[et-mgmt-tools] ANNOUNCE: Cobbler 0.6.1 and Koan 0.6.1 released

[Michael DeHaan]

Hi folks,

It's Cobbler release time again.   The main point of this stable release 
is to include bugfixes, primarily in some of the advanced cobbler features
like profile inheritance, repository mirroring, and so on.    Serious 
thanks go out to all those folks on #cobbler that helped with testing, 
ideas, patches,
and bug reports.   You folks are great!

This release also includes early zeroconf support [1], improved init 
scripts that restart cleanly (yay!), the "search arbitrary fields" API 
patch,  and modifications to keep
the cobblerd daemon from printing all over your console :)   I've 
included the full changelogs [2] below.   Another interesting recent 
patch is the ability
to relocate your cobbler install (say, if you keep it on a laptop) by 
just editing the server parameter in /var/lib/cobbler/settings and 
re-syncing.  Before, you'd
have to do a bit more editing -- particularly if you used "cobbler import".

Koan is basically the same but now has the optional --virt-bridge 
parameter, which defaults to an "autodetect" mode.   If you are using
Xen, this will set up bridged networking out of the box, so that you can 
dial in and out of your virtual guests.  If you're using KVM, you'll
probably want to create a bridge first (you won't have "xenbr0"), and 
you can see instructions on how to do that here:
https://hosted.fedoraproject.org/projects/cobbler/wiki/VirtNetworkingSetupForUseWithKoan 
.   Koan also contains one fix that is needed
to use KVM happily on x86_64.    None of this effects the 
"--replace-self" usage, this is just virt related.

Both cobbler and koan 0.6.1-2 have been pushed out to FC-6, F-7, rawhide 
(F8), EPEL-4 testing, and EPEL-5 testing -- they should be available 
shortly.   
The source RPMs for each are available at 
http://cobbler.et.redhat.com/download/.

Questions/comments welcome!

--Michael

---

Footnotes:

[1] to enable zeroconf, you'll need a Fedora OS at this point -- I'll be 
working on other options.   Install avahi-tools on the server, and restart
cobblerd -- your cobbler server will begin publishing.  Any koan client 
that also has avahi-tools installed can then use "--server=DISCOVER"
to find the cobbler server.  This would be very useful for the koan live 
CD as you could build one CD, carry it around, and use it at multiple sites.
That live CD would be built from a koan source checkout using "build.py 
--server=DISCOVER --koan=""".

[2.1] Changelogs for Cobbler


* Thu Aug 30 2007 - 0.6.1
- re enable --resolve in yumdownloader (cobbler repo mgmt feature)
- fix get_distros_for_koan API function in cobblerd (not used by koan)
- allow find API to search by arbitrary fields
- status and logging now shows system names
- upgraded init scripts
- zeroconf/avahi publishing for cobblerd service
- logRequests = 0 for XMLRPC.  Make it be quiet.
- ignore subdirectories of /var/lib/cobbler/snippets
- fixed bug in graph rendering that allowed for upward property 
propogation in some cases
- fixed bug that did not correctly evaluate repository settings of 
inherited sub-profiles/objects
- tweaked domU sample kickstart to include wget
- added some more unit tests
- fix typo down one error path in cobbler sync.
- fix reposync handling when using rsync protocol and directory paths do 
not contain arch
- allow basic usage of Cheetah variables in config files @@server@@, etc.
- fix auto-repo attachment for distros with split trees (i.e. RHEL5)

[2.2] Changelogs for koan

* Thu Aug 30 2007 Michael DeHaan <mdehaan at redhat.com> - 0.6.1-1
- Bridged networking control options (--virt-bridge)
- avahi support (--server=DISCOVER)
- do not allow autodetection of mac with --virt
- allow "xen" as alias for "xenpv" for --virt-type
- correct arch name when passing to qemu hypervisor
- don't complain when using default vcpu setting