Planning Volume 2, Control Workstation and Software Environment

Determining install space requirements

Your SP install package includes standard installation images plus the optional images that you order. The install images require disk space to contain them on each control workstation and SP boot-install server.

|Table 38 shows approximate amounts of space allocated |during the base AIX install process. Use these as guidelines to help |you estimate the space required in directories on the control workstation and |boot-install servers.
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|Table 38. Approximate space allocated during base AIX install

|These directories actually need more than these amounts to be |available in order to accommodate other processes as well. The |installation process involves additional file sets that require disk space on |each control workstation and SP node on which you plan to install them. |Find requirements in the AIX and other licensed program release notes and |installation books. This book guides you in estimating overall disk |space for successful installation of PSSP.

To calculate how much disk space you need on the control workstation and the SP nodes for a successful install, sum the estimated sizes of all the licensed programs you plan to install . As you decide which images to install, you might develop a list similar to the example in Table 39 for your installation plan. Include the required images plus your choices of the optional PSSP components and other licensed program images to install. This example includes images of:

• The minimum AIX file sets (spimg)
• The required PSSP components (ssp)
• The optional PSSP components and graphical user interfaces, in this example the Resource Center (ssp.resctr), Virtual Shared Disk, Hashed Shared Disk, and Recoverable Virtual Shared Disk (vsd, ssp.vsdgui)
• Each optional PSSP-related licensed program, in this example LoadLeveler (LoadL).

The example depicted in Table 39 is used during this discussion to explain how to determine your total space requirements for the install images on each control workstation and boot-install server.

Table 40 has the approximate sizes of the images and file sets shipped with the PSSP software.

Note:

|The RSCT file sets are delivered with AIX 5L or, if you use AIX |4.3.3, with PSSP. Be sure to include them because they |are required by the PSSP software. |

Estimating requirements for lppsource

The lppsource is a required resource for NIM, the network installation management facility used to install AIX on the nodes. The lppsource contains the AIX file sets. The amount of space this resource needs depends on how you use the resource. For instance, if you plan to use DCE authentication, the DCE install files must be added to the lppsource directory.

If you plan to install DCE file sets, they are required to also be in the lppsource directory on the control workstation and to be exported to all the nodes on which you plan to use DCE security services. Follow normal procedures for installing licensed programs. See the book IBM Distributed Computing Environment for AIX: Quick Beginnings for planning and installing DCE.

You can download all of the AIX file sets from the AIX installation media. Although this takes more space than the minimal required file sets, it saves time and effort if you intend to use installp for additional file sets that are not already installed on your nodes. IBM suggests this method because it makes it easier to perform additional installp installations.

Alternatively, you can download only the AIX file sets required by NIM to perform the mksysb installations on the nodes. The list of the minimal AIX file sets required appears in the book PSSP: Installation and Migration Guide, which tells you how to download the file sets.

|Downloading all of the AIX file sets requires approximately 2GB of |disk space. Downloading only the minimal AIX file sets requires |approximately 1.5GB.

|You also need to determine which lppsource levels you need. |In general, you need one lppsource level for each AIX level that you intend to |install. The AIX 5L 5.1 level uses approximately 1MB more than |AIX 4.3.3.

Estimating the node installation image requirements

|When installing the nodes, a mksysb image (spimg) is |installed. The mksysb image is stored on the control |workstation. A typical mksysb image is generally in a size |range from about 91MB to about 1.5GB. If you intend to install |one image on some nodes and another image on other nodes then you must also |account for the extra space required by multiple images.

Other installp image requirements

If you want to install additional licensed programs that are not part of the AIX installation media and are not included in PSSP, then you should also include the space that they require in your calculations. Find their sizes in the respective publications. For example, LoadLeveler and IBM C and C++ compilers are additional licensed programs that require space.

Combining the space requirements

All these resources reside in a directory typically called /spdata. Use the following algorithm to estimate the amount of additional space you need for /spdata on each control workstation and boot-install server:

lppsource + mksysb_image + pssp_image + optional_images = total_space

For example, the space needed on the control workstation for /spdata to contain lppsource plus only the required images for PSSP 3.4 with AIX 4.3.3 is approximately:

  1500MB   +   91MB   +   168MB = 1759MB                                          
lppsource + spimg mksysb + ssp = minimum space

Table 39 summarizes the amount of space required for the install images chosen for the example. Determine the size of your lppsource. Use the spimg value in the algorithm directly. Sum the rest of the images to get the ssp value. Then use the algorithm to estimate the total space required for /spdata.
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|Table 39. Example of listing installp images

Table 40 shows the approximate install image and individual file set sizes. Decide which you plan to install on each control workstation and SP node and sum them accordingly for each.

Table 40. Disk space required for install images and to install PSSP file sets