Graphcore IPU-POD128, Build And Test Manual, Page: 81 / 113

IPU-POD128 build and test guide
V-IPU should be installed from a user with root privileges (i.e. with sudo ./install.sh). Note that this install script
installs the V-IPU controller to run as a service in the context of the root user. You may need to change to the
itadmin user to do this since ipuuser does not have permission for root access.
Note:
Remember to only install the V-IPU software on one management server in the IPU-POD
128
.
5.3 IPU-M2000 software installation and configuration
Read carefully the release notes for the IPU-M2000 software release before any software upgrade takes place.
The release notes are available from the Graphcore download portal as a separate downloadable entity from the
same page where the software release itself is found.
The release notes give the following details of the release:
• Software sub-component version numbers
• Compatibility statements to Poplar SDK versions
• Compatibility changes from earlier releases that may need to be understood before upgrading the IPU-
M2000s
• Details to any special upgrade handling for this specific release
• An overview of fixed problems
• An overview of remaining known issues with proposed workarounds, if any.
The IPU-M2000 software release bundle contains a set of upgradable software and FPGA sub-components that is
executed on the IPU-M2000. The release also contains the tool rack_tool which is used for the software upgrade
and other rack related tasks targeting the IPU-M2000s.
The
rack_tool upgrade command performs the software upgrade. See details later for how to run this. The
IPU-M2000 GW and ICU supports booting from one of two persistent software images, the active image or the
standby image. When updating the software, the system will always update the standby image that is not running.
If an upgrade operation fails for one of the components, you should not try to force booting from the now incon-
sistently upgraded standby image(s) for the various CPU systems inside the IPU-M2000.
The software install process can currently NOT be run at the same time as running ML jobs since the install process
reboots the IPU-M2000 once complete.
When the update of the standby image is completed successfully, the IPU-POD
64
is immediately instructed to
switch to the updated standby image, making it the active one. The previously running image now becomes the
standby image. This is done via a service affecting reboot of each of the upgraded CPU/FPGA systems.
If you want to revert to the previous software version, the standby image can be upgraded to the previous version
in the same way as described above.
Note:
Graphcore has only qualified the IPU-M2000 software release with exactly the documented set of software
sub-component versions and any other version combinations of software components are not guaranteed.
Note that there is an OpenBMC User Guide available.
Version: latest (2021-11-25) 77