redhat "rescue mode"?

Michael DeHaan michael.dehaan at gmail.com
Thu Dec 15 18:46:26 UTC 2011


"Could those voting against the proposed "--rescue-mode=true" provide a
working, and tested, recipe of the steps to achieve this, please?"


Rescue mode works independent of approach A or B, it's a distribution feature, not a Cobbler feature.   The how it works in Cobbler's interface is different from how cobbler makes it work, if that makes sense.

If I get a patch for --rescue-mode=true, I'll take it.

> Please, please, can we think "beginner"; think "simple"; think
> "documentation".
>  
>  
>  



This reads a bit negatively, as nobody's failing to think here.   Cobbler covers a wide variety of audiences.   There are people using it in home labs, up to systems with 50k+ nodes in distributed data centers all over the world.   A lot of what Cobbler does is totally about making things simpler and easier to use -- it's the whole reason the project initially existed.  This is the whole reason for automation.  The documentation and help needs for everyone are going to be different, its not just a linear skill level thing, somebody may not know X while someone may not know Y.   In many cases, it's not even something Cobbler related… if you've got an Anaconda or pressed problem, for instance, that's really not Cobbler's problem at all.   (now, if rescue changes to "rescueplease" in Centos 12, we have some work to do)

If something is missing, it's not because we're not thinking of a beginner audience (or not thinking), it's because we probably thought something was obvious to most people like us.   Ergo, the best person to fix an unclear section of documentation is the person figuring it out (by asking here, IRC, and elsewhere) and then updating the documentation yourself.   The fact that cobbler has an option for automating rescue mode at all (or did, this is mostly discussion about a regression) is a sign it's trying to make things simple.     

So anyway, there are two problems -- one that rescue as a kernel option doesn't work for you, another that we don't create rescue profiles right now due to a regression, and we could fix it in one of two ways.    For that, I'll take a patch for either, though if we get a patch for --rescue-mode=true, that one will win, because I like not having to remember what the original profile was.

(Of course, when adding a new non-trivial feature, minimal documentation on how to configure/use is pretty much required to get your patch accepted.   If the behavior changes, I would expect updated docs.   Don't read this to infer we want to accept features without basic docs, but no, we don't have to duplicate RHEL/CentOS official documentation on everything either, or teach a Linux course)



-- Michael


On Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 12:53 PM, David Lee wrote:

> Jörgen Maas wrote:
> > On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Mann, Owen
> > <Owen.Mann at interactivedata.com (mailto:Owen.Mann at interactivedata.com)> wrote:
> > > My 2cents: I never had a problem with switching profiles. But I thought - and correct me if I'm wrong - rescue-mode for RHEL is just a matter of adding "rescue" to the " Kernel Options " field.
> >  
> >  
> > You are right.
>  
> If that is right, then it is only partially right. It is sometimes  
> (including our site) not right.
>  
> Our cobbler set-up (2.0.11) has a couple of distros and a couple of  
> profiles. In normal operation we explicitly add each and every system,  
> and the network install goes straight through, without prompting for  
> anything anywhere. That's good for normal re-install operations. But  
> not for rescue!
>  
> Putting "rescue" in the "Kernel Options" field doesn't seem to have any  
> effect at all: it re-installs. Ouch! I've even tried (as a test) going  
> to "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/" and editing the file corresponding to the  
> MAC address, changing "prompt 0" to "prompt 1", replacing most of  
> "append initrd=..." so it only has the "initrd" clause and a "rescue".  
> No... it still boots straight through (i.e. installs) and doesn't go to  
> rescue and doesn't give any prompts.
>  
> I see that the "kickstarts" directory contains a "pxerescue.ks". That  
> looks promising. But if it is part of the answer, what are the missing  
> parts of the answer? And where is the documentation that fully  
> describes the complete answer?
>  
> Could those voting against the proposed "--rescue-mode=true" provide a  
> working, and tested, recipe of the steps to achieve this, please?
>  
> Please, please, can we think "beginner"; think "simple"; think  
> "documentation".
>  
> Thanks.
>  
>  
> --  
> : David Lee
> : ECMWF (Data Handling System)
> : Shinfield Park
> : Reading RG2 9AX
> : Berkshire
> :
> : tel: +44-118-9499 362
> : email: david.lee at ecmwf.int (mailto:david.lee at ecmwf.int)
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> cobbler mailing list
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>  
>  
>  


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