Author: Danilo

Setting Up a Slurm Cluster in a Lab Environment shows, step-by-step, how to deploy and configure a Slurm cluster. Previously, we’ve written an article introducing HPC and Slurm. You can check this article by clicking here. First and foremost, I’m not an expert on HPC or Slurm (I’m a learner). So, as I advance on it, I’ll create new articles on this fantastic subject! Let’s Talk About Our Lab Topology A real HPC cluster uses many powerful physical servers (nodes). Since we don’t have access to those physical servers (we’re in a lab, with limited resources), we’ll create our lab…

HPC is an acronym for High Performance Computing. High-performance computing (HPC) generally refers to processing computationally intensive tasks at high speed across multiple servers in parallel. Those server sets are clusters with compute servers using a high-speed, low-latency network. What’s an HPC Cluster? In an HPC cluster, each computer/server is a node. So, an HPC cluster is a set of nodes. HPC clusters run batches of computations. The core of any HPC cluster is the scheduler (Slurm, for example), which tracks available resources and efficiently assigns job requests to compute resources (CPU and GPU) over a fast network. We can…

Creating Virtual VMs Using Ansible shows an example of automating the creation of virtual machines in a lab environment. Our lab is composed of a physical server running VMware ESXi and, over it, we’ll create all the necessary virtual machines (VMs). How will it work? So, the first step is to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. We have written an article to explain, step-by-step, how to perform it. Click here to access the article. Note: We’re using RHEL, but you can try using your preferred Linux distribution. However, all the steps presented here were tested using RHEL (We cannot…

Creating an Ansible DNS playbook is a practical way to automate DNS client configuration across multiple Linux servers. Maintaining consistent DNS settings helps ensure reliable network communication and simplifies administration in environments with many managed hosts. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, NetworkManager is responsible for managing network connections and can dynamically update DNS settings in the /etc/resolv.conf file. By using Ansible, administrators can define the desired DNS configuration and apply it consistently across all managed nodes. In this guide, we will create an Ansible playbook to configure DNS settings through NetworkManager. You will learn how to build the inventory,…

Creating an Ansible chrony playbook is an effective way to automate NTP client configuration across multiple Linux servers. Consistent time synchronization is essential for reliable communication, authentication, logging, and monitoring in distributed environments. Chrony is an implementation of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) commonly used on Linux systems to synchronize system clocks with external time sources. By combining Ansible automation with chrony configuration templates, administrators can maintain consistent settings across many managed nodes. In this guide, we will create an Ansible playbook that deploys a standardized chrony configuration, uses variables and templates, and validates time synchronization after applying the changes.…

Creating your first Ansible playbook is an important step for anyone starting with IT automation and configuration management. Ansible provides a simple and powerful way to automate tasks across multiple systems using a lightweight agentless architecture. Ansible uses SSH to connect to managed nodes and execute tasks defined in playbooks. The target systems do not require an Ansible agent, making deployment easier while keeping the automation environment simple and efficient. In this guide, we will explore the fundamentals of Ansible, including control nodes, managed nodes, inventories, modules, and playbooks. You will learn the basic concepts required to start automating server…