Cray System Management Documentation > Cray System Management Install > Create System Configuration Using SHCD

Create System Configuration Using SHCD

This stage walks the user through creating the configuration payload for the system.

Run the following steps before starting any of the system configuration procedures.

(pit#) Make the prep directory.
```
mkdir -pv "${PITDATA}/prep"
```
(pit#) Change into the prep directory.
```
cd "${PITDATA}/prep"
```

Topics

1. Validate SHCD

(pit#) Download the SHCD to the prep directory.

The SHCD is contained in the administrator’s Cray deliverable.
Validate the SHCD.

See Validate SHCD and then return to this page.

2. Generate topology files

The following steps use the new, automated method for generating files. The previous step for validate SHCD generated “paddle” files; these are necessary for generating the rest of the seed files.

NOTE: The paddle files are temporarily not used due to bugs in the seed file generation software. Until these bugs are resolved, the seed files must be manually generated.

If seed files from a prior installation of the same major-minor version of CSM exist, then these can be used and this step may be skipped.

(pit#) Create each seed file, unless they already exist from a previous installation.
- For new installations of CSM that have no prior seed files, each one must be created:
- For re-installations of CSM 1.3, the previous seed files may be used and this step can be skipped.
- For new installations of CSM 1.3 that have prior seed files from CSM 1.2 or older, the previous seed files may be used except that the following files must be recreated because of content or formatting changes:
  - Create cabinets.yaml
  - Create hmn_connections.json

(pit#) Confirm that the topology files exist.

ls -l "${PITDATA}"/prep/{application_node_config.yaml,cabinets.yaml,hmn_connections.json,ncn_metadata.csv,switch_metadata.csv}

Expected output may look like:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  146 Jun  6 00:12 /var/www/ephemeral/prep/application_node_config.yaml
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  392 Jun  6 00:12 /var/www/ephemeral/prep/cabinets.yaml
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3768 Jun  6 00:12 /var/www/ephemeral/prep/hmn_connections.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1216 Jun  6 00:12 /var/www/ephemeral/prep/ncn_metadata.csv
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  150 Jun  6 00:12 /var/www/ephemeral/prep/switch_metadata.csv

3. Customize `system_config.yaml`

(pit#) Create or copy system_config.yaml.
- If one does not exist from a prior installation, then create an empty one:
```
csi config init empty
```
- Otherwise, copy the existing system_config.yaml file into the working directory and proceed to the Run CSI step.
(pit#) Edit the system_config.yaml file with the appropriate values.
NOTES
- For a short description of each key in the file, run csi config init --help. IMPORTANT install-ncn-bond-members have many possibilities but are typically:
  - p1p1,p10p1 for HPE nodes.
  - p1p1,p1p2 for Gigabyte nodes.
  - p801p1,p801p2 for Intel nodes.
- For more details on these settings and the default values, see Default IP Address Ranges and the other topics in CSM Overview.
- To enable or disable audit logging, refer to Audit Logs for more information.
- If the system is using a cabinets.yaml file, be sure to update the cabinets-yaml field with 'cabinets.yaml' as its value.
```
vim system_config.yaml
```

4. Run CSI

(pit#) Generate the initial configuration for CSI.

This will validate whether the inputs for CSI are correct.

csi config init

5. Prepare Site Init

Follow the Prepare Site Init procedure.

6. Initialize the LiveCD

NOTE: If starting an installation at this point, then be sure to copy the previous prep directory back onto the system.

(pit#) Initialize the PIT.

The pit-init.sh script will prepare the PIT server for deploying NCNs.
```
/root/bin/pit-init.sh
```

(pit#) Set the IPMI_PASSWORD variable.

read -r -s -p "NCN BMC root password: " IPMI_PASSWORD

(pit#) Export the IPMI_PASSWORD variable.
```
export IPMI_PASSWORD
```
(pit#) Setup links to the boot artifacts extracted from the CSM tarball.
NOTE
- This will also set all the BMCs to DHCP.
- Changing into the $HOME directory ensures the proper operation of the script.
```
cd $HOME && /root/bin/set-sqfs-links.sh
```

Next topic

After completing this procedure, proceed to import the CSM tarball.

See Import the CSM Tarball.