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Using Mellanox ConnectX VPI Ports to Ethernet or InfiniBand

The Mellanox ConnectX5 VPI adapter supports both Ethernet and InfiniBand port modes, which must be configured.

Check Status

# mst status -v
MST modules:
------------
    MST PCI module is not loaded
    MST PCI configuration module is not loaded
PCI devices:
------------
DEVICE_TYPE             MST                           PCI       RDMA            NET                                     NUMA  
ConnectX4(rev:0)        /dev/mst/mt4115_pciconf3      8b:00.0   mlx5_3                                                  1     

ConnectX4(rev:0)        /dev/mst/mt4115_pciconf2      84:00.0   mlx5_2                                                  1     

ConnectX4(rev:0)        /dev/mst/mt4115_pciconf1      0c:00.0   mlx5_1                                                  0     

ConnectX4(rev:0)        /dev/mst/mt4115_pciconf0      05:00.0   mlx5_0                                                  0                                                 1

Start MST

# mst start
Starting MST (Mellanox Software Tools) driver set
Loading MST PCI module - Success
Create devices
Unloading MST PCI module (unused) - Success

Change the port type to Ethernet (LINK_TYPE = 2)

# mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4115_pciconf2 set LINK_TYPE_P1=2

Check that the port type was changed to Ethernet

# ibdev2netdev
mlx5_0 port 1 ==> ens1np0 (Down)
mlx5_1 port 1 ==> enp12s0np0 (Down)
mlx5_2 port 1 ==> enp132s0np0 (Up)
mlx5_3 port 1 ==> enp139s0np0 (Down)

References:

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Using Mac Terminal App to SSH X-Forward

If you are using a MacOS and you are planning to do a X-forwarding, you may notice an error like this. In the Pix, below, after SSH, I wanted to X-forward Firefox Browser from Rocky Linux 8

ssh -X user1@192.168.0.1

There are a few settings we need to do. Let’s fix the “Locale not supported by C library. Using the fallback ‘C’ locale”

Issue 1 – Locale not support by C library. Using the fallback ‘C’ locale

To fix it, go to Top-Left-Hand Corner of your Mac-Desktop to look for the Terminal App,

  1. Click “Settings” (Pix 1)
  2. Click the Profiles Icons (Pix 2)
  3. Uncheck the “Set locale environment variable on startup” (Pix 2)

Close and Quit Terminal App and come in again. You should fix the first problem.

Issue 2 – Install XQuartz

X11 used to be included with macOS. Apple no longer includes X11 with macOS. That is why you see an error like this “Error: no DISPLAY environment variable specified.”

You have to download the XQuartz App which is an open-source effort to develop a version of the X.Org X Window System that runs on macOS. Downloading and Installing is very straight-forward and easy. I’ve captured selected screen-shots….

After installing, you may want to let is run in the background

Log-Off from Your Mac Completely to allow the settings to reinitate

Issue 3 – Fixing the libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast on Rocky Linux 8

You may find an issue similar to the one in the earlier blog. That is how you may want to fix it.

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Using Ansible to get Flexlm License Information and copy to Shared File Environment

You can use Ansible to extract Flexlm information from a remote license server, which is stored in a central place where you can display the information.

I use crontab to extract the information every 15 min and place it in a central place so that users can check the license availability. 

- name: Extract Information from ANSYS Lic Server and extract to file
  block:
    - name: Get FlexLM License Info
      ansible.builtin.shell: "/usr/local/ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil lmstat -c ../license_files/ansyslmd.lic -a"
      register: lmstat_output

    - name: Save FlexLM License Output to File on ANSYS Lic Server
      copy:
        content: "{{ lmstat_output.stdout }}"
        dest: "/var/log/ansible_logs/ansys_lmstat.log"

    - name: Get FlexLM Output from Remote Server
      fetch:
        src: "/var/log/ansible_logs/ansys_lmstat.log"
        dest: "/usr/local/lic_lmstat_log/ansys_lmstat.log"
        flat: yes

The fetch command is useful for fetching files from remote machines and storing them locally in a file tree. For more information, do take a look at Fetch files from remote nodes

At crontab, I fetch the file every 15min

*/15 * * * * /root/ansible_cluster/run_lmstat_licsvr.sh

The run_lmstat_licsvr.sh is simply to call the ansible playbook to run the ansible script above.

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BASH – Leaving a line after Cat

If you are writing a script that involve cat and if you wish to leave a line after “cat”, do the following

cat /usr/local/lic_lmstat_log/abaqus_lmstat.log ; echo
.....
.....
Users of tfluid_int_ccmp:  (Total of 128 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of tfluid_int_fluent:  (Total of 128 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)
[user1@node1 ~]$
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SSL connection error For Delinea MFA with DirectControl 

Muco of the Troubleshooting comes from the Knowledgebase Article is derived from KB-8958: MFA with DirectControl fails with SSL connection error and Preparing a Linux Client Server for Centrify and 2FA for CentOS-7

Problem :

When attempting to log in with a user that requires MFA the following error is presented:

$ ssh user@192.168.0.1
SSL Connection Error

Cause:

The error is likely due to a certificate problem. A required certificate may be missing or the permission may not be set correctly

How to check:

# /usr/share/centrifydc/bin/adcdiag
VERSION   : Verify that DirectControl version supports MFA               : Pass
JOINSTATE : Verify that DirectControl is in connected mode               : Pass
ZONECHK   : Verify that MFA is supported in the zone                     : Pass
SSHDCFG   : Verify that SSHD enables ChallengeResponseAuthentication     : Warning
          : Cannot read sshd configuration file. Probably you are not
          : using Delinea openssh. SSH login for MFA users will fail if
          : option ChallengeResponseAuthentication is not set to yes.
          : Please check and ensure ChallengeResponseAuthentication is
          : set to yes in sshd configuration file.
CDCCFG    : Verify that MFA options in centrifydc.conf are correct       : Pass
PROXYCFG  : Verify that HTTP proxy configuration is set properly         : Pass
CLDINST   : Verify that trusted Identity Platform instance is specified  : Pass
          : Successfully connected to Identity Platform and certificate
          : has been verified OK.
CNTRCFG   : Verify that Connectors are configured correctly              : Pass
CURCNTR   : Verify that DirectControl has selected a workable Connector  : Pass
CLOUDROLE : Verify that this machine has permissions to perform Identity
          : Platform authentication                                      : Pass
......
......
......

Check the Logs at /var/centrify/tmp…. You may notice some errors like 

.....
.....
ERROR:
Not a trusted connector or no valid connector certificate installed locally.
SUGGESTIONS:
1. Verify that the IWA root CA certificate is installed in the system. Please refer to KB-7393 on how to configure the root CA certificate in the system.
2. Please collect connector log if you need Delinea support.
.....
.....

Resolution:

Check whether the Certificates have been added at

  •  /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/ 
  • /var/centrify/net/certs

Check the SSH Settings at

# vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
#PasswordAuthentication yes
#PermitEmptyPasswords no
PasswordAuthentication no


# Change to no to disable s/key passwords
#ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes
ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes

Restart the SSHD Services

# systemctl restart sshd.service

Restart the Centrifydc services

# /usr/share/centrifydc/bin/centrifydc restart

Active Directory Flush and Reload

# adflush -f
# adreload
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Troubleshooting Intel VMD Driver Boot Issue on Supermicro Server with Rocky Linux 8.7

I was installing Rocky Linux 8.7 on a Supermicro Server with Intel VirtualRAID. I could not boot to Rocky Linux 8.7, the Install Screen could not be presented. Instead, there are repeated errors like the one below on the screen.

“DMAR: [INTR-REMAP] Request device [bc:00.5] fault index 0x8000 [fault reason 0x25] Blocked a compatibility format interrupt request”

The Issue was explained in the Article from Intel “Unable to Boot RHEL* 8.7/9.0 if Intel® VMD Is Enabled for Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) RAID Management”

Resolution
A problem with the inbox Intel®️ VMD driver included in RHEL 8.7 and 9.0 was identified, and it is necessary to add the boot parameter intremap=off to the kernel command line while installing the operating system. This will prevent the operating system from encountering any problems.

This particular issue has been fixed via a kernel update and has been implemented in RHEL 9.1.

it is necessary to add the boot parameter intremap=off to the kernel command line while installing the operating system

I tried Rocky Linux 8.9 and the issue was fixed.