OIC. Didn't realize that DHCP in your environment is handled by
AD. My
cobbler environment, like a lot of others, manages DHCP directly. I
haven't tried it, but I believe that cobbler systems are actually able
to negotiate with other DHCP servers, possibly including AD servers.
Totally, cobbler does not have to auto-manage your DHCP and it can be on
another box easily.
You just need to get your AD admin to assign the next server for that
block of machines. I'm pretty sure it's doable and has been done before.
BTW, please avoid top posting if you can help it :)
--Michael
On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 12:02 PM, Brandon Young
<bkyoung(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hmmm. I see the error in how I understood the next-server option to work.
> Thinking through it some more, I can see the maintenance overhead of this
> method isn't as bad as I originally assessed it to be. BUT, to answer your
> question about how it might not suit my needs, here's a contrived but
> believable example:
>
>
>
> Background:
> DNS and DHCP are handled by AD on our networks. Linux admins do not muck
> around in AD, thus we must request a Windows admin to do so. Similarly, the
> network admin doesn't like Windows or Linux admins mucking with switch
> configs.
>
> MAC Address Scenario:
> I have a new workstation (we'll call it workstation1). Workstation1 starts
> life at my organization as a Windows box. We register its MAC with DHCP to
> point it at Altiris PXE server, and dump an image on it. Some time later,
> the original end user leaves. Their replacement would prefer a Linux box.
> I come along and wish to make use of my Cobbler server to kickstart
> workstation1. I must now get a friendly Windows admin to go into the DHCP
> config and associate the MAC address with the Cobbler server next-server
> entry. Plus, I can imagine that MAC address list getting pretty unweildy.
> I mean, today we only have 1500 machines, but that could double pretty
> quickly. It would be no fun trying to pick through that list for a specific
> MAC. Not horrible, but somewhat inefficient.
>
> Subnetwork Scenario:
> Workstation1 starts life at my organization as a Windows box, again. This
> time, it's easy enough to point it at the Altiris PXE server based on its
> VLAN. Windows get deployed. Some time later, the original end user
> leaves. Their replacement would prefer a Linux box. I come along and wish
> to make use of my Cobbler server to kickstart workstation1. I must now
> either (a) haul the box away to an appropriate location that has a network
> connection into a VLAN that would be pointed to Cobbler, kickstart it, and
> bring it back; or (b) get the Network admin to temporarily change the VLAN
> of the drop to which workstation1 is connected to. Again, not horrible, but
> still probably even more inefficient than the MAC address scenario, due to
> reliance on others to accomplish this.
>
>
>
> I am lazy and wish to avoid those little annoyances down the road, but I can
> live with either of those scenarios. I was just searching for a simpler
> option.
>
> Thank you all for your input.
>
> --
> Brandon
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 12:59 PM, Terry McIntyre <terry.mcintyre(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> The proposal is that the DHCP server ( or servers, since it is
>> possible for two to share the duty ) will offer one "next-server" PXE
>> to each particular client. The decision as to which "next server" to
>> use could be based upon MAC address, or subnetwork, depending upon
>> your needs. It looks to me like some of your machines would want to
>> PXE boot from the cobbler server, some from the Alteris server; if
>> this doesn't suit your needs, I can't figure out why.
>>
>> Here's the flow: client asks for DHCP server; DHCP server feeds
>> "next-server" info to client; client uses next-server info to request
>> PXE boot. The DHCP server can particularize the next-server address to
>> fit the client.
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:48 AM, Brandon Young <bkyoung(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Thank you for being so patient and helpful, Michael.
>>>
>>> I guess I am not clear how the DHCP next-server parameter would help me.
>>> Here's how I imagine it might work: Suppose there are two PXE servers on
>>> the
>>> same network/VLAN/subnet. Both are listed as next-server entries in
>>> DHCP.
>>> A client performs a DHCP DISCOVER request for a PXE Server, and both
>>> server
>>> addresses are returned to the client by the DHCP server. The client
>>> then
>>> sends a PXE boot request to both servers. Server A is configured to
>>> only
>>> respond to a list of known clients right away, Server B will respond to
>>> all
>>> clients after some short delay (thus giving the Server A time to respond
>>> to
>>> the client first, if it's going to). The requesting client gets a
>>> response
>>> from one or both of these servers, and begins its TFTP download of the
>>> network boot program (pxelinux.0 in our case, right?), as directed by
>>> the
>>> first responder.
>>>
>>> Is this a reasonable approximation of what you're proposing to me? If
>>> so,
>>> the constraint I am attempting to work under is both Altiris (Server A)
>>> and
>>> Cobbler (Server B) need the flexibility to be able to respond to any
>>> arbitrary client, not just a list of known clients. I'm trying to avoid
>>> making each server only available to certain networks/vlans/subnets, if
>>> possible; though, it is an option we're willing to use if nothing else
>>> will
>>> work. In our organization, we have sevaral VLANs that span across two
>>> geographic locations that, ideally, would have access to both Altiris
>>> and
>>> Cobbler Install servers. I'm shooting for the ability to sit down at
>>> any
>>> workstation at any location, select PXE boot, and have the ability to
>>> choose
>>> Altiris or Cobbler.
>>>
>>> Maybe I should start at a more basic level to understand what's going
>>> on: at
>>> the point I see the blue Cobbler Menu screen on my client computer, have
>>> I
>>> pxe booted yet, or am I just looking at a PXE boot management screen?
>>> I've
>>> gotten the impression from various docs that you can chain pxe boots;
>>> so,
>>> you could pxe boot from server A, then have server A tell you to PXE
>>> boot
>>> from server B. I'm looking for a way to do that from Cobbler, if
>>> possible.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Brandon
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:51 AM, Michael DeHaan <mdehaan(a)redhat.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Brandon Young wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Thank you all for your responses. gPXE looks very promising.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Brandon
>>>>>
>>>>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> cobbler mailing list
>>>>> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>>>>>
https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Can you elaborate as to why you'd prefer that to just configuring
DHCP
>>>> next-server parameters?
>>>>
>>>> --Michael
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> cobbler mailing list
>>>> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>>>>
https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> cobbler mailing list
>>> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>>>
https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Terry McIntyre
>> UNIX for hire
>> Software Development, Systems Administration, Security
>> terry.mcintyre(a)gmail.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> cobbler mailing list
>> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>>
https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>>
> _______________________________________________
> cobbler mailing list
> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>
https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>
>
>