<div dir="ltr">Hi, <div><br></div><div>I have since got kickstart via the proxy servers working, I am very surprised that the spacewalk proxy servers are not given an option to kickstart straight on build. The process to get it working is fairly straightforward. </div>
<div><br></div><div>For anyone else looking for a similar solution, it turns out the proxy server has nearly everything you need already linked to it including the cobbler directory from the main spacewalk server and the proxy server has re-write rules which rewrites most things to point to itself. </div>
<div><br></div><div>To get the spacewalk proxy server able to build a few simple steps are necessary:</div><div><br></div><div>Build the server as per the guide here: <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/spacewalk/wiki/HowToInstallProxy">https://fedorahosted.org/spacewalk/wiki/HowToInstallProxy</a> Once built do the following</div>
<div><br></div><div>On the Spacewalk Server:</div><div>1. edit /etc/cobbler/rsync.template add the following:</div><div><div><br></div><div>[spacewalk-tftp]</div><div> path = /var/lib/tftpboot</div><div> comment = PXE TFTPBOOT Directory</div>
</div><div><br></div><div>2. edit /etc/cobbler/settings change </div><div><div>manage_rsync: 1</div></div><div><br></div><div>3. check /etc/xinet.d/rsync make sure disable is no. Restart xinetd if necessary</div><div><br>
</div><div>4. cobbler sync - will make live rsync changes. </div><div><br></div><div>On the proxy Server (centos in this case)</div><div><br></div><div>1. Install the following packages:</div><div>yum install yum-utils xinetd tftp-server rsync dhcp dhcp-common<br>
</div><div><br></div><div>2. edit /etc/xinet.d/tftp set disable to no and start/restart xinetd </div><div><br></div><div>Once these basic steps are done I have just written 2 very simple scripts for managing dhcp and rsync, which I have made available here:</div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="https://github.com/vamegh/spacewalk-proxy-kickstart">https://github.com/vamegh/spacewalk-proxy-kickstart</a><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>On every update of the main spacewalk server (new profiles etc) just run the proxy-rsync script to synchronise the boot entries with the proxy server. </div>
<div><br></div><div>The scripts are very basic and I just wrote them as a proof of concept / initial test. I have written a complete hands off automated build system which requires the dhcp server to be reset on each run to keep things clean - hence why I reset dhcp for example (cobbler sync also does this if cobbler is configured to manage dhcp) </div>
<div><br></div><div>1 issue I have seen is that the server will build but does not register itself with the proxy server - after it is built running rhn_register will register the server with the proxy server, but this should be easy to automate / keep build completely hands off. (I havent as yet had the time to look into the cause) </div>
<div><br></div><div>Also I do not currently have dns configuration for the proxy instance the rsync script requires both hostname and ip and the scripts are reliant on ip for this reason (this will probably need adjustment if you plan to use the scripts) - I will be running dns and ntp on the proxy servers, this is not reflected in the scripts (they are just extremely basic tests please keep this in mind)</div>
<div><br></div><div>Considering it is this easy to actually get the proxy to kickstart servers, I am really surprised this is not done automatically on proxy installation - or the option provided at least, probably in a future version - for anyone that is running spacewalk 2.1 - the above is a simple solution that will work. </div>
<div><br></div><div>I have still not looked at ISS - if any of you have or are using it and have any further information to share about Redundancy I would really appreciate it. </div><div><br></div><div>Kind Regards, </div>
<div><br></div><div>Vamegh</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 14 May 2014 11:38, Vamegh Hedayati <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:vamegh@gmail.com" target="_blank">vamegh@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi All, <div><br></div><div>I have read through quite a bit of documentation with regards to the two things we are trying to achieve with spacewalk.</div>
<div><br></div><div>1. The main thing we require is the ability to build servers from another DC (lets say dc2) but to still have the profiles registered with the original spacewalk server in DC1. It is just not possible to kickstart from the original DC as layer 2 transport between the 2 dc's does not exist but layer 3 does, that is to say dc1 cannot respond to dhcp requests from a server in dc2 as it does not see the mac address sent, but dc1 does see dc2 and vice-versa when an ip address has been assigned to the server. </div>
<div><br></div><div>2. We also need redundancy even if it is a failover pair. </div><div><br></div><div>Before I go into detail, some background information: The spacewalk installation is updated to 2.1 and uses PostgreSQL, its a default build using the instructions provided on the spacewalk wiki, but all of the server builds are automated and use the spacewalk api where necessary to kickstart (using snippets) and to de-register a server being removed. Practically all of the client servers are Centos 6 and the spacewalk server itself is on centos 6.5. Spacewalk Proxy servers are not currently deployed - but are being actively tested for deployment to Separate DC's. </div>
<div><br></div><div>There are a few ways to achieve what I need, from what I can tell but what I really need is more information.</div><div><br></div><div>1. Kickstart across multiple DC's:</div><div>Has anyone got Spacewalk Proxy to kickstart servers using its own tftp/dhcp and can provide any guidance for this ?</div>
<div>Has anyone setup spacewalk proxy and used cobbler replication ?</div><div>Another possible solution is to use the api : Namespace: kickstart.profile -> Method: downloadRenderedKickstart (although this should not be necessary as the proxy should see the profiles from the master spacewalk instance)</div>
<div>Has anyone used ISS in master to master replication method and use different masters to kickstart servers but shared the client information across all of the spacewalk instances ? </div><div><br></div><div>I guess most importantly what would be your recommended method ? What method should I use that will be easiest to maintain and known to work. </div>
<div><br></div><div>2. Redundancy</div><div>There is not much information out there about ISS and either Master to Master replication or Master to Slave replication. In fact there is very little information about ISS and its state. I have read a few comments that say it is virtually impossible to set up master to master replication for spacewalk - is this true still for spacewalk 2.1 ? I have so far come across the following bits of information:</div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.redhat.com/pdf/ISS_Best_Practices_Whitepaper.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.redhat.com/pdf/ISS_Best_Practices_Whitepaper.pdf</a><br></div><div><a href="https://fedorahosted.org/spacewalk/wiki/InterSpacewalkServerSync" target="_blank">https://fedorahosted.org/spacewalk/wiki/InterSpacewalkServerSync</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div>The redhat whitepaper briefly touches on master to master replication (Bi-directional Sync) - but not in any great depth. </div><div><br></div><div>I have as yet not configured ISS, will it also do DB replication across the spacewalk server instances ? </div>
<div><br></div><div>Are there any other methods to achieve spacewalk redundancy (a failover pair is fine) ?</div><div><br></div><div>Thank you in advance, </div><div><br></div><div>Kind Regards, </div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div>
<br></div><div>
Vamegh</div></font></span></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div>