[et-mgmt-tools] Re: cobbler check question

[Tom Diehl]

On Fri, 8 Dec 2006, Michael DeHaan wrote:

> Michael DeHaan wrote:
>> Michael DeHaan wrote:
>>> Tom Diehl wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> I am just starting to use cobbler and so far it is working well. One 
>>>> thing
>>>> I have noticed is that cobbler check gets confused by the fact that I 
>>>> have
>>>> "server_args -s /tftpboot" the xinetd config and tftpboot: /tftpboot/pxe
>>>> in /var/lib/cobbler/services.
>>>> 
>>>> I have a /tftpboot that looks something like this:
>>>> 
>>>> (rocky pts4) # ls -d /tftpboot/*
>>>> /tftpboot/cisco/ /tftpboot/pxe/
>>>> (rocky pts4) #
>>>> 
>>>> Is there a better way to do this or should I just continue to ignore the
>>>> cobbler error?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> 
>>> The PXE components shouldn't work with the way you have it configured, so 
>>> the check result seems correct based on what information you've given so 
>>> far.
>>> 
>>> Explanation -- TFTP runs chroot, so your tftp root is configured as 
>>> "/tftpboot". However, you're telling cobbler to write files in 
>>> "/tftpboot/pxe", so files in pxelinux.cfg referencing "/images/blah" would 
>>> be looking in "/tftpboot/blah" on your filesystem when the files are 
>>> actually being stored in "/tftpboot/pxe/blah".
>>> 
>>> Recent versions of cobbler do not delete contents of "/tftpboot" they do 
>>> not own when syncing, so if you set tftpboot in /var/lib/cobbler/settings 
>>> back to the value you are using in xinetd.d, it should be good to go. 
>>> Cobbler will write the files where it needs to write them relative to TFTP 
>>> root, and you're free to use the rest of the directory for other things. 
>>> The reason the tftpboot setting is there at all in settings is to 
>>> accomodate for TFTP installs that might not want to use the partition 
>>> mounted on "/" for hosting tftp content.
>>> 
>>> FYI, The directories/items cobbler will modify in /tftpboot are:
>>> 
>>> pxelinux.cfg (directory)
>>> images (directory)
>>> pxelinux.0 (file)
>>> elilo-3.6-ia64.efi (file)
>>> 
>>> --Michael
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> et-mgmt-tools mailing list
>>> et-mgmt-tools at redhat.com
>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/et-mgmt-tools
>> I should add, namespacing files used by PXE by creating a subdirectory 
>> under /tftpboot is a really good idea, and I'll make that "cobbler sync" do 
>> that
>> in the future.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> Actually, I probably don't want to namespace files in /tftpboot after all, 
> now that I think about it.

Would you please explain the term "namespacing files"? I do not understand
that.

> One reason for this is that most folks when setting up dhcpd.conf assume 
> pxelinux.0 is in tftproot, and probably wouldn't know to change that -- it 
> would break users already using the dhcp templating features, for instance. 
> Just dropping the bootloaders in "/" and leaving everything else in the two 
> image directories is enough to keep from clobbering other uses of the tftp 
> root.

As I said in my previous message, a long time ago when I first setup pxe I
configured dhcpd to look for pxelinux.0 in /pxe. I guess I am the exception. :-)

Maybe cobbler should check dhcpd.conf to be sure what is the correct place for
pxelinux.0? Then again if the dhcp server is not on the cobbler machine that
might not be possible.

Oh, well, for now I will ignore the warning. At least now, I understand what is
happening.

Regards,

-- 
Tom Diehl		tdiehl at rogueind.com		Spamtrap address mtd123 at rogueind.com