Fwd: RE: Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather than a preseed?
by Alastair Munro
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/apb.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/installation-guide/i386/appendix-preseed.html
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Date: 2014-09-25 22:17
From: Will Dennis <wdennis(a)nec-labs.com>
To: Alastair Munro <alastair(a)alastair-munro.com>
Thanks for your help in this. So far, trying to spec partitions in d-i
has been a rather painful experience... Using a ks file is MUCH less
painful in this area (even if all the partitioner options are not
available.) If you have working examples of any d-i partitioning that
work in Cobbler, I’d be grateful to see them (either “regular”
hard partitions, or LVM...)
Best,
Will
FROM: Alastair Munro [mailto:alastair@alastair-munro.com]
SENT: Thursday, September 25, 2014 3:53 PM
TO: Will Dennis
SUBJECT: RE: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Hi
I suspect kickstart support in ubuntu is immature at present. It should
get better. As with all things cobbler you need the time and patience to
experiment and test things out. I went with debian installer because we
need to support ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04. Ubuntu ks only turned up in
14.04. However i managed to reuse most of my centos snippets for ubuntu
by just embedding them in a copy of the post seed file. So the change to
d-i was not so painful and not too much reworking required.
For the cobbler system definitions for ubuntu i had to put default
gateways in the interface rather than the global networking, and it
needs the nameserver fields to be filled in too (rather than just
putting a resolv.conf inplace which gets overwritten by resolver). Other
than that it works the same as fedora/centos.
--
Alastair Munro
-----Original Message-----
From: Will Dennis <wdennis(a)nec-labs.com>
To: cobbler mailing list <cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org>
Cc: "alastair(a)alastair-munro.com" <alastair(a)alastair-munro.com>
Sent: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:40
Subject: RE: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Thanks, Alastair. Guess I'll be learning Debian Installer syntax then ;)
Would be cool in the future if Cobbler could support either d-i or
kickstart for breed "ubuntu", since there is support now, and I'd wager
most Cobbler users are more familiar with kickstart...
Best,
Will
-----Original Message-----
From: cobbler-bounces(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
[mailto:cobbler-bounces@lists.fedorahosted.org] On Behalf Of
alastair(a)alastair-munro.com
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 2 [1]:57 PM
To: cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
Subject: Re: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Debian/ubuntu uses debian installer. All lines start d-i. See this that
I wrote:
https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Using%20template%20scripts%20for%...
[2]
Use the cobbler sample.seed and then replace the pre and post seed
files with your own, with embedded snippets.
I have not played round with lvm or partitioning on ubuntu/debian, but
I was able to use all the snippets I wrote for centos with ubuntu (with
some slight tweaks). These snippets are now multi platform!
The ubuntu guides tell you about debian installer and what the various
lines do. I didn't have to tweak the sample.seed much.
Alastair
On 2014-09-25 16 [3]:39, Will Dennis wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Went looking for an automated way to install a bunch of Ubuntu
(14.04)
> nodes I had to bring up, and happily found that Ubuntu now supports
> Kickstart (albeit in a non-complete way...)
>
>
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[4]
> ckstart
> [1]
>
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility [5] [2]
>
> I created a USB installer, and authored a kickstart file (via the
> Ubuntu app "system-config-kickstart"), placed it in the root of the
> USB key, and then in /syslinux/txt.cfg I added "ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" to
> the end of the "append" line for the default install. Booted my test
> node from the USB key, and the kickstart worked like a champ.
>
> Now, since I've been using Cobbler to install RedHat-family nodes, I
> thought I'd try to add a Ubuntu OS choice. So I added the install ISO
> to Cobbler via the 'cobbler import' command, and also did a 'cobbler
> reposync' to add the local repo. Tried PXE-booting my test node, my
> Ubuntu 14.04 OS choice shows up in the menu, and can be installed
(but
> for some reason stops at the "Partition disks" setup screen...)
>
> When I checked out the "kickstart" file for the profile, I was
> surprised to find that it was actually a Debian preseed file instead
> of a kickstart... Since I don't understand preseed files, and wanted
> to use my (working) kickstart file, I imported my kickstart file into
> /var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts and then made a copy of the Ubuntu 14.04
> profile, and changed the kickstart file to be mine instead of
> "sample.seed". Upon PXE booting the test node and selecting my new
> profile, it errored out with the following message:
>
> "The installer failed to process the preconfiguration file from
> http://<cobbler-svr-ip>/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/<profile_name [6]
[3]>. The
> file may be corrupt."
>
> So, is there a way to support using kickstart files against Ubuntu
> nodes, instead of preseed files? If so, any docs anywhere?
>
> Also, is there a way to search the list archives (such as Gmane,
etc.)
> for keywords such as "Ubuntu kickstart" - I'm sure this has been
> discussed before on the list, but couldn't (quickly) find anything...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Will
>
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1]
>
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[4]
> ckstart [2] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility
[5]
> [3]
http://%3ccobbler-svr-ip%3e/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/%3cprofile_name [6]
>
> _______________________________________________
> cobbler mailing list
> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler [7]
_______________________________________________
cobbler mailing list
cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler [7]
Links:
------
[1] tel:20142
[2]
https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Using%20template%20scripts%20for%...
[3] tel:2014092516
[4]
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[5] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility
[6] http://%3ccobbler-svr-ip%3e/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/%3cprofile_name
[7] https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
9 years, 5 months
Fwd: [cobbler-devel] Templated scripts
by Jörgen Maas
Hi Cobbler users,
Is anyone using the functionality as described below?
Please let us know!
Thanks
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Leonid Flaks <flaks(a)bnl.gov>
Date: Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 2:46 AM
Subject: Re: [cobbler-devel] Templated scripts
To: cobbler-devel(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
On 09/15/2014 08:06 PM, Alan Evangelista wrote:
> On 09/07/2014 06:22 PM, Alan Evangelista wrote:
>
>> I'd like to understand better the purpose of the generic templated
>> scripts available in the
>> scripts directory in Cobbler repository. The script() method in
>> cobbler/services.py seems
>> to be the responsible for creating these and, according to documentation,
>> the purpose
>> is to generate scripts based on snippets useful for post or late action
>> where it
>> is difficult to embed the script in the kickstart/autoyast/preseed file.
>> I see only two
>> of those in upstream Cobbler: preseed_early_default and
>> preseed_late_default.
>> These scripts only include snippets and are only used in sample preseed
>> available
>> in kickstarts/ directory. I dont understand why these 2 scripts could not
>> be embedded
>> directly in the sample preseed.
>>
>> Is anyone using this feature?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Alan Evangelista
>>
>>
>>
>
> Considering the lack of answers and apparent lack of interest in this
> feature, do we
> need to keep it in the future versions of Cobbler? Removing it would make
> code simpler.
>
> Regards,
> Alan Evangelista
>
>
I am very much interested in this feature. The problem is that preseed file
that is used in debian/ubunty installer (d-i) is a lot less convenient then
kickstart. In particular, early- and late- installation scripts are not
very easy to configure. I had to cook a one line command with some sort of
black magic to make it work if I used snippets. I hope those scripts made
it easier and more readable. I never got a chance to give them a try, but
it is on my to-do list. I am not sure who contributed this feature to
cobbler, but the lack of documentation or use-case example make them less
appealing. I think, they work as some sort of wrappers, which are not
necessary for anaconda-based installations.
This mail list is not very active lately, unfortunately, but lack of the
answer does not mean lack of interst
Leon
_______________________________________________
cobbler-devel mailing list
cobbler-devel(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler-devel
--
Grtz,
Jörgen Maas
9 years, 6 months
Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather than a preseed?
by Will Dennis
Hi all,
Went looking for an automated way to install a bunch of Ubuntu (14.04) nodes I had to bring up, and happily found that Ubuntu now supports Kickstart (albeit in a non-complete way...)
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#kicks...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility
I created a USB installer, and authored a kickstart file (via the Ubuntu app "system-config-kickstart"), placed it in the root of the USB key, and then in /syslinux/txt.cfg I added "ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" to the end of the "append" line for the default install. Booted my test node from the USB key, and the kickstart worked like a champ.
Now, since I've been using Cobbler to install RedHat-family nodes, I thought I'd try to add a Ubuntu OS choice. So I added the install ISO to Cobbler via the 'cobbler import' command, and also did a 'cobbler reposync' to add the local repo. Tried PXE-booting my test node, my Ubuntu 14.04 OS choice shows up in the menu, and can be installed (but for some reason stops at the "Partition disks" setup screen...)
When I checked out the "kickstart" file for the profile, I was surprised to find that it was actually a Debian preseed file instead of a kickstart... Since I don't understand preseed files, and wanted to use my (working) kickstart file, I imported my kickstart file into /var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts and then made a copy of the Ubuntu 14.04 profile, and changed the kickstart file to be mine instead of "sample.seed". Upon PXE booting the test node and selecting my new profile, it errored out with the following message:
"The installer failed to process the preconfiguration file from http://<cobbler-svr-ip>/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/<profile_name<http://%3ccobbler-svr-ip%3e/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/%3cprofile_name>>. The file may be corrupt."
So, is there a way to support using kickstart files against Ubuntu nodes, instead of preseed files? If so, any docs anywhere?
Also, is there a way to search the list archives (such as Gmane, etc.) for keywords such as "Ubuntu kickstart" - I'm sure this has been discussed before on the list, but couldn't (quickly) find anything...
Thanks,
Will
9 years, 7 months
Getting started with cobbler for Ubuntu 14.04...
by Paul Michali (pcm)
Hi,
I’m trying to setup a build server for provisioning boxes with Ubutnu 14.04 and am stuck at a step. Hoping someone has ideas...
On the build server (VM), I installed cobbler on Ubuntu 14.04 server, setup for dnsmasq for DHCP and DNS, and installed ipmitool.
I imported the trusty-x86_64 image. From the cobbler web page I created a system selecting the trusty auto profile. In the profile, I selected the trusty repo. In the profile, the distribution field is blank (and has no selections).
I did a power off, power on of the target system using cobbler and it net booted and started a Ubuntu install. During the install, it got to the point where it should download from the ubuntu archive mirror. It sits there for a long time, and then eventually fails with a Bad Archive Mirror. If I go back, it has the right IP for the server, and the path points to a valid directory on my server.
If I D/L a Trusty image to the server, create an image in the web page (Note: the breed and OS version are blank and have no selections) and use that in the system, when I cobbler sync, I get a traceback:
…
Writing template files for trusty-x86_64
rendering DHCP files
Exception occured: <type 'exceptions.AttributeError'>
Exception value: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'arch'
Exception Info:
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cobbler/remote.py", line 87, in run
rc = self._run(self)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cobbler/remote.py", line 186, in runner
return self.remote.api.sync(self.options.get("verbose",False),logger=self.logger)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 767, in sync
return sync.run()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cobbler/action_sync.py", line 132, in run
self.write_dhcp()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cobbler/action_sync.py", line 218, in write_dhcp
self.dhcp.write_dhcp_file()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cobbler/modules/manage_dnsmasq.py", line 133, in write_dhcp_file
systxt = "dhcp-host=net:" + distro.arch.lower() + "," + mac
Any idea what I’m doing wrong or missing in this process?
Anything I may have done wrong with the image (if that is the right way to go)?
PCM (Paul Michali)
MAIL …..…. pcm(a)cisco.com
IRC ……..… pcm_ (irc.freenode.com)
TW ………... @pmichali
GPG Key … 4525ECC253E31A83
Fingerprint .. 307A 96BB 1A4C D2C7 931D 8D2D 4525 ECC2 53E3 1A83
9 years, 7 months
Distribution sigs.
by Michael Tiernan
I'm trying to import a Scientific Linux V5 distro and getting failures.
Is the "how" and "why" of the signature file explained anywhere?
9 years, 7 months
Fwd: RE: Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather than a preseed?
by Alastair Munro
I seem to have replied to Will rather than the list via my phone :)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Date: 2014-09-25 20:53
From: Alastair Munro <alastair(a)alastair-munro.com>
To: Will Dennis <>
Hi
I suspect kickstart support in ubuntu is immature at present. It should
get better. As with all things cobbler you need the time and patience to
experiment and test things out. I went with debian installer because we
need to support ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04. Ubuntu ks only turned up in
14.04. However i managed to reuse most of my centos snippets for ubuntu
by just embedding them in a copy of the post seed file. So the change to
d-i was not so painful and not too much reworking required.
For the cobbler system definitions for ubuntu i had to put default
gateways in the interface rather than the global networking, and it
needs the nameserver fields to be filled in too (rather than just
putting a resolv.conf inplace which gets overwritten by resolver). Other
than that it works the same as fedora/centos.
--
Alastair Munro
-----Original Message-----
From: Will Dennis <wdennis(a)nec-labs.com>
To: cobbler mailing list <cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org>
Cc: "alastair(a)alastair-munro.com" <alastair(a)alastair-munro.com>
Sent: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:40
Subject: RE: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Thanks, Alastair. Guess I'll be learning Debian Installer syntax then
;)
Would be cool in the future if Cobbler could support either d-i or
kickstart for breed "ubuntu", since there is support now, and I'd wager
most Cobbler users are more familiar with kickstart...
Best,
Will
-----Original Message-----
From: cobbler-bounces(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
[mailto:cobbler-bounces@lists.fedorahosted.org] On Behalf Of
alastair(a)alastair-munro.com
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 2 [1]:57 PM
To: cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
Subject: Re: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Debian/ubuntu uses debian installer. All lines start d-i. See this that
I wrote:
https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Using%20template%20scripts%20for%...
[2]
Use the cobbler sample.seed and then replace the pre and post seed
files with your own, with embedded snippets.
I have not played round with lvm or partitioning on ubuntu/debian, but
I was able to use all the snippets I wrote for centos with ubuntu (with
some slight tweaks). These snippets are now multi platform!
The ubuntu guides tell you about debian installer and what the various
lines do. I didn't have to tweak the sample.seed much.
Alastair
On 2014-09-25 16 [3]:39, Will Dennis wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Went looking for an automated way to install a bunch of Ubuntu
(14.04)
> nodes I had to bring up, and happily found that Ubuntu now supports
> Kickstart (albeit in a non-complete way...)
>
>
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[4]
> ckstart
> [1]
>
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility [5] [2]
>
> I created a USB installer, and authored a kickstart file (via the
> Ubuntu app "system-config-kickstart"), placed it in the root of the
> USB key, and then in /syslinux/txt.cfg I added "ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" to
> the end of the "append" line for the default install. Booted my test
> node from the USB key, and the kickstart worked like a champ.
>
> Now, since I've been using Cobbler to install RedHat-family nodes, I
> thought I'd try to add a Ubuntu OS choice. So I added the install ISO
> to Cobbler via the 'cobbler import' command, and also did a 'cobbler
> reposync' to add the local repo. Tried PXE-booting my test node, my
> Ubuntu 14.04 OS choice shows up in the menu, and can be installed
(but
> for some reason stops at the "Partition disks" setup screen...)
>
> When I checked out the "kickstart" file for the profile, I was
> surprised to find that it was actually a Debian preseed file instead
> of a kickstart... Since I don't understand preseed files, and wanted
> to use my (working) kickstart file, I imported my kickstart file into
> /var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts and then made a copy of the Ubuntu 14.04
> profile, and changed the kickstart file to be mine instead of
> "sample.seed". Upon PXE booting the test node and selecting my new
> profile, it errored out with the following message:
>
> "The installer failed to process the preconfiguration file from
> http://<cobbler-svr-ip>/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/<profile_name [3]>.
The
> file may be corrupt."
>
> So, is there a way to support using kickstart files against Ubuntu
> nodes, instead of preseed files? If so, any docs anywhere?
>
> Also, is there a way to search the list archives (such as Gmane,
etc.)
> for keywords such as "Ubuntu kickstart" - I'm sure this has been
> discussed before on the list, but couldn't (quickly) find
anything...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Will
>
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1]
>
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[4]
> ckstart [2] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility
[5]
> [3]
http://%3ccobbler-svr-ip%3e/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/%3cprofile_name
>
> _______________________________________________
> cobbler mailing list
> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler [6]
_______________________________________________
cobbler mailing list
cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler [6]
Links:
------
[1] tel:20142
[2]
https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Using%20template%20scripts%20for%...
[3] tel:2014092516
[4]
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[5] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility
[6] https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
9 years, 7 months
second system won't boot
by Jeremy Mordkoff
I have cobbler up and running and I've installed to my first system at least a dozen times. The first system had two CPUs and 16 GB RAM.
Now I'm trying a mass deployment. These new systems all have 1 CPU and 8 GB RAM.
The install fails on the new systems. I compared the output from cobbler system report for the two systems and except for the obvious differences in names and addressing, everything else is the same.
It drops down into an emergency shell right after
Warning: Could not boot
Warning: /dev/root does not exist
My question is, since my setup works with the first system, am I safe to assume that there is nothing I need to do in cobbler to get these new systems working? Or do I need a separate profile (or something) for these single CPU system?
I don't know if this is important but eth0 does not have an IP address.
rdsosreport is here http://pastebin.com/af5HqMWT?
[http://pastebin.com/i/fb2.jpg]<http://pastebin.com/af5HqMWT>
+ cat /proc/self/mountinfo 1 1 0:1 / / rw shared:1 - rootfs rootfs rw 15 1 0:3 - Pastebin.com
Read more...<http://pastebin.com/af5HqMWT>
---
Jeremy Mordkoff
9 years, 7 months
A question on "management interfaces"
by Michael Tiernan
I know what *I* think of when I see the button for "Management
Interface" when configuring a system but I'm curious about a couple of
things and I suspect getting them well documented for those who come
after us might be a good idea.
So, I'm going to pose them here in the hopes that it stirs others to
consider the info and/or answers and maybe allow a dialog where this
stuff gets more understanding across the board.
1) What exactly does cobbler think a management interface is?
2) Are there any restrictions or conditions on declaring something as a
management interface?
3) Does cobbler allow me to have more than one management interface?
(Either by error or design.)
4) Does value of the flag for "management interface" get used *anywhere*
else inside of cobbler or is it only an indicator?
5) What effect might I expect to see on a system that does NOT have any
interface declared as a management interface?
Thanks for everyone's time!
9 years, 7 months
Creating custom apt repositories in centos or el based cobbler
by Alastair Munro
Hi
Giving back to the community and all that...
I documented how I did this at the cobbler wiki:
Wiki: https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki
Direct link:
https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Creating%20custom%20apt%20reposit...
Question: how do folks preseed the pgp key for the apt (d-i
apt-setup/localX/key)? Is there a proper/referred way to do this? Maybe
we need an enhancement for this? I made a copy of snippet
preseed_apt_repo_config and then added code in there:
# Additional repositories, local[0-9] available
#set $cur=0
#set $repo_data = $getVar("repo_data",[])
#for $repo in $repo_data
#for $dist in $repo.apt_dists
#set $comps = " ".join($repo.apt_components)
d-i apt-setup/local${cur}/repository string \
#if $repo.mirror_locally
http://$http_server/cblr/repo_mirror/${repo.name} $dist $comps
#else
${repo.mirror} $dist $comps
#end if
#if $repo.comment != ""
d-i apt-setup/local${cur}/comment string ${repo.comment}
#end if
#if $repo.breed == "src"
# Enable deb-src lines
d-i apt-setup/local${cur}/source boolean false
#end if
# Add repo pgp pub key
d-i apt-setup/local${cur}/key string \
http://$http_server/cblr/repo_mirror/${repo.name}/public.pgp
#set $cur=$cur+1
#end for
#end for
Alastair Munro
9 years, 7 months
Simplified patch process?
by Gary Algier
Hello:
I have patched a few things on my local copy of 2.6.5 and I would like to
contribute the fixes back upstream. However, when I asked before what to do
with my fixes, I was told:
Submit a pull request on github - https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler
Is there any sort of "using GIT to submit simple patches for non-GIT users"
documentation? I have no idea what a "pull request" is. I don't know how to
use GIT to get a copy of the 2.6.5 branch, etc. I am familiar with other
revision control systems, but GIT seems to be quite different and this seems
to be a complicated process for a four line patch. Is there a simple cookbook
for how to do this?
Yes, I did read the documentation at:
http://www.cobblerd.org/manuals/developer/1_-_Patch-process.html
but this seems to assume I already know how to use GIT.
When I signed up at github.com, it said I needed to pay money for space. Does
this apply to one who is only submitting deltas to an already existing project?
--
Gary Algier, WB2FWZ gaa(a)ulticom.com +1 856 787 2758
Ulticom Inc., 1020 Briggs Rd, Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054 Fax:+1 856 866 2033
Nielsen's First Law of Computer Manuals:
People don't read documentation voluntarily.
9 years, 7 months