4. General server installation and switch configuration

This chapter describes how to install and configure the software, including the OS, on the server(s) in an IPU‑POD64. We also describe how to configure the network switches.

Note

Ansible playbooks for the server installation and files for switch configuration can be provided on request: please contact Graphcore support. These templates may need to be adapted to match any site-specific differences.

4.1. Server configuration

The server and POD configuration consists of the following main steps:

Note

If your IPU‑POD64 has more than one server, all servers should be set up identically, as described in this chapter.

4.1.1. Hardware recommendations

The IPU‑POD64 reference design uses a single PowerEdge R6525 server but up to four servers can be connected. Contact Graphcore sales or refer to the list of approved servers for details of other supported server types. This document describes the default server (PowerEdge R6525) installation only. Other servers may have different installation requirements.

The recommended configuration of the Dell R6525 is as follows:

  • Dell R6525 containing dual AMD EPYC 7742 processors

  • 16x 32GbE RDIMM PC4-25600 ECC registered dual-rank X4 1.2v

  • 2x 480GbE SSD-SATA 6Gbps 2.5 inch hot-swap

  • 7x 1TB NVME SSD PCIe 4x 3.1

  • Dual port Gigabit BASE-T PCIe

  • Single/dual port Mellanox ConnectX-5 EN 100Gb/s Ethernet

4.1.2. Storage configuration recommendations

The recommendation is to have two types of server storage: SSD-SATA for the operating system and NVME SSD for data storage.

Operating system:

  • 2x 480GbE SSD-SATA units as a RAID 1 via hardware controller

  • Partitioned to use ext4 file system

Data storage:

  • 7x 1TB NVME SSD units as a logical RAID 6 managed with MDADM

  • Partitioned to use xfs file system

4.1.3. Memory configuration recommendations

The DIMMs should be installed in a fully symmetric configuration, as recommended by Dell for maximum performance. The recommended configuration has 8 DIMMs per processor, as shown below.

_images/mem_config.png

Fig. 4.1 DIMM memory configuration

4.1.4. BIOS configuration

Various BIOS settings can impact the performance of the system. The recommended settings are shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 BIOS settings

Setting

BIOS 1.2.11

BIOS 1.4.8 or later

LogicalProc

Enabled

Enabled

ProcVirtualization

Enabled

Enabled

IommuSupport

Disabled

See below

L1StreamHwPrefetcher

Enabled

Enabled

L2StreamHwPrefetcher

Enabled

Enabled

MadtCoreEnumeration

Linear

Linear

NumaNodesPerSocket

4

4

CcxAsNumaDomain

Disabled

Disabled

CpuMinSevAsid

1

1

ProcCcds

All

All

CcdCores

All

All

EmbSata

AhciMode

AhciMode

BIOS 1.4.8 or later does not configure IOMMU directly. Instead, you need to add iommu=off to the kernel boot params in /etc/default/grub and then run update-grub.

4.1.5. Operating system installation

This document describes the following operating systems supported by version 2.6 of the IPU-M software. Please contact your Graphcore representative or use the support portal for information about support for other operating systems or other versions of the IPU-M software.

Note

These operating systems are supported by the IPU-M software and are different to the operating systems supported by the Poplar SDK. Refer to the IPU-Machine System Software 2.6.0 Release Notes and the Poplar SDK 3.4.0 Release Notes for OS support information.

Note

If you are manually installing these packages, you can copy the list of packages into a text file, and run:

$ sudo apt update
$ xargs -a reqs.txt sudo apt-get install

where reqs.txt contains the list of packages.

This document also lists the Python packages required for these operating systems.

Ubuntu 18.04 packages

In order to have a stable system where IPU related software can run, several packages need to be installed (see Table 4.2) via the Aptitude package manager tool. Other packages may be required for local requirements.

Table 4.2 Required Ubuntu packages

autoconf

golang-go

minicom

rsyslog

automake

htop

moreutils

screen

bc

ibverbs-utils

net-tools

sshpass

build-essential

ipmitool

netcat

subversion

ccache

jq

ntp

swig

clang

kcachegrind

openjdk-8-jdk

sysfsutils

cmake

libaio-dev

parallel

tar

direnv

libboost-all-dev

pciutils

tmux

dkms

libeigen3-dev

perl

u-boot-tools

emacs

libjson-c-dev

php-cli

unzip

ethtool

libjson-c-doc

php-curl

valgrind

exuberant-ctags

libpci-dev

policykit-1

vim

flex

libpixman-1-dev

protobuf-compiler

virtualenv

g++

libprotobuf-dev

python3

wdiff

gawk

libtool

python3-dev

wget

gcc

lldpad

python3-pip

zip

gdb

lldpd

qtcreator

git

m4

rdma-core

Ubuntu 20.04 packages

Table 4.3 Required Ubuntu 20.04 packages

autoconf

golang-go

minicom

rsyslog

automake

htop

moreutils

screen

bc

ibverbs-utils

net-tools

sshpass

build-essential

ipmitool

netcat

subversion

ccache

jq

ntp

swig

clang

kcachegrind

openjdk-8-jdk

sysfsutils

cmake

libaio-dev

parallel

tar

direnv

libboost-all-dev

pciutils

tmux

dkms

libeigen3-dev

perl

u-boot-tools

emacs

libjson-c-dev

php-cli

unzip

ethtool

libjson-c-doc

php-curl

valgrind

exuberant-ctags

libpci-dev

policykit-1

vim

flex

libpixman-1-dev

protobuf-compiler

virtualenv

g++

libprotobuf-dev

python3

wdiff

gawk

libtool

python3-dev

wget

gcc

lldpad

python3-pip

zip

gdb

lldpd

qtcreator

git

m4

rdma-core

CentOS 7.6 packages

In order to have a stable system where IPU related software can run, several packages need to be installed (see Table 4.4) via the yum configuration manager. Other packages may be required for local requirements.

Table 4.4 Required CentOS 7.6 packages

bc

htop

moreutils

rdma-core

boost-devel

ipmitool

nano

rsyslog

centos-release-scl

java-latest-jdk

nc

screen

clang

jq

net-tools

snapd

cmake

json-c-devel

ntp

sshpass

containerd.io

json-c-doc

parallel

sysfsutils

devtoolset-7

libaio-devel

pciutils-devel

tmux

dhcp

libibverbs-utils

php-cli

vim

dkms

libuser

protobuf-devel

wdiff

eigen3

lldpad

python3-pip

wget

emacs

lldpd

python36

golang-go

minicom

qt5-qbase

Python packages

Several python packages are also required for both operating system installations. They can be installed using the pip installation tool.

Table 4.5 Required python packages

autograd

numpy

pytest

setuptools

boto3

paramiko

pyyaml

virtualenv

jstyleson

pep8

recommonmark

wheel

lxml

pexpect

requests

yapf

mock

pylint

scp

4.1.6. User accounts and groups

Table 4.6 contains details of the accounts that are required as part of the default server configuration:

Table 4.6 Account creation

Account

Description

root

A root user account secured with a password is recommended.

itadmin

An admin account secured with a password is recommended. Home directory located at /home/itadmin, using Bash shell.

ipuuser

An account dedicated to IPU software and IPU-POD management software is mandatory. Home directory located at /home/ipuuser, using Bash shell.

poplaruser

An account dedicated to Poplar software is mandatory. Home directory located at /home/poplaruser, using Bash shell.

Table 4.7 gives the default usernames provided on the IPU‑POD64.

Table 4.7 Default usernames

Log in to

Username

IPU-M2000 BMC OS

root

IPU-M2000 IPU-Gateway OS

itadmin

Server as Poplar SDK user

poplaruser

Server as IPU-POD admin user

ipuuser

Server as IT admin user

itadmin

Server iDRAC port

root

100GbE RDMA switch

admin

1GbE Management switch

admin

PDU

apc

The default passwords are available from Graphcore support portal.

Table 4.8 contains the required groups provided on the IPU‑POD64.

Table 4.8 Required user groups

Groups

Description

root

A root group to locate the root account is mandatory.

dhcpd

A group to allocate the DHCP service is mandatory (this is usually configured automatically while installing the DHCP service).

ipugroup

A group to allocate ipuuser is mandatory.

poplargroup

A group to allocate poplaruser is mandatory.

ipupodgroup

A group to allocate both ipuuser and poplaruser is mandatory.

Note that all users need to have unique user IDs and group IDs.

4.1.7. DHCP Service (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)

An ISC-DHCP-Server service (Table 4.9) is recommended to provide DHCP network configuration to IPU-M2000s. It can be installed from the Ubuntu or CentOS public repositories.

Table 4.9 DHCP service

Name

Type

User

Group

Access

Description

/etc/dhcp/

folder

root

dhcpd

0755

DHCP related files

/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/

folder

root

dhcpd

0755

IPU-M2000 network configuration files

Ubuntu: /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server

file

root

root

0644

Network interfaces which DHCP will use

CentOS: /etc/sysconfig/dhcpd

file

root

root

0644

Network interfaces which DHCP will use

/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-11.conf

file

root

dhcpd

0644

Mapping between desired IPs and IPU-M2000 100GbE RNIC

/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-13.conf

file

root

dhcpd

0644

Mapping between desired IPs and IPU-M2000 1GbE BASE-T interfaces

/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-99.conf

file

root

dhcpd

0644

Mapping between desired IPs and management 1GbE BASE-T interfaces MAC addresses

/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

file

root

dhcpd

0644

Main DHCP server configuration file

DHCP file templates

Note

The configuration files below are just examples. You must update the MAC addresses to match those in your system.

  • Ubuntu: /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server

    INTERFACES=”eno3 enp59s0f1”

  • CentOS: /etc/sysconfig/dhcpd

    DHCPDARGS="em4 p1p2

  • /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-11.conf (file)

    # Example of content. Add all RNICs below using this format
#
#host ipum1mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.1;}
#host ipum2mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.2;}
#host ipum3mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.3;}
#host ipum4mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.4;}
#host ipum5mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.5;}
#host ipum6mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.6;}
#host ipum7mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.7;}
#host ipum8mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.8;}
#host ipum9mx  {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.9;}
#host ipum10mx {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.10;}
#host ipum11mx {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.11;}
#host ipum12mx {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.12;}
#host ipum13mx {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.13;}
#host ipum14mx {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.14;}
#host ipum15mx {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.15;}
#host ipum16mx {hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;    fixed-address 10.1.5.16;}

  • /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-13.conf

    # Example of content. Add all BMCs and IPU-Gateways below using this format
#
#host ipum1bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.1;}
#host ipum1gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.1;}
#host ipum2bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.2;}
#host ipum2gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.2;}
#host ipum3bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.3;}
#host ipum3gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.3;}
#host ipum4bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.4;}
#host ipum4gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.4;}
#host ipum5bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.5;}
#host ipum5gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.5;}
#host ipum6bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.6;}
#host ipum6gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.6;}
#host ipum7bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.7;}
#host ipum7gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.7;}
#host ipum8bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.8;}
#host ipum8gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.8;}
#host ipum9bmc  {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.9;}
#host ipum9gw   {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.9;}
#host ipum10bmc {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.10;}
#host ipum10gw  {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.10;}
#host ipum11bmc {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.11;}
#host ipum11gw  {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.11;}
#host ipum12bmc {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.12;}
#host ipum12gw  {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.12;}
#host ipum13bmc {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.13;}
#host ipum13gw  {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.13;}
#host ipum14bmc {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.14;}
#host ipum14gw  {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.14;}
#host ipum15bmc {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.15;}
#host ipum15gw  {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.15;}
#host ipum16bmc {hardware ethernet a0:b0:c0:d0:e0:f0;    fixed-address 10.1.1.16;}
#host ipum16gw  {hardware ethernet a1:b1:c1:d1:e1:f1;    fixed-address 10.1.2.16;}

  • /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-99.conf

    # Example of content. Add all Management devices below using this format
#
#host MgmtDevice1 {   hardware ethernet a2:b2:c2:d2:e2:f2;    fixed-address 10.1.6.x;}

  • /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

    default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 1200;
ddns-update-style none;
authoritative;
log-facility local7;
subnet 10.1.4.0 netmask 255.255.254.0 {
    option subnet-mask         255.255.254.0;
    range                      10.1.5.200 10.1.5.254;
    option ntp-servers         10.1.5.101;
}
include "/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-11.conf";
subnet 10.1.0.0  netmask 255.255.252.0 {
    option subnet-mask         255.255.252.0;
    range                      10.1.3.200 10.1.3.254;
    option ntp-servers         10.1.5.101;
}
include "/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-13.conf";
subnet 10.1.6.0 netmask 255.255.254.0 {
    option subnet-mask         255.255.254.0;
    range                      10.1.6.200 10.1.6.254;
}
include "/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.d/vlan-99.conf";

The DHCP service is started using:

$ sudo systemctl enable dhcp
$ sudo systecmtl start dhcp

4.1.8. Rsyslog service

The rsyslog service (Table 4.10) is a software utility for forwarding log messages in an IP network.

Table 4.10 Rsyslog service

Name

Type

User

Group

Access

Description

/etc/rsyslog.d

folder

root

root

0755

Rsyslog tool configuration folder

/etc/rsyslog.conf

file

root

root

0744

IPU-M2000 network configuration

/etc/rsyslog.d/99_ipum.conf

file

root

root

0744

Rsyslog rules configuration

/etc/rsyslog.d/99_dhcpd.conf

file

root

root

0744

Rsyslog rules configuration

Rsyslog file templates

  • /etc/rsyslog.conf

    module(load="imuxsock")
module(load="imudp")
input(type="imudp" port="514")
module(load="imklog" permitnonkernelfacility="on")
$ActionFileDefaultTemplate RSYSLOG_TraditionalFileFormat
$RepeatedMsgReduction on
$FileOwner ipuuser
$FileGroup ipugroup
$FileCreateMode 0640
$DirCreateMode 0755
$Umask 0022
$PrivDropToUser syslog
$PrivDropToGroup syslog
$WorkDirectory /var/spool/rsyslog
$IncludeConfig /etc/rsyslog.d/*.conf

  • /etc/rsyslog.d/99_ipum.conf

    $template tplremote,"%timegenerated% %HOSTNAME% %fromhost-ip% %syslogtag%%msg:::drop-last-lf%\n"
$template bmclogdir,"/var/log/ipumlogs/bmclogs/%fromhost-ip%.log"
$template gwlogdir,"/var/log/ipumlogs/gwlogs/%fromhost-ip%.log"

if $fromhost-ip startswith '10.1.1' then ?bmclogdir;tplremote
if $fromhost-ip startswith '10.1.2' then ?gwlogdir;tplremote

& ~

  • /etc/rsyslog.d/99_dhcpd.conf

    local7.*         /var/log/dhcpd.log

4.1.9. NTP service (Network Time Protocol)

NTP service is recommended to provide network time configuration to IPU-M2000s. It can be installed from the Ubuntu or CentOS public repositories.

NTP file structure

  • /etc/ntp.conf (file)

    • NTP tool configuration file.

    • root:root 0744

    disable monitor
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift
fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 10
includefile /etc/ntp/crypto/pw
keys /etc/ntp/keys
restrict ::1
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict default nomodify notrap nopeer noquery
server 127.127.1.0
server 0.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 1.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 2.pool.ntp.org iburst

The NTP service is started using:

sudo systemctl enable ntp
sudo systecmtl start ntp

4.1.10. Other configuration files and folders

  • /etc/security/access.conf (file)

    • Configure access permissions

    • Root:root:0744

    + : root : cron crond :0 tty1 tty2 tty3 tty4 tty5 tty6
+ : poplargroup : ALL
+ : poplaruser : ALL
+ : ipugroup : ALL
+ : ipuuser : ALL
+ : itadmin : ALL
+ : root : ALL
- : ALL : ALL

  • /etc/security/limits.conf (file)

    • Configure access permissions

    • Root:root:0744

    *       soft    memlock unlimited
*       hard    memlock unlimited

  • Create directories required for logging

    Table 4.11 Logging directories

    Directory

    User

    Group

    Access

    /localdata

    root

    ipupodgroup

    0775

    /localdata/log

    root

    ipupodgroup

    0770

    /localdata/log/ipumlogs

    root

    ipupodgroup

    0750

    /var/log/ipumlogs

    root

    ipupodgroup

    0750

    /var/log/ipumlogs/bmclogs

    root

    ipupodgroup

    0750

    /var/log/ipumlogs/gwlogs

    root

    ipupodgroup

    0750

    /etc/ipuof.conf.d

    root

    ipupodgroup

    0770

  • Mount and bind logging volume

    • /var/log to /localdata/logs/ipumslogs

4.1.11. User application memory usage

To ensure that user application memory usage does not cause system services to be killed or otherwise affected on the host system, we strongly recommend that some form of out-of-memory protection is put in place. The purpose of this out-of-memory protection is to kill user processes before system processes (such as the V-IPU server, or DHCPD/SSHD) are affected, which will impact wider use or accessibility of the system.

Modern Linux kernels implement oom-killer, which is a line of last resort to kill processes when all memory is exhausted. However, for scientific computing/MPI workloads, they can often knock a system offline before the oom killer has an opportunity to react.

Although the mitigation will depend on the environment, some suggested options are:

  • Install and configure early-oom – intended to overcome the shortcomings of the kernel oom-killer, this service monitors memory usage, and will kill processes based upon a configurable memory and swap limit.

  • Make use of cgroup memory limiting – this can be used to restrict certain users/groups to a proportion of the system’s RAM. The kernel oom-killer operates on each cgroup independently, meaning that the oom-killer will react to memory pressure in a user’s cgroup, while a system or default cgroup (containing essential system services) will be left unaffected.

4.2. Network configuration

4.2.1. Overview

Fig. 4.2 gives a logical overview of the network setup within the IPU‑POD64.

_images/network-overview-v2.jpg

Fig. 4.2 IPU‑POD64 network overview

Option: VLAN 14 and the cabling to the dedicated BMC port can be provided as an upgrade for customers that want an isolated BMC network. This separates the BMC and IPU-Gateway traffic inside the IPU-M2000 onto the two ports - BMC on the lower port and IPU-Gateway on the upper port. With this option enabled, VLAN 13 becomes a IPU-Gateway only VLAN. Please contact Graphcore Sales for more information.

4.2.2. IPU‑POD64 network interfaces

Table 4.12 Network configuration

Port

Role

Speed

IP address

Config from

VLAN (see note)

IPU-M2000: BMC

BMC only management (future)

1GbE

10.1.1.1-16/22

Static DHCP

14

IPU-M2000: IPU-Gateway

BMC+IPU-Gateway management

1GbE

10.1.2.1-16/22

Static DHCP

13

Server: Port1

Mgmt IPU-M2000

1GbE

10.1.3.101/22

Local Netplan file

13

Server: Port2

Div management iDRAC, switches & PDUs

1GbE

10.1.6.1/22

Local Netplan file

99

Server: iDRAC

Server BMC

1GbE

10.1.6.4-7/22

Manual setup

99

Server: RNIC/Port0

RDMA IPU-M2000

100GbE

10.1.5.101/23

Local Netplan file

11

Server: RNIC/Port1

RDMA NAS

100GbE

Site specific

Site specific

Site specific

48x 1GbE + (4x 10G) Switch management port

CLI + Switch BMC management

1GbE

10.1.6.2/22

Manual setup

99

32x 100GbE + (4x 10G) switch management port

CLI + Switch BMC management

1GbE

10.1.6.3/22

Manual setup

99

PDU

Power dist. unit

1GbE

10.1.6.8-11

Dynamic DHCP

99

Note

Port based VLAN in switches (VLAN 13,14 and 99 in 1GbE switch, VLAN 11 in 100GbE switch)

4.2.3. Management switch configuration

Several VLANs need to be configured on the switches to separate traffic for the different hardware and integrate DHCP properly on the system.

The default management switch is Arista DCS-7010T-48-F.

  1. Up to 4 interfaces per rack for PDUs and switches management

  2. Up to 4 interfaces per rack for server management interfaces

  3. Up to 4 interfaces per rack for server facing BMCs and gateways

  4. Up to 16 interfaces per rack for combined IPU-M2000 Gateway and BMC

  5. Up to 16 interfaces per rack for BMC only connection (future option)

_images/mng_switch_VLAN.png

Fig. 4.3 Management switch VLAN assignments

These port groups are members of the switch’s internal port based VLANs. The VLAN assignments are given below.

  • VLAN 13: IPU-M2000 BMC and IPU-Gateway traffic

  • VLAN 14: IPU-M2000 BMC only traffic (option)

  • VLAN 99: Device management

Device management is intended for switch management, PDU remote management and any other device in the system with remote management interfaces.

The reference configuration for the management switch is given in Table 4.13.

Table 4.13 Management switch configuration

Port

Description

Vlan

Options

Hostname MGMT-Switch

Switchport default mode access

Spanning-tree mode mstp

No aaa root

No ip routing

1

Datacentre BMC

13

no snmp trap link-status

2

Datacentre IPU-Gateway

14

no snmp trap link-status

3

Datacentre management

99

no snmp trap link-status

4

–

–

shutdown

5-6

PDU management

99

no snmp trap link-status

7

ToR switch management

99

no snmp trap link-status

8

Server 1 POD management

99

no snmp trap link-status

9-12

Servers BMC - iDRAC

99

no snmp trap link-status

13-16

Servers 1Gbe traffic

13

no snmp trap link-status

17-32

IPU IPU-Gateway and BMC

13

no snmp trap link-status

33-48

IPU BMC Only

14

shutdown

An example switch configuration file can be provided – please contact Graphcore support for details. This configuration file can be applied using one of the standard methods described by the switch manufacturer.

4.2.4. ToR switch configuration

The default ToR switch is an Arista DCS-7060CX-32S-F. The ports are allocated as follows:

  1. One port per server for traffic between the server(s) and IPU-M2000s, on VLAN11

  2. One port per server for uplink traffic from the server(s) to datacentre network-attached storage. This is disabled in the default setup file since NAS configuration will be site specific.

  3. 16 ports for connection to the IPU-M2000s on VLAN 11

  4. This is disabled in the default setup file since the uplink configuration will be site specific.

_images/ToR_switch_VLAN.png

Fig. 4.4 ToR switch VLAN assignments

The reference configuration for the ToR switch is given in Table 4.14.

Table 4.14 ToR switch configuration

Port

Description

Vlan

Options

Hostname MGMT-Switch

Switchport default mode access

Spanning-tree mode mstp

No aaa root

lldp run

No ip routing

1/1

3/1

5/1

7/1

Server Uplink

12

dcbx mode ieee

priority-flow-control on

priority-flow-control priority [0-7] no-drop

no snmp trap link-status

2/1

4/1

6/1

8/1

Server IPUoF

11

dcbx mode ieee

priority-flow-control on

priority-flow-control priority [0-7] no-drop

no snmp trap link-status

9/1

to

24/1

IPU-M2000

11

dcbx mode ieee

priority-flow-control on

priority-flow-control priority [0-7] no-drop

no snmp trap link-status

25/1

to

32/1

Datacentre

Uplink

See

note

dcbx mode ieee

priority-flow-control on

priority-flow-control priority [0-7] no-drop

no snmp trap link-status

Note

The VLAN assignment for the datacentre uplink ports will be site and configuration specific. In the default configuration file these ports are disabled.

A switch configuration file can be provided – please contact Graphcore support for details. This configuration file can be applied using one of the standard methods described by the switch manufacturer.

4.2.5. IPU‑POD64 VLAN assignments

Each switch is configured independently based on the number of interfaces needed for the IPU-POD size (in this case IPU‑POD64). This section describes the interfaces used in an IPU‑POD64 with figures showing interface allocation.

Fig. 4.5 shows the VLAN assignments for the server connecting between the server(s) and the switches. Four server-facing ports are shown for each group on the switches to allow for up to 4 servers in the POD.

_images/server_VLAN.png

Fig. 4.5 Dell R6525 server VLAN connectivity

Fig. 4.6 shows the VLAN assignments for the IPU-M2000s connecting to the switches.

_images/M2000_VLAN.jpg

Fig. 4.6 IPU-M2000 server VLAN connectivity

4.2.6. Server network configuration

  • We recommend using the Netplan network manager to configure the server using Netplan configuration files.

  • Two 1GbE baseT connections are required to the 1GbE management switch for Server 1. Only one 1GbE baseT connection is required to the 1GbE management switch for additional servers. Fixed IP addresses are required.

  • One 100Gb connection is required to the 100GbE switch. A fixed IP address is required.

  • The default RNIC MTU size (1500 bytes) is used for the 100GbE network interface on the host so this does not need to be specified in the Netplan configuration file.

  • Subnets for each interface should be capable to contain the number of devices of the installation.

Example Netplan configuration file

  • The default location for this file is /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml.

  • In this example:

    • Interface eno3 is facing the 1GbE network with IPU-M2000 BMCs and gateways

    • Interface eno4 is facing the user’s network

    • Interface enp59s0f1 is facing the IPU-M2000 100GbE RNICs

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    eno1np0:
      dhcp4: yes
    eno2np1:
      dhcp4: yes
    eno3:
      addresses:
        - 10.1.3.101/22
    eno4:
      dhcp4: yes
    enp59s0f0:
      dhcp4: yes
    enp59s0f1:
      addresses:
        - 10.1.5.101/23