PCP is a cluster software designed to enable file replication across multiple nodes in a computer cluster environment.
Compared to other alternative software, such as NFS, PCP provides highly efficient data transfers, especially when replicating large files across many nodes. Installing PCP can be executed in only a few steps, but there are some requirements before initiating use.
First, make sure to install Authd on all nodes in the cluster. Refer to the Authd webpage for installation instructions. Second, add the necessary line to /etc/services on each node in the cluster. Adding this line will indicate that Caltech PCP will be utilized. However, it's important to note that RedHat 7.3 doesn't require this step to be executed.
After completing the first two steps, the next move is to install PCP on all nodes in the cluster. This is done via rpm, initiated by entering the command prompt, and finally, running the PCP client program.
Please note that on newer Linux kernels, such as the 2.4.x RedHat 9 kernel, environmental variables such as LD_ASSUME_KERNEL, will have to be set to "2.2.5" to avoid issues with LinuxThreads bugs, for instance, incomplete implementation of POSIX cancellation points. However, this is not required on all Linux distributions.
Finally, to ensure that xinetd runs properly in the background, some requirements regarding OpenSSL 0.9.6b must be met. It's essential to stay updated with the newest version release of PCP since the latest version, 0.3.4, comes with a BSD license. The install/uninstall procedures of PCP's RPM deal with installing/uninstalling and starting/stopping daemon operations. Simply add or remove the required files from etc/xinetd.d and send SIGUSR2 to xinetd to prompt it to reread its configuration files.
Version 0.3.4: N/A