How to install a series D (Dell PowerEdge 350) test-box from scratch.

Author: Luigi Corsello, RIPE NCC, 20011120
Last Change: CO/MA 200207106
for internal use only

1. Unpacking, Hardware setup.

2. BIOS setup

DUAL BOOT NOTE: You may work in the BOOT section of the BIOS to modify the harddisk boot order. The system has two harddisk on the first IDE channel. To have the second hard disk to boot before the first, set the first boot device as "1st IDE"......(give exact wording from BIOS here).

3. TTM software setup

3.1 Booting

BOOT IMAGES NOTE: There are two boot images.

One is the ttminstall-host.bin which is just in the ftp site directory ncc/ttftp/tb-image/ttminstall-host.bin

and the internal one ttminstall.bin which is in /ncc/ttpro/files/install_floppies.

The only difference is that the latter spawns a shell after boot, the first one does not (because we do not want a host to have root access to a test-box, either when in "recovery" mode)

3.2 Creation of the software tree. (Please read throughly, this section is changed!!)

Installation and maintenance of the TTM system depend on keeping a central copy of test-box filesystem trees here on ginkgo. If you are installing a NEW testbox, read and do throughly. If you are only installing a replacement for an older GroupA, B or C testbox, skip the next part about application forms and filling ttreg entries.

3.3 Software syncing

3.4 After-boot tasks and Notes

  • When the test-box boots up, because of the lack of routing and DNS access (the test-box boots using the IP address and router given by the host), you will notice that:
    • The "sendmail" daemon will most probably not start or take a long time to start. This is due to the DNS timeouts. You can safely kill it with a CTRL-C during bootup
    • The "httpd" will repeatedly die due to the lack of DNS support, ignore it.
  • If you want the box to be reachable for testing purposes, manually set IP and default route to something valid (like the address you used above for the setup):
    • ifconfig fxp0 <ip_address> netmask 255.255.255.192 for the RIPE DEVEL network
    • route delete default
    • route add default 193.0.4.1 (RIPE DEVEL network)
  • Wait for around one hour in order for all the CFE targets to run at least once (for symlink creation and so)
  • To sync the 2nd hard disk with the contents of the 1st one, execute (manually for now) as root on the test-box:

    /usr/local/bin/copy_disk wd1 --reconfig

  • Carry out some tests on the test-box before shipping to check:
    • if it boots correctly, if strange errors occur, and so on;
    • if enough satellites are seen by the antenna (by checking the file /var/log/xntp/clockstats which must be constantly updated by ntpd);
    • if the clock & the antenna get in sync after no more than 24 hours, (by "ntptime"; normal status is 0x107).
  • Try to boot the TB from the 2nd hard drive by typying at the boot prompt the string:

    0:wd(1,a)/kernel

    where (1,a) instead of the default (0,a) mean that you are booting from the slave disk on the first ide channel (so disk 1)

  • Note that the system should run perfectly when booted from drive 1 as from drive 0 in case of necessity.
  • Before shipping the box, the sendmail spool directory should  be cleaned up by executing:
    rm -f /var/spool/mqueue, since all the log messages we would normally receive by e-mail from these ticket get lost in case the host has not a real network connection.

3.4 Setting the RIPE DNS entries

  • Since the whole create_testbox process depends on a valid ttreg entry anymore, when you reach this point, everything should be ready to execute

    /ncc/ttpro/config/cfengine.conf -DUpdateDNSfile

    as ttraffic on ginkgo, preferably looking at the output.

    This will automatically generate the /ncc/domain/ripe.net-tt file for direct DNS resolution, then restart our internal DNS server. That file is generated by ttconfig, which uses the ttreg database data.

4. Box shipping

4.1 Checklist for shipment (BOX CONTENTS):

  • Testbox (Dell PowerEdge 350)
  • Dell's original rails (the rails' box comes separately from the pc, but it has to be put inside the box itself and shipped with it)
  • Smaller box containing Dell's original manuals cables and accessories (no need to open it)
  • Trimble GPS antenna and antenna ratchet;
  • Antenna-to-DB25 cable;
  • db25-to-UTP cable;
  • UTP-to-UTP connector;
  • Small serial cable;
  • Customer Install Manual (Installation Instructions for GroupD Dell Test-boxes);
  • Service contract copy when necessary.

4.2 Shipping:

IMPORTANT:Do not forget to get the Service Tag (7 alphanumeric characters). You will later use it to transfer the Dell support for the test-box to the country it is going.
  • Put the test-box in its cardboard box;
  • Write down the shipping information on a piece of paper:
    • Contact person on customer's site;
    • Destination address;
    • Phone number of the contact person;
    • Box contents(e.g. computer system);
    • If the customer has a number with a courier company write this down!
  • Bring the box and your piece of paper to the FO(front office);
  • Keep on eye open to see if the box was delivered and the invoice was sent to the customer(only if any customer number for a courier was avaiable).

4.3. Transfer the service tag number

  • Go to http://www.dell.com/us/en/biz/topics/sbtopic_ccare_nav_016_ccare.htm
  • Fill out the section Original Customer Information for the RIPE NCC (only the required fields).
    • Country of Original Purchase: Netherlands
    • Service Level: Just fill in "NBD" aka Next Business Day
  • Fill out the section New Location Information with the data of the test-box host
  • Fill out the section Trade Compliant Profile,
    • End Use Determination: "Measurement device"
    • Will the product be shipped outside the U.S.?: Yes
    • Answer no to the last 2 questions: We don't think TTM is used in the weapons industry nor are a U.S. government agency
  • Answer no in the section Government sales
(This is important, If you forget to do this, then the customer will not be able to get support from Dell.)

5. When the box comes online at the site:

  • Do a ttreg -e ttnum and set its state to SETUP

    otherwise the makefullmesh and ttregconfig.pl scripts fail

  • Create test box relation group:

    As ttraffic on ginkgo execute:
    For v4:

    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/makefullmesh.pl -v4 -t ttnum (creates a relation group with all ON TB's)
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/ttregconfig.pl ADD o-delay-t CHAIN "ttnum 6000 120 100 1 0"
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/ttregconfig.pl DEL o-delay-t ttnum "ttnum 6000 120 100 1 0"
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/ttregconfig.pl ADD o-tracer-t CHAIN "ttnum 10"
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/ttregconfig.pl DEL o-tracer-t ttnum "ttnum 10"
    For v6:
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/makefullmesh.pl -v6 -t ttnum (creates a relation group with all ON TB's)
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/ttregconfig.pl ADD o6delay-t IP6TTLIST "ttnum 6000 120 100 1 0"
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/ttregconfig.pl DEL o6delay-t ttnum "ttnum 6000 120 100 1 0"
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/ttregconfig.pl ADD o6tracer-t IP6TTLIST "ttnum 10"
    • /ncc/ttpro/bin/ttregconfig.pl DEL o6tracer-t ttnum "ttnum 10"

  • Log in to a machine with access to the filer and do as ttraffic:
    • cd /ncc/ttpro/wwwpages
    • mkdir -p /ncc/ttpro/data/plots/ttnum/mini
    • make

  • Add the box to the list of machines that can be seen by the ttraffic webuser. Before doing this it is strongly recommended to shutdown your browser and start again. Because if you already have browsed a ttm page with user id other than 'ripe', webserver will treat your browser with the old id (most of the time 'ttraffic').

    • Go to http://www/test-traffic/Plots/admin.cgi
    • login as: ripe , passwd: riperipe
      if you are not asked for login read the paragraph above.
    • Follow the bottom link to 'add a new group'
    • Click on 'groups' button
    • Fill in the two fields (location := ISP Name, City , Country Code)
    • Click on 'add group'
    • Go back to http://www/test-traffic/Plots/admin.cgi
    • no need to login this time.
    • Click 'modify users'
    • select 'ttraffic' (bottom line)
    • click 'modify'
    • click 'groups'
    • select the new box, VIEW ONLY (bottom blue line)
    • submit change
  • Give the owner access to plots-on-demand
    • Edit /ncc/www/src/cgi-bin/ttm/.htaccess
    • Add ttnum to the "Require group" list
    • push file to webserver(s): wwwsync -p /cgi-bin/ttm/.htaccess
  • Change the state of the box into ON in ttreg.

    To speed up propagation (use with care) do the following as ttraffic on ginkgo:

    • cd /ncc/ttpro/config
    • cfengine.conf -DChainUpdate

  • After the box has been taking data for a while, update the geoloc field in ttreg:
    • Do a:

      sshtt ttnum -c grep Position /data/ttraffic/"GENE.*"

    • This will return lines like:

      Fri Feb 1 13:00:02 2002:Position from 20020201 120000 to 130000: 59.2611 +/- 0.0000, 24.4283 +/- 0.0000.

    • Do: ttreg -e ttnum
    • Look for the "geoloc:" and enter the coordinates behind it:

      "geoloc: 59.2611 +/- 0.0000, 24.4283 +/- 0.0000".

      Note that the minus signs are important. If they are omitted a box will end up in the wrong half of the world. Some good examples to understand how this line should look can be seen by doing the same for tt75 (+,+), tt46 (+,-), tt47 (-,-). Having a look at http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/mem-services/ttm/Plots/gpsinfo.html also helps.

  • The next time rsync is run, the box will start to take data, then:
    • Verify that the box is taking data: log in to the box and check that the files RVEC*, SNDP*, RCDP* in /data/ttraffic on the box grow.
    • Check that the website on the box is running (go to http://ttnum.ripe.net:10259).
    • Inform the user about the features of his new box by sending stt /ncc/stt/np/startdatataking.stt
  • When you are convinced that everything works, give the ticket to Henk for billing/invoicing.

<ttm@ripe.net> $Id: install_groupD_scratch.html,v 1.9 2003/07/28 07:27:45 marks Exp $