There are two ways to manage the nodes which participate in the cluster. We recommend the web interface, as this is the most intuitive.

Note: While the cluster has a DHCP server, it will not respond to any requests unless it recognizes the request as coming from a cluster node. If another DHCP server is operating on the same network, it may interfere with the ability of the nodes to boot properly. If there must be another DHCP server outside the cluster but on the same network, make sure it does not respond to cluster nodes while they are booting.

Log in by browsing to the IP address of the master (your browser must support java). At the login screen, use the default credentials:

User: master
Password: admin

If you've changed the password, make sure to use the new one instead.

Under the Nodes menu, click on Manage Nodes. This will display a current list of nodes in the cluster. To add a node, first set it for PXE boot and power it on. It should boot to the PXE controller and broadcast for an IP address. This broadcast will be noted by the master, and clicking on the Add Node button will now offer this node as a selection.

Click on Add Node. After a moment, the MAC addresses of any discovered nodes will be displayed. Type in the line numbers of the nodes to add and click Add Nodes at the bottom left corner of the screen.

When prompted, type the desired hostname. All nodes MUST begin with the string “node”. For example, the following are all acceptable names:

• node1.mydomain.com
• nodeBigServer
• node42.local

Click the Set Hostname button after typing in the desired name. Now you'll be prompted for an IP address. The first two octets will be filled in for you. Enter the last two octets to complete the address, and click the Set IP Address button. See below for a screenshot of the Add Node window where the user is ready to click on Set IP Address and finish the add node process.

After AddNode completes successfully, the new node will be listed in the Nodes / Manage Nodes screen, and will appear shortly in the Status / Performance Graphs section as well.

In the case of ClusterMaker, after adding the node there is only one thing left to do before it will start doing work for the cluster. Open the /cluster/http_nodes file, type in the name of the node (one name per line), and save and close the file. This tells the monitoring system that when this node comes online, it should be added to load balancing for http services and needs to be periodically health checked on port 80. If other applications besides http / java are configured, add the node name to those files as well.

In the case of RenderFarmer, everything is set up for render nodes to be automatically added to the rendering pool. No  additional configuration is necessary.

To remove nodes using the web interface, simply click on Manage Nodes / Remove Nodes. A list of nodes will be presented. Similar to adding a node, just type in the line number of the node(s) you would like to remove. Click the Remove Nodes button in the lower left corner of the window, and the node(s) will be be removed.

Before adding nodes at the command line, the node to be added has to attempt a PXE boot as described above in the web interface section. If this has been completed, change to the cluster commands directory and execute addnode:

cd /cluster/bin/
./addnode

The command will function exactly the same as the AddNode window described above. After listing nodes which are available to add, it will prompt you to enter the line numbers, names, and IP addresses for any nodes to be added. Remember, every node name must start with the string “node”.

Removing nodes from the command line is done with the removenode command, which can also be run from the cluster commands directory:

./removenode

You will be shown a list of available nodes and prompted for the line number(s) of any nodes to remove. Enter the desired line number(s) and press enter.