IBM LoadLeveler for AIX 5L: Using and Administering

Step 5: Specify adapter stanzas

An adapter stanza identifies network adapters that are available on the machines in the LoadLeveler cluster. Adapter stanzas are optional, but you need to specify them when you want LoadLeveler jobs to be able to request a specific adapter. You do not need to specify an adapter stanza when you want LoadLeveler jobs to access a shared, default adapter via TCP/IP.

Note the following when using an adapter stanza:

• An adapter stanza is required for each adapter stanza name you specify on the adapter_stanzas keyword of the machine stanza.
• The adapter_name, interface_address, and interface_name keywords are required. For an SP switch adapter, the switch_node_number keyword is also required.

For information on creating adapter stanzas for an SP system, see llextSDR - Extract adapter information from the SDR.

An adapter stanza has the following format:

Figure 34. Format of an adapter stanza

label: type = adapter
adapter_name = name
css_type = type
interface_address = IP_address
interface_name = name
multilink_address = ip_address
multilink_list = adapter_name <, adapter_name>*
network_type = type
switch_node_number = integer
 

You can specify the following keywords in an adapter stanza:

adapter_name = string

Where string is the name used to refer to a particular interface card installed on the node. Some examples are en0, tk1, and css0. Whenever a machine has one or more adapters with a name that starts with css (eg. css0 or css1), a virtual adapter named csss is created for that machine. This adapter is used on the network statement when a job requires striped communication. This keyword defines the adapters a user can specify in a job command file using the network keyword. This keyword is required.

css_type = type

Where type is the designation for the type of switch adapter to be used. The allowable choices are: SP_Switch_Adapter, SP_Switch_MX_Adapter, SP_Switch_MX2_Adapter, RS/6000_SP_System_Attachment_Adapter, and SP_Switch2_Adapter. This keyword must be specified in combination with a switch adapter ("css . . ."), otherwise it will be ignored. The css_type attribute for the available adapters are defined in the SDR. Execute the command SDRGetObjects Adapter css_type to obtain a list of css_types, or use llextSDR to obtain all of the adapter information from the SDR.

Note:

css_type cannot be RS/6000_SP_System_Attachment_Adapter or SP_Switch_Adapter if you are using Gang scheduling. For more information see Restrictions for Gang scheduling and preemption.

interface_address = string

Where string is the IP address by which the adapter is known to other nodes in the network. For example: 7.14.21.28. This keyword is required.

interface_name = string

Where string is the name by which the adapter is known by other nodes in the network. This keyword is required.

multilink_address = ip_address

Where ip_address indicates the IP address that includes the adapters that can be striped across.

multilink_list = adapter_name <, adapter_name>*

Where adapter_name indicates multilinked devices which stripes IP addresses across the adapters given in the list.

network_type = string

Where string specifies the type of network that the adapter supports (for example, Ethernet). This should be unique for each communication path (for example, css0 and css1 define two different communication paths). This is an administrator defined name. This keyword defines the types of networks a user can specify in a job command file using the network keyword.

switch_node_number = integer

Where integer specifies the node on which the SP switch adapter is installed. This keyword is required for SP switch adapters. Its value is defined in the switch_node_number field in the Node class in the SDR. This value must match the value in the /spdata/sys1/st/switch_node_number file of the Parallel System Support Programs (PSSP).

Example of an adapter stanza

Example 1: Specifying an SP Switch adapter

In the following example, the adapter stanza called "sp01sw.ibm.com" specifies an SP switch adapter. Note that sp01sw.ibm.com is also specified on the adapter_stanzas keyword of the machine stanza for the "yugo" machine.

          yugo:  type=machine
                 adapter_stanzas = sp01sw.ibm.com
                 ...
 
sp01sw.ibm.com:  type = adapter
                 adapter_name = css0
                 interface_address = 12.148.44.218
                 interface_name = sp01sw.ibm.com
                 network_type = switch
                 switch_node_number = 7
                 css_type = SP_Switch_MX2_Adapter