using AIX fault tolerant functions, it is still less costly than an HACWS configuration.

• An HACWS (High Availability Control Workstation) configuration.

  This configuration provides the most reliability for the control workstation and the SP system. All hardware and software components are redundant, which allows recovery from any single failure. Its disadvantage is that it costs more than the previous two control workstation configurations. Its advantage is that the SP system is better suited for production environments with this feature enabled.

  For more information on planning for HACWS, see Chapter 4, Planning for a high availability control workstation.

Software requirements for control workstations

The control workstation and some of its software might not be part of the SP package and must be ordered separately. Make sure you have ordered them in time to arrive when the rest of your SP does. To coordinate delivery of the SP and control workstation, your IBM representative must link the SP and control workstation orders with a System Order Number.

The control workstation is delivered with CE diagnostics preloaded. Do not begin your loading of software on the control workstation or nodes until after the CE turns the system over to you.

Required software

The following software is required on the control workstation:

• |AIX 5L 5.1 or AIX 4.3.3 (or later) server |(5765-C34)
• |PSSP 3.4 (5765-D51)
• At least one of the following:
  • |IBM C 5.0.2 or later
  • |VisualAge C++ 5.0.2 or later

    |Note:

    PSSP does not support the incremental compiler and runtime libraries. |It only supports the batch C and C++ 5.0.2 or later compilers |and runtime libraries that are included in this VisualAge package. |

  Compilers are necessary for IBM service of PSSP. Also, without the compiler, dump diagnosis tools like crash cannot work effectively. At least one concurrent use license is required for the SP system. Concurrent licensing allows the one license to float across the SP nodes and the control workstation. You can order the license as part of the SP system. It is not required directly on the control workstation if a license server for AIX for C and C++ exists some where in the network and the SP is included in the license server's cell.

Optional software

Some PSSP components and related licensed programs are optional but when you do choose to use them, some must be installed on the control workstation while others can optionally be installed on the control workstation. While the PSSP: Installation and Migration book has the complete list of what can be installed on the control workstation, certain choices have implications that you need to consider during planning. They are identified here as they relate to your plans for the control workstation.

The following are optional but if you use them, you must install them on your control workstation:

• HACWS

  See Software requirements for HACWS configurations.

• Virtual Shared Disk and Recoverable Virtual Shared Disk

  See Chapter 5, Planning for Virtual Shared Disks. Also see the book PSSP: Managing Shared Disks to plan your virtual shared disks and which software to install on the control workstation and on the nodes.

• AIX DCE

  If you plan to use AIX DCE authentication methods as part of security on your SP, you must order and install the AIX DCE licensed program. See Chapter 6, Planning for security.

• PSSP graphical user interfaces

  These include the SP Perspectives and other optional interfaces such as:

  • |Hardware Perspective
  • |Event Perspective
  • |Virtual Shared Disk Perspective
  • |System Partitioning Aid
  • |SP Resource Center
  • |SP Perspectives Launch Pad
  • |Perspectives online help

  In addition to installing the correct file sets, you must establish proper authorizations for actions that these interfaces might issue to operate on nodes.

|Service Director for RS/6000 is provided with the SP system but you |need to consider it during this planning phase if you want to use it. |If you decide to use it, consider whether you want to install it on the |control workstation or somewhere else. Service Director is a set of IBM |software applications that monitor the health of your SP system. |Service Director analyzes AIX error logs and runs diagnostics against those |error logs. You can define which systems have the Service Director |clients and servers and the level of error log forwarding or network |access. See Service Director for RS/6000 for requirements and planning.

Hardware requirements for control workstations

To help you plan your control workstation hardware, this section includes the following:

• The default control workstation hardware configurations.
• The supported control workstations.
• The control workstation minimum hardware requirements.
• The HACWS minimum hardware requirements.

Default control workstations

There are six separate control workstation configurations that are suggested for new customers. |There is one configuration for the IBM RS/6000 44P Model 170, three |configurations for the IBM pSeries 620 Model 6F1, and two for |the IBM pSeries 660 Model 6H1. The new supported CWS |configurations are listed below. These defaults can be upgraded as your needs increase. Your marketing representative might specify alternative configurations for different environments.
|

|Table 20. 44P-170 Default control workstation configuration

|Table 21. p620 Model 6F1 small default control workstation configuration

|Table 22. p620 Model 6F1 medium default control workstation configuration

|Table 23. p620 Model 6F1 large default control workstation configuration

|Table 24. p660 Model 6H1 small default control workstation configuration

|Table 25. p660 Model 6H1 medium default control workstation configuration

Supported control workstations

Running the PSSP software requires an IBM pSeries or RS/6000 workstation as a point-of-control for managing, monitoring, and maintaining the nodes in a system of clustered enterprise servers or in a system of SP frames and processor nodes. The control workstation you supply connects to each frame and to the SP Ethernet. |Table 26 lists the control workstations you might already |have and can still use to run PSSP 3.4 and it includes those you can |currently order from IBM. Pay particular attention to the notes. |Some indicate certain conditions for support. Only those so noted in |the PCI category are currently available from IBM.

Table 26. Supported control workstations

See Chapter 4, "Planning for a high availability control workstation" for more planning information about the control workstation.

Control workstation minimum hardware requirements

The minimum requirements for the control workstation are:

• At least 128MB of main memory. An extra 64MB of memory should be added for each additional system partition. For SP systems with more than 80 nodes 256MB is required, 512MB of memory is suggested.
• At least 9GB of disk storage. If the SP is going to use an HACWS configuration, you can configure 9GB of disk storage in the rootvg volume group and 9GB for the spdata in an external volume group.

  Because the control workstation is used as a Network Installation Manager (NIM) server, the number of unique file sets required for all the nodes in the SP system might be larger than a normal single system. You should plan to reserve 6GB of disk storage for the file sets, and 2GB for the operating system. This will allow adequate space for future maintenance, system mksysb images and growth. Keep in mind that if you have nodes at different levels of PSSP or AIX, each node requires its own directory for source which will take up extra space.

  A good rule of thumb to use for disk planning for a production system is 4GB for the rootvg to accommodate additional logging and /tmp space, plus 4GB for each AIX release and modification level and for licensed programs in lppsource files. Add more disk space for mksysb images for the nodes.

  If you plan on using rootvg mirroring, for one mirror double the number of physical disks you estimated so far. Triple the estimate for two mirrors.

• You might plan to use the control workstation to initially build your own customized mksysb AIX image. One reason might be that you want to enable the AIX trusted computing base option. If you plan to create a customized mksysb for any reason, you must have at least two physical disks in the control workstation, one for the alternate volume group (not rootvg) that the mksysb command will use for the output.
• |Physically installed to within 12 meters of RS-232 cable to each SP |frame or IBM pSeries or RS/6000 server. See the book |IBM RS/6000 SP: Planning Volume 1, Hardware and Physical |Environmentfor how to connect to each of the supported |servers.
• Equipped with the following I/O devices and adapters:
  • A 3.5 inch diskette drive
  • Four or eight millimeter (or equivalent) tape drive
  • A SCSI CD-ROM device
  • One RS-232 port for each SP frame
  • Keyboard and mouse
  • Color graphics adapter and color monitor. An X-station Model 150 and display are required if an RS/6000 that does not support a color graphics adapter is used.
  • An appropriate network adapter for your external communication network. The adapter does not have to be on the control workstation. If it is not on the control workstation, the SP Ethernet must extend to another host that is not part of the SP system. A backup control workstation does not satisfy this requirement. This additional connection is used to access the control workstation from the network when the SP nodes are down.
  • SP Ethernet adapters for connection to the SP Ethernet

    The number of Ethernet adapters required depends completely on the Ethernet topology you use on your SP system. The following types of Ethernet adapters can be used:

    • Ethernet adapters with thin BNC

      Each Ethernet adapter of this type can have only 30 network stations on a given Ethernet cable. The control workstation and any routers are included in the 30 stations.

    • Ethernet adapters with twisted pair (RJ45/AUI). A network hub or switch is required.
    • 10/100 Mbps Ethernet adapters. A network hub or switch is required.
  • If your SP has more than two frames or you are considering a control workstation that has the PCI type of bus, you need an asynchronous adapter card to provide ports for the SP frames.

HACWS minimum hardware requirements

If you plan to use HACWS, the following are required in addition to the previous requirements:

• You need two |IBM pSeries or RS/6000 workstations that are supported |by PSSP 3.4 and are also supported by the version of HACMP that can run |with PSSP 3.4 and the basic operating system you choose to install on |the control workstation, either AIX 5L 5.1 or AIX |4.3.3.

  Each of the workstations must have the same set of I/O required for control workstations as previously listed. They can be different models but the tty configuration must be exactly the same on each control workstation. The disks should be of the same type and configured the same way on both control workstations to allow the hdiskx numbers to be consistent between the two control workstations.

• You need external disk storage that is supported by HACMP and the control workstation being used.

  Two external disk controllers and mirrored disks are strongly suggested but not required. If a single external disk controller is used the control workstation single point of failure has not been eliminated but moved to the disk subsystem.

• You need the HACWS connectivity feature #1245 on each SP frame.
• If target mode SCSI is not being used for the HACMP communication, you need an additional RS-232 connection for HACMP communication.

|Hardware controller interface planning

|Each SP frame uses an RS-232 line to connect to a serial port on the |control workstation. Supported servers, whether SP-attached or in a |cluster configuration, connect directly to the control workstation in one way |or another depending on the hardware characteristics.

|Be prepared to identify one of the following hardware protocol values |during configuration for the nodes in a frame. Table 27 shows the values to specify for each type of frame or server |connected to the control workstation.
|

|Table 27. Hardware protocol values

Hardware protocol	Frame or server
SP	SP frame. This is the default.
SAMI	Servers connected by two RS-232 lines to the CWS: pSeries 680, RS/6000 S80, S7A, and S70
CSP	Servers with Common Service Processor (CSP) connected by one RS-232 line to the CWS: RS/6000 H80, M80, and pSeries 660 (6H0, 6H1, 6M1)
HMC	Servers with a Hardware Management Console (HMC) use a network connection to the control workstation. Currently this is only the IBM pSeries 690.

|HACWS does not automatically support SP-attached servers. However, |with specialized experience and manual attention, you might be able to have it |work for you in limited cases. If you want to use an SP-attached server |in an HACWS configuration, see Chapter 4, Planning for a high availability control workstation, particularly Limits and restrictions, for other considerations.

|Note:

IBM strongly suggests that you use asynchronous adapter cards instead of the |native RS-232 ports on the system units. Several |IBM pSeries or RS/6000 systems do not support the use of the native serial ports for the |frame controller connections.

|On HACWS configurations one of these native serial ports can be used for |HACMP communication.

|The native serial ports can be used for remote service by Service Director |for RS/6000.

|See the book IBM RS/6000 SP: Planning Volume 1, Hardware and |Physical Environment for additional hardware planning and how to connect |nodes. |

Completing the control workstation worksheets

Complete one set of worksheets for each control workstation you will configure. The ABC Corporation completed Worksheet 13 in Table 28, and Worksheet 15, in Table 29.

You should complete your copies of Worksheet 13, "SP control workstation" in Table 67, Worksheet 14, "Select a time zone" in Table 68, and Worksheet 15, "SP control workstation connections" in Table 69.

Table 28. ABC Corporations's SP control workstation plan

Table 29. ABC Corporation's control workstation connections