koan fails: cobbler_api not found
by Joe Linoff
Hi Folks:
I have dom0 xen-3.4.3 server based on CentOS 5.5 running and I want to
use koan to install a domU guest. Unfortunately simple koan commands
fail like this:
dom0 # koan --list=system
- looking for Cobbler at http://<server>/cobbler_api
I went to the cobbler server but could not find cobbler_api anywhere on
the system.
I looked at /etc/httpd/conf.d/cobbler.conf and cobbler_api shows up but
because my understanding of Apache is so limited, I am not sure what
ProxyPass does or how it would affect things.
What do I need to do to get koan to work?
Thanks,
Joe
13 years, 4 months
cobbler PXE boot problem -- can't get rid of /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS*.repo
by Joe Linoff
Hi:
I am hoping that someone can help me.
I recently started using cobbler and find it really, really useful but I
have a problem.
I am using cobbler to PXE provision Xen dom0 servers in my lab. These
dom0 machines are NOT connected to the internet and the automated
process fails. The reason that fails appears to be because the
/etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS*.repo files exist with references to external
web addresses which confuses the kickstart.
I have created a complete set of repos locally using "cobbler repo add",
"cobbler reposync" and "cobbler profile edit--name=<name>
--repos="<repo1> <repo2> ... <repon>". I have verified that they show up
on the PXE configured machines. I have also verified that they work
properly by manually interrupting the boot process, logging in, removing
the /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS*.repo files and then running the updates
myself.
I am currently experimenting with removing those files in the kickstart
but I was hoping that there was a more elegant solution. I would like to
tell cobbler not to install the default CentOS-Base.repo and
CentOS-Media.repo for a specific system or profile.
Thank you,
Joe
13 years, 4 months
configuring PXE boot to load a new driver
by Joe Linoff
Hi Folks:
I am a cobbler newbie and very impressed with it. I am using it to
configure a small private cloud (5 rackmounts). I am also using it on a
test bench which is where this problem arose.
It appears that the CentOS 5.5 Xen3.4.3 kernel does not have the correct
driver for a RTL8111/8168B PCI express gigabit ethernet controller rev
03. This problem causes my PXE boot to fail because the network is not
recognized.
After googling, I think that I found correct driver from elrepo
(http://elrepo.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=kmod-r8168) which I added to
my cobbler repo_mirror (elrepo, kmod-r8168) but now I am stuck because I
don't know how to tell cobbler to add it into grub.conf.
First, is this a sensible approach to solving the problem? If not, can
you suggest any other ways to proceed?
Second, if it is a sensible approach, how do I tell cobbler to add that
module? I have looked at the /etc/cobbler/pxe/pxe*.template files, in
particular: /etc/cobbler/pxe/pxesystem.template but I am not sure how to
set the $append_line or $kernel_path arguments.
Thank you,
Joe
13 years, 4 months
Ideas around auto registration
by Jean-Francois Nadeau
Hi,
I'm looking at cobbler to replace our actual home brewed kickstart system to ease 'off truck' scenarios.
We currently rely on the servers BMC (Ilo's XMLRPC interface) to initiate our kickstarts and map a boot media. In this way it is easy to match the bare metal hardware with a system profile but I would like to have a solution independent of the BMC.
Going forward with Cobbler and PXE based installs, I see a challenge with managing mac-adresses and linking them with a system profile as we have a lots of different server models with 2/4 nics and various network configuration where not all NICs can reach a cobbler server.
I really like the auto-registration feature and I was thinking of using it the following way and get around the MAC address challenge:
1. Use a default system profile all 'off truck' servers will network boot to.
The boot image is a custom CentOS 5 livecd with the following onboard:
* Needed binaries to identify the hardware (dmidecode etc.)
* Koan client
* Func client
* Utilities to create vendor RAID arrays and firmware updates
* Utilities to configure BMC if still in vanilla state (IPMI tools / Hponcfg).
* Fancy perl module used as a Cisco CDP querier
2. The image finds the server model, firmware, serial number and all possible NIC details
3. Cobbler-register creates the server's system entry using the server model and serial number since we have no idea of its hostname right now.
4. Func connects to its master and wait for commands.
>From the func master being also the cobbler server, I know which servers are ready to be kickstarted and can rename/assign their profiles easier, translating serial numbers into hostnames. I can also push firmware updates, create RAID arrays and perform some inventory tasks.
All is left is trigger a remote koan --replace-self with func to fire the install. b.t.w... I really like the hidden --kexec switch :-)
Do you think I'm going a too complicated way or does this make sense to some of you ? I remember Michael had some thoughts about extending the auto-registration feature to include other fields but I have not seen much interest on the list.
Happy new year,
Jean-Francois Nadeau
13 years, 4 months