Cortex: Difference between revisions

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Cortex is a server used by VisLab for '''development''' purposes (by contrast, the [[iCubBrain server configuration | iCubBrain]] servers are used for demos).
Cortex is a server used by VisLab for running simulations (not the ones with the iCub robot).


''Old information can be consulted at [[Cortex/Archive]].''
''Old information can be consulted at [[Cortex/Archive]].''
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= Specifications =
= Specifications =


Since summer 2012, there is one machine (cortex1) with these specs:
As of 2017, there is one machine (cortex1) with these specs:
* 8 x [http://ark.intel.com/products/65523/Intel-Core-i7-3770K-Processor-(8M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz) i7-3770K] @ 3.50GHz processor
* 8 x [http://ark.intel.com/products/65523/Intel-Core-i7-3770K-Processor-(8M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz) i7-3770K] @ 3.50GHz processor
* 16GB of memory (<code>sudo dmidecode --type 17</code> to see RAM speed and type)
* 16GB of memory (<code>sudo dmidecode --type 17</code> to see RAM speed and type)
* 112GB SSD drive
* 112GB SSD drive + 1TB HDD drive
* NVidia [http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-670 GeForce GTX 670] graphics card (CUDA)
* NVidia [http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-670 GeForce GTX 670] graphics card (CUDA)
 
* internal ISR IP address: 10.10.1.1
== Old specs ==
 
''the following information will become obsolete and shall be archived''
 
From an end-user perspective:
* each machine hosts an Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor (2 x [http://ark.intel.com/products/31733/Intel-Pentium-Processor-E2180-(1M-Cache-2_00-GHz-800-MHz-FSB) E2180] @ 2.00GHz);
* memory: 2GB for each machine.
 
More specifically:
* each of the client machines has the following specs: Intel Desktop DG965SS motherboard ([http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/dg965ss/sb/CS-026600.htm info1], [http://processormatch.intel.com/CompDB/SearchResult.aspx?Boardname=dg965ss info2]); Intel DualCore E2180 CPU @ 2 GHz with cache 1 MB; 2 x RAM 1GB DDR2 677 MHz; rackmount 19" 2U case from Chieftec (UNC-210S-B), with ATX 300W power supply;
* the server machine has similar specs plus Intel PRO 1000GTLP/ENet gigabit ethernet card; 2 x WD2500JS 250GB SATAII 8MB disks for software RAID-1.
 
= Old setup =
 
''the following information will become obsolete and shall be archived''
 
The Cortex computation rack actually contains 7 machines:
* 1 server that manages startup, shutdown and the file system of the clients;
* 6 clients (named <code>cortex1</code>...<code>cortex6</code>) that run user processes.
All clients numbered 1 to 5 mount the same file system. Therefore, performing changes in the file system of cortex[1-5] will reflect to all other four clients. Beware, though, that because of the way the file systems are mounted, there is some '''caching''' going on. This improves disk access performance, but strange phenomena might happen, i.e., after a file is modified and saved on one client, other clients can continue to see the old version of it for some time (probably less than one minute).
The client <code>cortex6</code> is separate for now, because it runs a 64 bit Linux.
 
For further details, see the [[Cortex setup]] article.
 
= Operating system installation =
 
In general, follow the guidelines at [[VisLab machines configuration]]. Below are some special notes.
 
= Additional software =
 
On this cluster, each user should manage his own yarp2 and iCub repositories. As a result, '''do not''' use system-wide installation of those (<strike><code>sudo make install</code></strike>): instead, simply use <code>make</code> and set your environment variables.
 
(We could use system-wide yarp2 again after we verify that a user can easily override global settings.)
 
== YARP and iCub ==
 
The yarp2 and iCub repositories are installed for user 'icub', similarly to [[iCubBrain server configuration]].
 
== Other libraries, manually installed ==
 
Please list here the system-wide libraries and applications that were installed by the superuser, especially the ones that do not have a clean 'make install' procedure but were manually installed into <code>/opt</code>:
 
* ARToolKit
* Ipopt-3.5.5-linux-x86_32-gcc4.2.4
 
CMake 2.6 does not come with the version of Ubuntu currently installed, but it is needed by the latest version of yarp, so we installed it via this [http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.6/cmake-2.6.4-Linux-i386.sh archive].
* cmake 2.6
 
= Customization =
 
== Network tuning ==
 
  sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=8388608
  sysctl -w net.core.wmem_max=8388608
  sysctl -w net.core.rmem_default=65536
  sysctl -w net.core.wmem_default=65536
  sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_rmem='4096 87380 8388608'
  sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_wmem='4096 65536 8388608'
  sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_mem='8388608 8388608 8388608'
  sysctl -w net.ipv4.route.flush=1
 
== Prompt ($PS1) ==
 
The prompt is set to <code>user@cortex?:pwd$</code> in <code>/etc/bash.bashrc</code>. With those settings, if you log in to Cortex1, the prompt will be <code>user@cortex1:~$</code>.
We chose to do so because sometimes it's convenient to have the number of the Cortex machine you're working on embedded in the prompt.
By default, though, this configuration is overridden in the users' <code>~/.bashrc</code> file, and the prompt is set to <code>user@source</code> regardless of the Cortex machine you log in to.<br>
If you want to inhibit this behaviour in <code>~/.bashrc</code> and thus have a prompt like <code>user@cortex?:pwd</code>, just comment these lines in your <code>~/.bashrc</code>:
  # set a fancy prompt (non-color, unless we know we "want" color)
  case "$TERM" in
  xterm-color)
      PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
      ;;
  *)
      PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
      ;;
  esac
However, for users created after 2009-05-07, the prompt is already set to <code>user@cortex?:pwd$</code> by default.
 
== Mounting network folders  ==
 
The folder "database" on BlackHole is mounted automatically to /media/blackhole. See /etc/fstab for details.


[[Category:Vislab]]
[[Category:Vislab]]

Latest revision as of 13:59, 26 January 2018

Cortex is a server used by VisLab for running simulations (not the ones with the iCub robot).

Old information can be consulted at Cortex/Archive.

Specifications

As of 2017, there is one machine (cortex1) with these specs:

  • 8 x i7-3770K @ 3.50GHz processor
  • 16GB of memory (sudo dmidecode --type 17 to see RAM speed and type)
  • 112GB SSD drive + 1TB HDD drive
  • NVidia GeForce GTX 670 graphics card (CUDA)
  • internal ISR IP address: 10.10.1.1