To configure and operate a PCI Express cluster you need to select one computer to be the Cluster Management Node (frontend). The Cluster Management Node will automatically monitor and configure the PCI Express hardware based on configuration files created on the Cluster Management Node. The Cluster Management Node can be one of the Cluster Nodes in the cluster or it can be a separate machine. The Cluster Management Node will communicate with the Cluster Nodes through Ethernet. The burden of the Cluster Management Node is very modest. The Cluster Management Node machine needs to have a graphical display to be able to utilize the Dolphin Network Configurator and the Dolphin Admin.
The Cluster Management Node does not need to run the same operating system as the cluster. Windows and Linux is currently supported for running the Cluster Management Node software. It is possible to both use Windows and Linux to manage a Linux cluster (or a Linux box to manage a Windows cluster).
Please note that there is no need to manually configure the adapter cards in the cluster as this will be done automatically by eXpressWare.
Please double click on the downloaded windows installer MSI file. It will automatically start the eXpressWare installer. Please select and install the Cluster Management software. The installer will install all required binaries on the system as well as an automatic restart service of the Dolphin Network Manager. Before continuing to the next step, you need to edit/create the dishosts.conf and networkmanager.conf configuration files. The Windows installer will offer you to edit these files during installation, using the Dolphin Network Configurator.
Please double click on the downloaded MSI file. It will automatically start the eXpressWare installer. Please make sure to install the Cluster Node software.The installer will install all required binaries on the system as well as an automatic restart service of the Dolphin Node Manager. These steps must be repeated on all Cluster Nodes in the cluster.
The result of the installation will be that all necessary drivers and services are installed on the Cluster Nodes, that the Cluster Management Node has the Network Manager running and that the whole PCI Express interconnect is configured and functional. By default, the installation target of all Dolphin software is %ProgramFiles%/Dolphin Express IX .
In detail, the installation results on each Cluster Node are the following drivers and services :
dis_ix: This driver manages access to the IDT based IX adapter. You can check the status with
C:\> sc.exe query dis_ix
dis_px: This driver manages access to the PX adapter. You can check the status with
C:\> sc.exe query dis_px
dis_mx: This driver manages access to the MX adapter. You can check the status with
C:\> sc.exe query dis_mx
dis_ix_irm: This driver operates configuration, session and resource management operations. You can check the status with
C:\> sc.exe query dis_ix_irm
dis_ix_sisci:This driver provides abstractions to user-level SISCI API programs. You can check the status with
C:\>sc.exe query dis_ix_sisci
dis_nodemgr: This service executes interconnect commands sent by dis_networkmgr service. You can check the status with
C:\> sc.exe query dis_nodemgr
dis_networkmgr (only on Cluster Management Node) This service sends configuration commands to each machine that belongs to the interconnect topology. You can check the status with
C:\> sc.exe query dis_networkmgr
Please note that you should only have one of the dis_mx, dis_ix or dis_px drivers installed on one node.
Next to this, a number of administration tools, benchmark and test programs are installed into %ProgramFiles%\Dolphin Express IX\Util and %ProgramFiles%\Dolphin Express IX\Demo.
On the Cluster Management Node, the service dis_networkmgr will be installed which controls the Network Manager daemon. Monitoring and test tools are installed to %ProgramFiles%\Dolphin Express IX\Util.