Custom RPM Repositories¶

It is possible to manage own RPM repositories which are accessible inside PSI. If you need one please contact the Linux Core team (linux-eng@psi.ch).

To setup the your custom repository/ies we need following information: - Name of the repository - Do you want to have your repository available for all RHEL major versions (i.e. all RHEL major versions will see the same packages) or do you need a repository for each RHEL major version (i.e. you can have different packages for each RHEL major version)?

Usage¶

On lxsup.psi.ch you can easily access this data on /packages_misc.

The backend for these custom repos is on a NFS4 share. This share can be mounted from lx-fs:/packages_misc

On Linux systems you should be able to mount the share like this

mount -t nfs4 -o sec=krb5 lx-fs.psi.ch:/packages_misc /mnt

On MacOS you could mount and access the share like this:

mount_nfs -o sec=krb5,nfsvers=4 lx-fs.psi.ch:/packages_misc ~/some_directory

(on Windows - it should be/is also possible with Windows >=10 to mount the NFS4 share- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/mount - details to be added here)

Once your folder/folders is/are created and your are authorized to write into these folders you can place RPMs and files into that directory/directories

Important: Once mounted, to be able to change things on the filesystem you have to have a valid kerberosticket for your PSI user.

kinit <username>@D.PSI.CH
# or on standard PSI linux systems
kinit

In case you are in a firewall protected zone, make sure that there is a rule to access lx-fs on TCP port 2049!

Overview¶

Custom repositories are provided by the central repository server as all other repositories. They will be available on the URL

https://repos.psi.ch/<os>/latest/<repository_name>

The custom repositories are snapshotted and tagged as any other repository.

Inside hiera please use the URL:

https://$lx_reposerver/<os>/$lx_repo_tag/<repository_name>

This ensures that the systems will always use the correct repository server url to access the repositories. (e.g. in the DMZ/extranet the DNS hostname of the repository is different ...)

The content of the custom repositories are managed on a dedicated NFS4 share. On this share groups can have different folders where they place/manage their rpms. These RPMs are periodically synced to the main repository share (i.e. every 15 minutes), so what you see on the packages_misc is not exactly what will end up on the repository server. Upon sync the repository will be automatically built via the create-repo command.

The structure of the share is usually as follows:

<base>/<repository name>
                        # content in the case of one repo for all major RHEL version
                        /rhel7
                        /rhel8
                        /rhle9 # in case of different repo for major RHEL version

The access control is done by a Unix group usually named unx-<something>_adm (most of the time this is a group that also gives access to hiera repos)

Preparation for new Custom RPM Repository (by Linux Team)¶

The packages_misc share is only root writeable from lx-sync-01.psi.ch. Therefore the initial setup needs to be done there.

Creation of a new repo (on lx-sync-01 in /packages_misc):

cd /packages_misc
mkdir <reponame>
chgrp 35593 <reponame>  ## We need to use the numeric group id here as lx-sync is not directly connected to AD
chmod g+w <reponame>
chmod g+s <reponame>

# set NFS4 ACL to ensure the group can always write
# ensure that you replace the id of the group !!!
nfs4_setfacl -a A:dfg:35593:RWX /modules/test

To sync the repo and make it available there needs to be a sync config added to https://gitea.psi.ch/lx/rpm-repo-utils (inside the *-misc directories)

After adding this config the changes need to be deployed on lx-sync-01.psi.ch. (either bootstrap/ansible or a manual git pull in /opt/rpm-repo-utils/)

DOCA repository (by DARI team)¶

The DOCA repositories are present in the /packages_misc/infiniband directory exported from lx-sync-01.

Please be aware that these repos provide the DOCA-OFED profile only, not the full doca stack. So here DOCA is intended in the sense of DOCA-OFED profile. For more info: https://docs.nvidia.com/doca/sdk/doca+profiles/index.html.

When you want to introduce a new DOCA version, you must include the following: - the basic repo as synced from the mellanox repo server and named as the DOCA version (eg. 3.0.0); - one repository for each of the supported kernel versions named with the DOCA version followed by the kernel version (eg. 3.0.0-4.18.0-553.53.1.el8_10.x86_64).

This means that, for each DOCA version there are at least two repositories, ie. the basic one plus at least one kernel.

Adding a new DOCA version¶

Basic repo¶

To add a new DOCA version, proceed in the following way: - create a repo file (eg. /tmp/doca.repo) containing the new version definition, using the following as template:

[doca]
name=DOCA Online Repo
baseurl=https://linux.mellanox.com/public/repo/doca/3.0.0/rhel8.10/x86_64/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

reposync the new version to the NFS storage with the following command, paying attention to the download-path option. E.g. here we are assuming to start the command from the packages_misc/infiniband directory):
```
dnf reposync --repoid=doca --config=/tmp/doca.repo --norepopath --download-path=rhel8/doca/8.10/3.0.0
```

Kernel support¶

On a node that is running the kernel we want to build the support for, make sure that the doca-extra package gets installed (this gets installed automatically if the node is configured with infiniband::ofed_vendor: 'doca' in hiera).

On that node you run the command /opt/mellanox/doca/tools/doca-kernel-support. It will take a while and at the end it will print a message like the following:

  rpm -Uvh /tmp/DOCA.67ZfEDf8BO/doca-kernel-repo-25.04.0.6.1.0-1.kver.4.18.0.553.33.1.el8.10.x86.64.x86_64.rpm

Install the rpm, that will create a directory similar to the following (exact path depends on DOCA and kernel version):

/usr/share/doca-host-25.04-0.6.1.0/Modules/4.18.0-553.33.1.el8_10.x86_64/

The rpms from this directory must then be copied in a directory named <doca version>-<kernel version> under the /packages_misc/infiniband directory. Also consider the correct RedHat release in the full path. E.g.:

[root@ra-c-054 ~]# scp
/usr/share/doca-host-25.04-0.6.1.0/Modules/4.18.0-553.33.1.el8_10.x86_64/*rpm
talamo_i@login:/psi.ch/project/linux/packages_misc/infiniband/rhel8/doca/8.10/3.0.0-4.18.0-553.33.1.el8_10.x86_64/

After the copy, the original rpm can be removed (yum remove doca-kernel-repo-25.04.0.6.1.0-1.kver.4.18.0.553.33.1.el8.10.x86.64.x86_64). And at this point the repo is fully ready for both the base software and for the kernel support.