[et-mgmt-tools] Cobbler 0.4.7, Koan 0.2.9 released

[Michael DeHaan]

Cobbler 0.4.7 adds support for running "cobbler import" on a Centos 5 
tree.   On the backend, it also replaces cobbler_syslogd with 
cobblerd.   Cobblerd now does two things -- it monitors syslog traffic 
from the installer (and logs it, as before), but it also
allows koan to speak with cobbler over XMLRPC.    By providing cobbler 
functions over XMLRPC, hopefully this will allow for alternative clients 
to more easily query the cobbler server.   For security purposes, the 
XMLRPC component is currently
read only.  It will install itself as enabled-by-default, but if you 
just do an upgrade, you might want to do a /sbin/service cobblerd start.

Cobbler 0.4.7 also includes numerous improvements to the way it handles 
mirroring of yum repositories ("cobbler repo add", "cobbler reposync"), 
to ensure proper cleanup when yum is aborted.   Basically this is just 
housekeeping but it makes
the repo management features much more reliable.

In addition to the above, 0.4.7 adds new much requested editing support 
to the command line.   Usage looks something like this:

cobbler profile add --name=foo --distro=bar
cobbler profile rename --name=foo --newname=foo2
cobbler profile copy --name=foo2 --newname=foo3
cobbler profile edit --name=foo3 --distro=baz
(copy+edit in one operation also supported:   cobbler profile copy 
--name=foo2 --newname=foo3 --virt-ram=512)

A new version of koan (0.2.9) is required to leverage cobbler's new 
XMLRPC component.    However older versions of koan will still work with 
the newer cobbler server for the time being.
cobbler XMLRPC by default is using port 25151, one port higher than the 
syslog port.

Koan 0.2.9 also lowers the minimum RAM floor for virtual machines, now 
allowing installs with 128MB of memory (previously, 256MB was 
required).    Also while koan typically names
new virtual machines based on their MAC addresses, the --virtname option 
on koan can now be used to give them more descriptive names.  Ex:

koan --server=bootserver.example.com --virt --profile=fc6webserver 
--virtname="DepartmentWiki"

Old school cobbler users will remember cobbler used to allow setting the 
virtual name in the cobbler profile, though it is more useful here.

Pushed out to et.redhat.com now, Fedora mirrors should update shortly...

== changelogs ==

* Fri Apr 20 2007 - 0.4.7 (cobbler)
- Disable mod_python tracker piece for RHEL5 (replacement eventual).
- Kickstart tracking now understands Apache logs
- Added support for --rpm-list parameter to "repo add" for download of 
partial content from repositories
  (ex: cobbler and koan from FC6extras, w/o games).
- More consistant naming on imports, regardless of data source.
- Teach cobbler to remove .olddata dirs, which can happen if createrepo 
crashes or is killed mid-process
- Default yum_core_repos_from_server to 0
- Implemented triggers for add/delete commands
- BootAPI and Config object classes are now Borg patterned to prevent 
duplication of config info from the API.
- cobbler_syslogd -> cobblerd, now has XMLRPC component for koan >= 
0.2.9 clients.  Old clients still work.
- Make cobbler_import work for Centos 5
- Removed requirements on what files that are parameters to --kernel and 
--initrd must be named.
- Added support for "rename", "copy", and "edit" commands -- before 
there just was "add" and "remove"

* Thu Apr 19 2007 Michael DeHaan <mdehaan at redhat.com> - 0.2.9-1 (koan)
- koan now speaks XMLRPC with cobbler (requires cobbler > 0.4.7-4)
- allow any RAM size >128MB.
- add --virtname option (see manpage)