[Cobbler] New feature -- Eliminating the need for that annoying "sync" command

Previously cobbler was set up such that to apply any changes to the 
cobbler configuration to the server (i.e. to make it actually do 
anything) one had to run "cobbler sync" after any commands.  

In upstream code (mercurial, you can grab it now), the need for running 
sync is no more -- for most use cases.

For each "distro add", "profile add", or "system add" command -- plus 
the corresponding delete commands as well -- cobbler will now update the 
filesystem as they are run.    This enables changes to be made to one's 
provisioning environment without taking it offline for the usual 6-60 
seconds (depending on how many distro/profiles there are) it takes to 
run a sync.   

Unless you are making changes to the kickstart files or replacing 
kernel/initrd files, sync now only has to be run right after first 
install -- and never again.   

This feature is enabled by default -- though it can be turned off by 
setting minimize_syncs to 0 in /var/lib/cobbler/settings.   I don't know 
why anyone would want to turn it off, but I figured I'd make it possible.

Check it out if you like -- Feedback is welcomed.    This is slated for 
inclusion in 0.4.0.

Thanks,

Michael

Stupid Cobbler Trick: PXE Booting SuSE-family distributions

In the spirit of using tools beyond their original intent, I figured
out how to use cobbler to help automate setting up PXE install
environments for SuSE-family distributions.  

 http://wiki.xdroop.com/space/Linux/SuSE/Using+Cobbler+with+SuSE

Presumably the principles here could be extended to any Linux
distribution.

I think it a huge complement to Mr. DeHaan that his tool can be bent
to such uses beyond his original intent without any modification
whatsoever.

--

-- 
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/ /()\ \ David Mackintosh | 
         dave@...  | http://www.xdroop.com

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re: Stupid Cobbler Trick: PXE Booting SuSE-family distributions

David Mackintosh wrot

> In the spirit of using tools beyond their original intent, I figured
> out how to use cobbler to help automate setting up PXE install
> environments for SuSE-family distributions.  

> http://wiki.xdroop.com/space/Linux/SuSE/Using+Cobbler+with+SuSE

> Presumably the principles here could be extended to any Linux
> distribution.

David,

Neat stuff!

Looking over the above example it seems that if you're going interactive 
you could just leave off the kickstart parameter rather than just 
passing in a filler argument.   However, I have a suggestion that might 
be useful.  

If you pass the address of an autoyast file to --kickstart, cobbler will 
write (behind the scenes) a "ks=blah" line to the kernel command line 
parameters.   I would expect SuSE would ignore this.   However, adding a 
--kopts parameter that referenced the file (URL) given in --kickstart 
would seemingly allow passing in a SuSE answer file.   Cobbler really 
doesn't know what a kickstart is, technically, it's just a file to which 
some templating voodoo can be applied, so that might be possible.    
 From http://www.suse.com/~ug/AutoYaST_FAQ.html it appears this 
parameter is just "autoyast=" instead of "ks=", so that's pretty 
simple.   This would work today.

Cobbler and zeroconf

I'm thinking about adding Avahi (zeroconf) support to Cobbler, such that 
koan can optionally auto-discover cobbler servers if they do not specify 
a --server parameter.   Zeroconf support would need to be added in such 
a way that cobbler still worked on systems where Avahi wasn't easily 
installable -- both cobbler-side and koan-side.

This could also, in the future, allow other software to discover the 
locations of cobbler servers that can be used as an install base.

Anyone have any thoughts on this or other use cases for discovery? 

--Michael

Cobbler: having Xen images use a PXE boot loader

Some new work has been done on making Xen machines be able to use PXE as 
a boot loader.

You can see more here:
https://www.cs.tcd.ie/Stephen.Childs/pypxeboot/

Stay tuned, but this should make management of virt via koan a lot more 
interesting.
Right now koan doesn't have any hooks for this, but I plan to add 
some.   If you're capable enough with Xen, you should be able to try it now.

--Michael

Re: Stupid Cobbler Trick: PXE Booting SuSE-family distributions

On Wed, Feb 07, 2007 at 10:58:26AM -0500, David Mackintosh wrote:
> In the spirit of using tools beyond their original intent, I figured
> out how to use cobbler to help automate setting up PXE install
> environments for SuSE-family distributions.  
> 
>  http://wiki.xdroop.com/space/Linux/SuSE/Using+Cobbler+with+SuSE
> 
> Presumably the principles here could be extended to any Linux
> distribution.

On a similar theme. I have actually got virtinst capable of downloading
and booting Xen guests off SuSE paravirtualized kernels. So once koan
is redone to use virtinst underneath, it'll Suse capable for baremetal
and DomU full & paravirt.

Dan.
--

-- 
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Re: Stupid Cobbler Trick: PXE Booting SuSE-family distributions

Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 07, 2007 at 10:58:26AM -0500, David Mackintosh wrote:
>   
>> In the spirit of using tools beyond their original intent, I figured
>> out how to use cobbler to help automate setting up PXE install
>> environments for SuSE-family distributions.  
>>
>>  http://wiki.xdroop.com/space/Linux/SuSE/Using+Cobbler+with+SuSE
>>
>> Presumably the principles here could be extended to any Linux
>> distribution.
>>     
>
> On a similar theme. I have actually got virtinst capable of downloading
> and booting Xen guests off SuSE paravirtualized kernels. So once koan
> is redone to use virtinst underneath, it'll Suse capable for baremetal
> and DomU full & paravirt.
>
> Dan.
>   
Planning to do that soon (next week, possibly?) given that virt-inst is 
now compatible between FC-6 and FC-7.

This should be goodness.

--Michael

Re: Cobbler and zeroconf

Michael DeHaan wrote:
> This could also, in the future, allow other software to discover the 
> locations of cobbler servers that can be used as an install base.
>
> Anyone have any thoughts on this or other use cases for discovery?

At the very least, I think driving stuff towards expecting this to at 
least maybe work is
a good idea. Aka, get people used to the idea of actually using SRV 
records and the like.

Adrian

cobbler server's port

Hello,

i want to access remote cobbler server accessing the profile list.

The server is 136.146.116.114. The command locally runs ok, however, when
i try to access from remote host, i got the next message:

[root <at> dhcp-crl-116-78 ~]# koan --server=136.145.116.114 --list-profiles
listing defined profiles...
couldn't access listing information

i know is a problem of firewall, because i disabled it, and it works.
What's the cobbler's port?

thanks a lot.

                    (`'`'`'`'`)
                     |       |
                     |       |
                     |       |
    -----..        (()----   |
   |        ||     (_        |
   |        ||       |       |
   |        ||       |       |
   |        ||       /\   ..--
   '--------''   /\  ||-''    \
      /   \      \ \//   ,,   \---.
   .---------.    \./ |~| /__\  \  |
___|_________|__|""-.___ / ||   |  |
|               | .-----'  ||   |  |

problems with koan...

ok,

after has been resolved the problems with fedora core 6 in my laptop
(compaq r3000), running xen and SELinux disabled, i try to run the koan in
my laptop.

The scenario as follows:

my cobbler server is 136.145.116.114. I set up the next on it:

# cobbler distro add --name="test1" --kernel=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18...
--initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.18...

# cobbler profile add --name="test1-profile" --distro="test1"
--kickstart=/root/anaconda-ks.cfg.virtual --virt-name="cobblertest"
--virt-file-size=3 --virt-ram=250

when run koan in my laptop, as follows:
# koan --virt --profile=test1-profile --server=136.145.116.114

i got the next output:

- processing profile: test1-profile
- fetching configuration for profile: test1-profile
- url=http://136.145.116.114/cobbler/profiles/test1-profile
- {'kickstart':
'http://136.145.116.114/cobbler_track/kickstarts/test1-profile/ks.cfg',
'name': 'test1-profile', 'virt_ram': 250, 'repos': '', 'kernel_options':
'lang ksdevice=eth0  text syslog=136.145.116.114:25150 devfs=nomount
ramdisk_size=16438 syslog=136.145.116.114:25150', 'virt_name':