Originally posted by: Alexey Zubko

Did you know a Docker image of IBM Spectrum Symphony is available on the Docker Hub? Known as IBM Spectrum Symphony Community Edition, you can use this IBM Spectrum Symphony image to create a cluster conveniently in Docker containers and submit workload. This blog post describes what the Community Edition is all about and provides steps on how to deploy a Community Edition cluster. 

What is Community Edition...

The Community Edition of IBM Spectrum Symphony is a free offering that provides the full functionality of IBM Spectrum Symphony Advanced Edition, but only for a cluster of up to 64 cores. It also does not include IBM Support that is tied to licensed software.

The Community Edition is hosted on the public Docker repository at ibmcom/spectrum-symphony. Multi-platform images are supported: x86_64 (amd64) and ppc64le. The IBM Spectrum Symphony image is based on an Ubuntu 16.04 image. For all available tags, check the Docker Hub documentation.

Prerequisites to deploy a Community Edition cluster

• Each cluster must have a common Docker network and a common shared directory (mount to /shared).
• Most processes inside the container run as internal user egoadmin (id 1000), ensure that the shared directory has the correct permissions for this user.
• The IBM Spectrum Symphony containers must run in privileged mode.
• Optionally, limit a container's resources (CPU and memory).

Container configuration

Containers are configured using environment variables. You must define environment variable LICENSE=accept to indicate you agree to the licensing terms and conditions.

Environment variable HOST_ROLE defines the role of the container in the cluster either as MANAGEMENT, COMPUTE, or CLIENT host:

• MANAGEMENT (default) starts an IBM Spectrum Symphony management host. The first container will be the master host, the others will serve as master candidate hosts. If the master host container is killed, a master candidate will take over cluster management. Management hosts expose several ports: WEBGUI (HTTPS on port 8443), SYMREST (HTTPS on port 8050), and EGOREST (HTTPS on port 8543). 
• COMPUTE starts an IBM Spectrum Symphony compute host, where parallel calculations are executed.
• CLIENT is used to provide SSH access (SSH on port 2222) to the cluster network for workload submission.

For a complete list of configurable environment variables, see the Installation Options section on Docker Hub.

Creating the cluster

To create a Community Edition cluster, you must create a Docker network for your cluster. You can have several clusters, but they must use different Docker networks.

Create a Docker network, called symcluster1:

$ docker network create symcluster1

Each cluster must have its own shared directory (for example, symcluster1) to store configuration, work files, and logs:

$ mkdir symcluster1

Make sure the egoadmin user (id 1000) has permissions to this symcluster1 directory:

$ chmod a+rwx symcluster1

Now, start a management host that will act as the master host; also accept the license and map the WEBGUI port:

$ docker run --privileged --rm -d --network symcluster1 -v $PWD/symcluster1:/shared -p 8443 -e LICENSE=accept ibmcom/spectrum-symphony

After that, start several compute hosts (HOST_ROLE=COMPUTE); no IP ports are mapped for those hosts:

$ docker run --privileged --rm -d --network symcluster1 -v $PWD/symcluster1:/shared -e HOST_ROLE=COMPUTE -e LICENSE=accept ibmcom/spectrum-symphony

$ docker run --privileged --rm -d --network symcluster1 -v $PWD/symcluster1:/shared -e HOST_ROLE=COMPUTE -e LICENSE=accept ibmcom/spectrum-symphony

Optionally (if you want to access to the cluster using SSH), start a client host. IP port 2222 must be mapped for SSH access:

$ docker run --privileged --rm -d --network symcluster1 -v $PWD/symcluster1:/shared -e HOST_ROLE=CLIENT -p 2222 -e LICENSE=accept ibmcom/spectrum-symphony

Managing the cluster

Use the "docker port" command to find out what IP ports were mapped.

The management (master) host hosts the WEBGUI (HTTPS) service for the IBM Spectrum Symphony cluster management console:

$ docker port 62bccfbee45d32f08367de7cfcf5e4b05427cf71e8c06d067a192cf208ea6ba8

8443/tcp -> 0.0.0.0:32839

Use a supported web browser to access the cluster management console at the URL: https://127.0.0.1:32839. Note that the HTTPS protocol is used and the port is mapped by Docker. When you access the console, the web browser warns that the connection is not secured because IBM Spectrum Symphony uses a self-signed SSL certificate; you can safely ignore this message. Then, log on as the built-in cluster administrator user (username Admin password Admin).

Once you log in, you can view cluster entitlement and host information:

System & Services > System Entitlement:

Resources > Hosts > All Hosts:

The client host hosts the SSH service:

$ docker port c96ba34a5a4bdbb1ba802d6f0a60f48ec19fc6feb51b5866db21a5880cef3298

2222/tcp -> 0.0.0.0:32840

Use any SSH client application to connect to the client host (note port argument -p) and log on as the egoadmin user with password Admin:

$ ssh egoadmin@127.0.0.1 -p 32840

The authenticity of host '[127.0.0.1]:32840 ([127.0.0.1]:32840)' can't be established.

RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:N9kKBmt9iDCGuVvSlXI/1kLryoq6EwAEaAbzWJ9HyPg.

RSA key fingerprint is MD5:f9:ea:d5:7e:f3:af:af:8d:0f:0e:23:9b:7b:15:f7:d0.

Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

Warning: Permanently added '[127.0.0.1]:32840' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.

Password: 

From the client machine, source the IBM Spectrum Symphony environment and log on to the cluster:

egoadmin@c96ba34a5a4b:~$ . /opt/ibm/spectrumcomputing/profile.platform 

The Community Edition comes with IBM Spectrum Symphony API samples for different programming languages. The following example shows how to compile a C++ sample and install it to the cluster.

First, you need to attach to the client Docker container as root user to install the C++ compiler:

[azubko@azubkov3 ~/tmp/1]$ docker exec -ti -u 0 c96ba34a5a4bdbb1ba802d6f0a60f48ec19fc6feb51b5866db21a5880cef3298 bash

root@c96ba34a5a4b:/home/egoadmin# apt-get update

...

root@c96ba34a5a4b:/opt/ibm/spectrumcomputing/soam/7.2.1/samples/CPP/SampleApp/Output# egosh consumer add /SampleAppCPP -e egoadmin -u Guest -g ComputeHosts,ManagementHosts

Consumer </SampleAppCPP> added.

root@c96ba34a5a4b:/opt/ibm/spectrumcomputing/soam/7.2.1/samples/CPP/SampleApp/Output# soamdeploy add SampleServiceCPP -p SampleServiceCPP.tgz -c /SampleAppCPP

Connect with us...

We hope this post was useful to help you get started with the Community Edition. Download it today and let us know how it goes. If you’ve got comments or questions, add a comment below. You can also start a topic in our forum.

 
Read more...

https://hub.docker.com/r/ibmcom/spectrum-symphony/

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSZUMP_7.2.1/install_grid_sym/symphony_community_edition.html