All,
I managed to get PXE booting working with Cobbler (I'm using DHCP outside of Cobbler)...
I notice when I run "cobbler sync," the generated /tftpboot/pxelnux.cfg/default does not contain any system records I have defined. I spent most of yesterday looking through the code and see in pxegen.py only profiles and images are listed. I managed to hack away a little bit to get my system records to emit - and its mostly working now for installations...
Question I have is, were system records purposefully omitted? Or am I missing something? I'm wanting to have all my systems listed in the PXE menu and be able to choose and install just like if I generate the iso file and burn to CD...
Thanks,
Flossy
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 10:57 AM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote:
All,
I managed to get PXE booting working with Cobbler (I'm using DHCP outside of Cobbler)...
I notice when I run "cobbler sync," the generated /tftpboot/pxelnux.cfg/default does not contain any system records I have defined. I spent most of yesterday looking through the code and see in pxegen.py only profiles and images are listed. I managed to hack away a little bit to get my system records to emit - and its mostly working now for installations...
Question I have is, were system records purposefully omitted? Or am I missing something? I'm wanting to have all my systems listed in the PXE menu and be able to choose and install just like if I generate the iso file and burn to CD...
Thanks,
Flossy
Yup, How would I include "external" pxeboot options such as a couple OpenBSD flavours* - currently I maintain two TFTP instances and manually launch the one I need at the time - I think I'm looking for an 'include' function that survives the cobbler sync to chain in the OBSD pxe options. Or help with the cobbler config option I'm missing. thx
*I'm not worried about scripted installs here, just picking the right pxe boot file just FYI http://openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html#PXE
Yup, How would I include "external" pxeboot options such as a couple OpenBSD flavours* - currently I maintain two TFTP instances and manually launch the one I need at the time - I think I'm looking for an 'include' function that survives the cobbler sync to chain in the OBSD pxe options. Or help with the cobbler config option I'm missing. thx
It would be nice if I could spell out which systems I want in the menu - similarly to what one can do to build an iso. I'm very new to PXE booting (well setting it up anyway) - but if I understand you correctly there are options you hand need to hand in? If so, how do you do that now via Cobbler? Or do you manually edit the default file?
*I'm not worried about scripted installs here, just picking the right pxe boot file just FYI http://openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html#PXE
See my issue is, I was doing an install - then running KOAN against the install machine...I just wanted to not do that (aka save a step and one less install)...
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
Add the MAC or IP of the system, the menu entry is unneccessary and then you can also do useful things like reinstall the box on next boot, without any manual selection from a console.
-- Michael
On Nov 28, 2011, at 2:23 PM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote:
Yup, How would I include "external" pxeboot options such as a couple OpenBSD flavours* - currently I maintain two TFTP instances and manually launch the one I need at the time - I think I'm looking for an 'include' function that survives the cobbler sync to chain in the OBSD pxe options. Or help with the cobbler config option I'm missing. thx
It would be nice if I could spell out which systems I want in the menu - similarly to what one can do to build an iso. I'm very new to PXE booting (well setting it up anyway) - but if I understand you correctly there are options you hand need to hand in? If so, how do you do that now via Cobbler? Or do you manually edit the default file?
*I'm not worried about scripted installs here, just picking the right pxe boot file just FYI http://openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html#PXE
See my issue is, I was doing an install - then running KOAN against the install machine...I just wanted to not do that (aka save a step and one less install)...
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
Michael,
Hey welcome back! And thanks for the response :)
I am going to ask a really silly question. When you say add the mac - do you mean via cobbler system add ? And if so, when I PXE boot, it'll see that entry and install OK?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael DeHaan" michael.dehaan@gmail.com To: "cobbler mailing list" cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org Cc: "cobbler mailing list" cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 3:16:43 PM Subject: Re: PXE Booting systems
Add the MAC or IP of the system, the menu entry is unneccessary and then you can also do useful things like reinstall the box on next boot, without any manual selection from a console.
-- Michael
On Nov 28, 2011, at 2:23 PM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote:
Yup, How would I include "external" pxeboot options such as a couple OpenBSD flavours* - currently I maintain two TFTP instances and manually launch the one I need at the time - I think I'm looking for an 'include' function that survives the cobbler sync to chain in the OBSD pxe options. Or help with the cobbler config option I'm missing. thx
It would be nice if I could spell out which systems I want in the menu - similarly to what one can do to build an iso. I'm very new to PXE booting (well setting it up anyway) - but if I understand you correctly there are options you hand need to hand in? If so, how do you do that now via Cobbler? Or do you manually edit the default file?
*I'm not worried about scripted installs here, just picking the right pxe boot file just FYI http://openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html#PXE
See my issue is, I was doing an install - then running KOAN against the install machine...I just wanted to not do that (aka save a step and one less install)...
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote:
Michael,
Hey welcome back! And thanks for the response :)
I am going to ask a really silly question. When you say add the mac - do you mean via cobbler system add ? And if so, when I PXE boot, it'll see that entry and install OK?
cobbler system [add|edit] --name=foo --mac=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -netboot-enabled=1 [...]
If the system is set in BIOS to PXE first in the boot order, it will reinstall at next boot and then toggle the netboot enabled flag post installation such that it will not reinstall until netboot-enabled=1 is set again. This requires pxe_just_once to be set in settings.
If the system is NOT set to PXE first in the boot order, you'll have to hit F11 or whatever your BIOS requires to pick the boot device.
PXE to a direct system record can technically work via IP instead of MAC but that is not recommended for what should be obvious reasons -- IPs can change easily for various reasons and you don't want arbitrary systems getting reinstalled.
In any event, no need for menus. It would get unmanageable with large system counts (scroooooollll.....), and I'd really want to encourage everyone using profiles as much as possible, with systems as just the "glue" to make a system "be" a profile, plus whatever bare minimum info about it's power management or special kernel options, etc.
--Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael DeHaan" michael.dehaan@gmail.com To: "cobbler mailing list" cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org Cc: "cobbler mailing list" cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 3:16:43 PM Subject: Re: PXE Booting systems
Add the MAC or IP of the system, the menu entry is unneccessary and then you can also do useful things like reinstall the box on next boot, without any manual selection from a console.
-- Michael
On Nov 28, 2011, at 2:23 PM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote:
Yup, How would I include "external" pxeboot options such as a couple OpenBSD flavours* - currently I maintain two TFTP instances and manually launch the one I need at the time - I think I'm looking for an 'include' function that survives the cobbler sync to chain in the OBSD pxe options. Or help with the cobbler config option I'm missing. thx
It would be nice if I could spell out which systems I want in the menu - similarly to what one can do to build an iso. I'm very new to PXE booting (well setting it up anyway) - but if I understand you correctly there are options you hand need to hand in? If so, how do you do that now via Cobbler? Or do you manually edit the default file?
*I'm not worried about scripted installs here, just picking the right pxe boot file just FYI http://openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html#PXE
See my issue is, I was doing an install - then running KOAN against the install machine...I just wanted to not do that (aka save a step and one less install)...
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 6:13 PM, Michael DeHaan michael.dehaan@gmail.com wrote:
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote: In any event, no need for menus. It would get unmanageable with large system counts (scroooooollll.....), and I'd really want to encourage everyone using profiles as much as possible, with systems as just the "glue" to make a system "be" a profile, plus whatever bare minimum info about it's power management or special kernel options, etc.
A few months back, someone requested a feature that would add hierarchical menus, which would solve the issue of having a ton of systems but no MAC addresses. It's on my todo list, as I do think it would be a helpful feature for both PXE booting and ISOs.
++ for hierarchial menus, wanted to do this for a long time, though I *have* seen PXE systems basically implode with very large menu configs. I think the initial reason for not doing it was also that, at the time, we had to contend with older syslinuxes where they were buggy. I think in those cases we should just tell folks to pull down a newer one, and not require that the one in the distro be used at all.
Folks could have tons of systems (tens of thousands) and we'd have to test that to find the breaking points, and to see if there's a menu size at which things stop working.
If you did systems, you could partition based on the first few letters, like
systems/a/aa/aardvark
Basically for non-systems you could do something like:
cobbler profile edit --name=bar --pxe-menu-path="alpha/beta/gamma"
with the default menu path being "" for root.
Though it does open up the case of being able to easily install the wrong system record on a system, so I'd question why you would do it interactively if you could avoid it. And possibly some trivial-to-exploit security tricks, where you could easily clone what a system was supposed to get in a bit too easy of a way (though it could be argued any attempt to defeat this are futile due to the natures of the protocols involved anyway).
The main point is doing a lot of system customization is really doing it wrong, IMHO, as ultimately profiles should be driving something like puppet external nodes for more advanced config.... and if you have PXE, you can skip the menu navigation. And if you don't.... then you didn't get into the menu to begin with.
--Michael
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 7:57 PM, James Cammarata jimi@sngx.net wrote:
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 6:13 PM, Michael DeHaan michael.dehaan@gmail.com wrote:
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote: In any event, no need for menus. It would get unmanageable with large system counts (scroooooollll.....), and I'd really want to encourage everyone using profiles as much as possible, with systems as just the "glue" to make a system "be" a profile, plus whatever bare minimum info about it's power management or special kernel options, etc.
A few months back, someone requested a feature that would add hierarchical menus, which would solve the issue of having a ton of systems but no MAC addresses. It's on my todo list, as I do think it would be a helpful feature for both PXE booting and ISOs. _______________________________________________ cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
Michael,
Thanks for the response! I'm not sure what I didn't understand - but I "get it" now! I hadn't considered denoting the MAC address...and clearly didn't RTFM!
Anyway, this worked for me - perfectly! I really see the value and now that I understand it, having to use the menu is simply not necessary (nor desirable now that I see it work in action)...
Thanks so much!
Flossy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael DeHaan" michael.dehaan@gmail.com To: "cobbler mailing list" cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 7:13:28 PM Subject: Re: PXE Booting systems
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote:
Michael,
Hey welcome back! And thanks for the response :)
I am going to ask a really silly question. When you say add the mac - do you mean via cobbler system add ? And if so, when I PXE boot, it'll see that entry and install OK?
cobbler system [add|edit] --name=foo --mac=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -netboot-enabled=1 [...]
If the system is set in BIOS to PXE first in the boot order, it will reinstall at next boot and then toggle the netboot enabled flag post installation such that it will not reinstall until netboot-enabled=1 is set again. This requires pxe_just_once to be set in settings.
If the system is NOT set to PXE first in the boot order, you'll have to hit F11 or whatever your BIOS requires to pick the boot device.
PXE to a direct system record can technically work via IP instead of MAC but that is not recommended for what should be obvious reasons -- IPs can change easily for various reasons and you don't want arbitrary systems getting reinstalled.
In any event, no need for menus. It would get unmanageable with large system counts (scroooooollll.....), and I'd really want to encourage everyone using profiles as much as possible, with systems as just the "glue" to make a system "be" a profile, plus whatever bare minimum info about it's power management or special kernel options, etc.
--Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael DeHaan" michael.dehaan@gmail.com To: "cobbler mailing list" cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org Cc: "cobbler mailing list" cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 3:16:43 PM Subject: Re: PXE Booting systems
Add the MAC or IP of the system, the menu entry is unneccessary and then you can also do useful things like reinstall the box on next boot, without any manual selection from a console.
-- Michael
On Nov 28, 2011, at 2:23 PM, Scot Floess sfloess@redhat.com wrote:
Yup, How would I include "external" pxeboot options such as a couple OpenBSD flavours* - currently I maintain two TFTP instances and manually launch the one I need at the time - I think I'm looking for an 'include' function that survives the cobbler sync to chain in the OBSD pxe options. Or help with the cobbler config option I'm missing. thx
It would be nice if I could spell out which systems I want in the menu - similarly to what one can do to build an iso. I'm very new to PXE booting (well setting it up anyway) - but if I understand you correctly there are options you hand need to hand in? If so, how do you do that now via Cobbler? Or do you manually edit the default file?
*I'm not worried about scripted installs here, just picking the right pxe boot file just FYI http://openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html#PXE
See my issue is, I was doing an install - then running KOAN against the install machine...I just wanted to not do that (aka save a step and one less install)...
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
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