[et-mgmt-tools] cobbler: right place for custom kickstarts

[Michael DeHaan]

Rainer Duffner wrote:
>
> Am 18.12.2007 um 22:31 schrieb Eugene Ventimiglia:
>
>> We're currently using a homebrew system to provision vms for developers,
>> and I'm in the process of switching that to cobbler.
>>
>> I used to keep a giant monolithic /tftboot/pxelinux.cfg/default with
>> entries for each os we need to install, ie:
>>
>> LABEL manager_plain64
>> kernel /bootimages/RH-ES-4.0-U4-AMD64/vmlinuz
>> append initrd=/bootimages/RH-ES-4.0-U4-AMD64/initrd.img \
>> ks=http://osserver/profiles/Linux/manager_plain64.cfg
>>
>> LABEL agent_rh5_vm
>> kernel /bootimages/RH-5.0/vmlinuz
>> append initrd=/bootimages/RH-5.0/initrd.img
>> ks=http://osserver/profiles/Linux/build_rh5_agent.cfg
>>
>> LABEL agent64_rh5_vm
>> kernel /bootimages/RH-5.0-64/vmlinuz
>> append initrd=/bootimages/RH-5.0-64/initrd.img
>> ks=http://osserver/profiles/Linux/build_rh5_agent64.cfg
>>
>> I've played with cobbler for the past day or so, and while I've had
>> great success setting of new machines, I havn't been able to figure out
>> where to put these custom kickstart files.
>>
>> I've read the f manual, and it doesn't say either
>>
>
>
> In cobbler, you create a profile referencing a kickstart-template (not 
> a complete kickstart-file).

It takes complete kickstart files too, but yes. The only thing is if you 
are feeding it one you already have you'll want to escape any $'s with 
\$, otherwise the templating
engine can get just a little bit confused.

> The profile should be as generic as possible (mine generally just 
> select a kickstart-template for now).

Only if you want it to be... Systems and profiles simply map "things" to 
"what those things do". They can be as minimal or as complex as you want.

The simplest profile example is just:

cobbler profile add --name=foo --distro=FC-8-i386 
--kickstart=/etc/cobbler/kickstart_foo.ks
cobbler system add --name=X --mac=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF --profile=foo

And of course if you do "cobbler import" you get some starter profiles 
created for free.

> Could it be made into a textarea?)

Yes, it could :)

> I couldn't get the "create partition-table with external script"-thing 
> to work, so I use ksmeta-variables and different profiles/templates) - 
> it works, too, and our requirements are slightly different for each 
> server anyway...
>
> So, you have to distill out what is common in your kickstart-files and 
> turn that into one or more kickstart-templates, create different 
> profiles for these kickstart-templates (you have to spell-out the path 
> on the server to in the input-field, there's no nifty "select file" 
> dialogue).

Right, because you're not uploading a local file, you're picking one on 
the server that already exists.
I expect most people to use the command line, but as interest in the Web 
UI grows, information like this about usability perceptions /is/ helpful.
If uploading kickstart files proves useful enough, that's something we 
can think about adding.

> Then, when you create systems, you can specify the details that 
> make-up the different systems.
>
> I hope this was clear enough (I'm afraid not) - but it's all in the 
> wiki anyway.

I think the original poster is ok with that and just wanted to know 
where to store files, but yes, there's lots of online docs on this.

>
> My suggestion is to do all pre-production testing in either VMware 
> Workstation (or maybe the new Server 2.0 Beta, because of 
> RHEL5-support), for the simple fact that you will reboot often - and 
> that takes minutes on my blades, compared to 1 second with VMware...
> I probably saved hours this way.

Or Xen.... or KVM .... both of which are free, open-source, and 
supported in koan :)

>
>
> cheers,
> Rainer