Use the start command in StarCluster to launch a new cluster on Amazon EC2. The start command takes two arguments: the cluster template and a tagname for cluster identification.
Below is an example of starting a StarCluster from the default cluster template defined in the config and tagged as physicscluster. This example will be used throughout this section.
$ starcluster start physicscluster # this line starts the cluster
StarCluster - (http://web.mit.edu/starcluster)
Software Tools for Academics and Researchers (STAR)
Please submit bug reports to starcluster@mit.edu
>>> Using default cluster template: smallcluster
>>> Validating cluster template settings...
>>> Cluster template settings are valid
>>> Starting cluster...
>>> Launching a 2-node cluster...
>>> Launching master node...
>>> Master AMI: ami-17b15e7e
>>> Creating security group @sc-physicscluster...
RESERVATION r-d71f20be 123456789012 default
INSTANCE i-10e91578 ami-17b15e7e pending gsg-keypair 0 m1.small ...
>>> Launching worker nodes...
>>> Node AMI: ami-17b15e7e
RESERVATION r-ab1f20c2 123456789012 default
INSTANCE i-14e9157c ami-17b15e7e pending gsg-keypair 0 m1.small ...
>>> Waiting for cluster to start...
>>> The master node is ec2-123-12-12-123.compute-1.amazonaws.com
>>> Attaching volume vol-99999999 to master node on /dev/sdz ...
>>> Setting up the cluster...
>>> Mounting EBS volume vol-99999999 on /home...
>>> Using private key /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa-gsg-keypair (rsa)
>>> Creating cluster user: myuser
>>> Using private key /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa-gsg-keypair (rsa)
>>> Configuring scratch space for user: myuser
>>> Configuring /etc/hosts on each node
>>> Configuring NFS...
>>> Configuring passwordless ssh for root
>>> Configuring passwordless ssh for user: myuser
>>> Generating local RSA ssh keys for user: myuser
>>> Installing Sun Grid Engine...
>>> Done Configuring Sun Grid Engine
>>>
The cluster has been started and configured.
Login to the master node as root by running:
$ starcluster sshmaster physicscluster
or manually as myuser:
$ ssh -i /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa-gsg-keypair myuser@ec2-123-12-12-123.compute-1.amazonaws.com
When you are finished using the cluster, run:
$ starcluster stop physicscluster
to shutdown the cluster and stop paying for service
>>> start took 6.922 mins
The output of the start command should look similar to the above if everything went successfully.
If you wish to use a different template besides the default, largecluster for example, the command becomes:
$ starcluster start -c largecluster physicscluster
This command will do the same thing as above only using the largecluster cluster template.
To list all of your StarClusters on Amazon EC2 run the following command:
$ starcluster listclusters
The output should look something like:
$ starcluster listclusters
StarCluster - (http://web.mit.edu/starcluster)
Software Tools for Academics and Researchers (STAR)
Please submit bug reports to starcluster@mit.edu
---------------------------------------------------
physicscluster (security group: @sc-physicscluster)
---------------------------------------------------
Launch time: 2010-02-19T20:55:20.000Z
Zone: us-east-1c
Keypair: gsg-keypair
EBS volumes:
vol-c8888888 on master:/dev/sdj (status: attached)
Cluster nodes:
master running i-99999999 ec2-123-123-123-121.compute-1.amazonaws.com
node001 running i-88888888 ec2-123-123-123-122.compute-1.amazonaws.com
This will list each StarCluster you’ve started by tag name.
To login to the master node as root:
$ starcluster sshmaster physicscluster
or as user sgeadmin:
$ starcluster sshmaster -u sgeadmin physicscluster
To login to a worker node as root:
$ starcluster sshnode physicscluster node001
or as user sgeadmin:
$ starcluster sshnode -u sgeadmin physicscluster node001
The above commands will ssh to node001 of the physicscluster.
Once you’ve finished using the cluster and wish to stop paying for it, simply run the stop command providing the cluster tag name you gave when starting:
$ starcluster stop physicscluster
This command will prompt for confirmation before destroying the cluster:
$ starcluster stop physicscluster
StarCluster - (http://web.mit.edu/starcluster)
Software Tools for Academics and Researchers (STAR)
Please submit bug reports to starcluster@mit.edu
Shutdown cluster physicscluster (y/n)? y
>>> Shutting down i-99999999
>>> Shutting down i-88888888
>>> Removing cluster security group @sc-physicscluster
This will terminate all instances in the cluster tagged “physicscluster” and removes the @sc-physicscluster security group.