[et-mgmt-tools] Re: Cobbler 0.4.0 released

[Michael DeHaan]

Michael DeHaan wrote:
> Cobbler 0.4.0 is out.   RPMs are already up on et.redhat.com and will 
> be pushed out to the mirrors shortly.
>
> The main feature for this release is support for PXE menus.   For 
> those wanting to use PXE menus, the best thing to do is set all 
> machines in your datacenter/lab to "PXE first".    To access the PXE 
> menu, type "menu" at the prompt, otherwise cobbler will fall through 
> to local boot in 20 seconds.   If you have a cobbler definition made 
> for a system, that system will bypass the PXE menu.   This is true 
> whether you have a certain MAC set to a specific profile (ex:  cobbler 
> system add --name=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF ...) or if you have a "default" 
> system entry (cobbler system add --name=default --profile=blah).    If 
> you have a default system entry and want to use the new menus, just 
> run "cobbler system delete --name=default" and then "cobbler sync".   
> Presto, you've got PXE menus.   This is also documented in the manpage.
>
> As mentioned previously on the list, I'm also reinstating the usage of 
> Cheetah for vastly improved kickstart templating.   See 
> http://www.cheetahtemplate.org/learn for more information.   Basically 
> the existing kickstart templating is now improved with the ability to 
> do if-statements and the like.  Cobbler will allow either 
> TEMPLATE::foo or $foo for kickstart templating substitution.   The one 
> thing I've found is that a macro such as $(list-hard-drives) does need 
> to be escaped to \$(list-hard-drives) in kickstart files.   Things 
> like passwords (crypted passwords often contain "$") don't need to be 
> escaped and are otherwise fine.  If you do escape them though, it 
> won't hurt.   The new /etc/cobbler/kickstart* files have them 
> escaped.   If you have your own kickstart files, it would be worth 
> checking for any dollarsigns that were unescaped, or you might see an 
> error next time you run "cobbler sync".
>
> This release also no longer requires running "cobbler sync" after 
> "profile add" or "system add" commands as much as cobbler used to.    
> Editing configuration files behind the scenes, or wanting to 
> regenerate PXE menus will, however, still require running "cobbler 
> sync".   The features made to minimize the need for sync were mainly 
> done for applications using cobbler as a provisioning library and 
> those users that occasionally forget to run sync and post questions to 
> the list :) 
> I've also incorporated some random minor bugfixes, including passing 
> "--basedir" to createrepo and manpage fixes related to the 
> "--local-filename" option as mentioned last week.
>
> Questions?  Comments?   Fire away.
>
> --Michael
>
RHEL4/Centos users:

Apparently menu.c32 (required for PXE menus) isn't provided by the 
syslinux package on RHEL4... I'll probably end up bundling it and 
storing it in /var/lib/cobbler.   

For now, you can copy it yourself to /usr/lib/syslinux/menu.c32 and 
things will work fine.  I'll release a 0.4.1 fix that will bundle this 
file shortly.