[et-mgmt-tools] Adding a distribution - where do I put the files?

[Michael DeHaan]

Msquared wrote:
> Thanks for the patch, that fixed cobbler for me, which allowed me to retry
> some of the things that had failed for me before.
>   

Good deal, I will include it in the next release after I look over the 
files you sent me (thanks!).
>
> On Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 10:57:03AM -0500, Michael DeHaan wrote:
>
>   
>>> If I use 'cobbler import' or 'cobbler distro add', do I put the files
>>> somewhere in /var/www/cobbler first?
>>>       
>> Cobbler will do this for you.
>>     
>
> I think I'm confused about what belongs where.
>
> I thought the import command would import the contents of the repository
> (in this case, my CD) into somewhere that cobbler managed.  It didn't seem
> to do that, so I put the files somewhere that I thought should be
> accessible to the machine being provisioned (ie: inside Cobbler's web
> space).
>
> The first thing I noticed was that cobbler import would not work when I
> gave it the mounted DVD: cobbler wanted the area to be writeable.
>
> So if I put the contents of my Fedora 6 DVD into /opt/dist/fc6 and then run
>
>   cobbler import --path=/opt/dist/fc6
>   cobbler sync
>
> Do I have to leave my Fedora 6 files in /opt/dist/fc6?
>
>   
Ah, you're trying to do DVD imports.    Well, it depends on what you 
want to do.  Probably you're going to want to use the entire kickstart 
tree from that DVD, so that's as good as a place to leave them as any.

What I normally do in this situation is add a symlink, like

/var/www/cobbler/local_mirror/fc6tree -> /opt/dist/fc6

And then, you can use the following parameter in your kickstart files 
for the "--url"

url --url http://servername/cobbler_track/local_mirror/fc6tree/restofpath

Note that you want to include the full path to the "os" or "tree" 
directory, and don't want to stop at the root.   That's what I mean by 
"restofpath".

>> If you are passing in an rsync mirror to "cobbler import", cobbler
>> _does_ copy files for the rest of the tree (not just the kernel/initrd),
>> and this is actually a pretty powerful way to start off.
>>     
>
> But I already have a copy of the files on a DVD, and so I just want to
> have cobbler import that instead.  Firstly, I don't even know what rsync
> URL I should provide, and secondly I'm sure it would be faster from the
> DVD than across my internet connection.  :-)
>   
You're right, it's not faster  :)   It just puts files in the right 
place, and allows them to update if they ever change remotely.
The DVD case can still work just fine.

I think you've given an excellent reason to add "how to import a 
kickstart tree from a DVD" to the manpage.
>   
>> However, if you already have the operating system tree locally, that's
>> not as important.
>>     
>
> I still want cobbler to copy the contents of the DVD into somewhere that
> it manages, though.  I managed to do it like so:
>
>   cobbler import --mirror=root at localhost:/media/cdrom --mirror-name=testimport
>
>   
Actually that will work.   Creative workaround! :)

This will file the results of the import in /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror 
and is a really smart way to go about it.

> However, will this cause me grief in future?  What happens when I 'cobbler
> sync'?  Will it try to re-mirror based on whatever is in /media/cdrom?
> Can I stop it from doing that?
>   
Cobbler sync won't try to re-mirror that, because cobbler knows 
kickstart trees really don't change.   Sync will build
out a lot of other interestingness in /var/lib/cobbler and /tftpboot, 
but it will leave the contents of /var/lib/cobbler/ks_mirror
untouched.
> Also, should I make the mirror-name something that is related to where I'm
> getting the files from (eg: fc6dvd or fc6public), related to what the
> files are for (eg: fc6), or related to my provisioning server (eg:
> localprovserver; ie: the machine I am running cobbler on)?
>   
The mirror name is basically just to pick something you can remember 
later.  
> Of course, my next question would be how do I update my local copy of the
> DVD from updates provided to the distribution(s).  Can I change the URL it
> uses from root at localhost:/media/cdrom to one of the official Fedora 6
> mirrors?
>
>   
Nah, not quite.

Look at the manpage for "cobbler repo add" for adding a repository.  
You'll add the updates repository this way
and then reference them in the profile.

Since you've actually imported the profile, you're going to need to go 
into /var/lib/cobbler/profiles to list the repos you use.
This isn't really as scary as it sounds, but if you're concerned, you 
can back up the profiles file first.
> Ah, distro and profile names.  :)
>
> When I ran my cobbler import with the ssh mirror, I ended up with a distro
> and a profile named thus:
>
>   var_www_cobbler_ks_mirror_testimport_cdrom_images_xen
>
> Is there a way of making this shorter, or more meaningful (without editing
> config files)?
>
>   
Import uses the paths because they are safely namespaced.   I probably 
should consider making them auto-shorten themselves in a future 
release.  In the meantime, it's pretty safe to edit 
/var/lib/cobbler/profiles and change the "name:" fields.    You can do 
the same for the distros if you like, just make sure the "distro" fields 
in the profile match the distro names.   Really though, you could just 
edit the profiles and leave it at that.
> Also, if I use 'cobbler distro add', how does it know where to get the
> rest of the files from?  (ie: how does it know where the repository is?)
>
> I've tried to import from the DVD with these, but none of them work:
>
>   cobbler import --mirror=root at localhost
>
>   
I thought you said you just got that working earlier?   Anyhow, import 
also requires a "--mirror-name".

Distro add is a way to manually add distros without using the "import" 
shortcut, and requires full paths to the kernel and initrd files.
>>> The walkthrough at
>>> http://wiki.xdroop.com/space/RedHat/kickstart/Cobbler doesn't seem to
>>> help me, as it doesn't tell me what I need to put where.
>>>       
>> First off, I do have to thank Dave a lot for making Cobbler posts on his
>> site.
>>     
>
> It's definitely a step in the right direction.  It encouraged me to take
> the plunge and experiment anyway.  However, I would like to see a lot more
> higher-level documentation, plus documentation of the level Dave provided,
> but with more explanations about what values you should use, or at least
> sensible suggestions.
>   
+1.    The easiest way for this to happen is for you to write up 
something, put it up on the web, and I can link it from
the Cobbler webpage.   All of that material can be potentially merged to 
generate a bit of a user manual later, and that's an excellent idea.
As with the DVD import, folks using cobbler often think of things I 
don't think of, and it's great to see what the things they want to do 
with provisioning are.
> I'm willing to help write that documentation, if that helps.  I think
> tools like cobbler/koan could make a huge difference in the uptake of Xen,
> and while Xen works wonderfully when running, I've found that setting it
> up is the hardest part.
>   

Great!
>   
>>> I can't seem to get 'cobbler distro add' to work either, not that I'm
>>> entirely sure what it does.  Where does it get the repository files
>>> from?  Do I need to do some preparation of the files from the DVD, or
>>> download a mirror first?
>>>       
>>  
>> Cobbler has a tiered concepts of Distributions, Profiles, and Systems.
>> Distributions contain kernel and initrd information. Profiles take
>> Distributions and add kickstarts to them. Systems contain Profile
>> information and potentially some system specific information. Whenever
>> you run these commands, it updates the cobbler "database" in
>> /var/lib/cobbler/* -- and will copy files needed around to locations in
>> /tftpboot and /var/www/cobbler. So these commands are doing something :)
>>     
>
> Ah, I guess I assumed that the cobbler 'database' included the actual
> repositories of files, too.  Although most of the documentation discusses
> Distributions, Profiles, and Systems (as you mention above), the output of
> 'cobbler list' includes 'Repos'.  I guess this is one part that I'm not
> sure how it all works together.  I'll go and review the updated
> documentation you listed.
>   
Yeah, repos are a relatively new concept, and are used for attaching 
things like "fc6updatesi386" to a profile, so that they can 
automatically install and configure a yum mirror when they provision it, 
as well as using a yum mirror at install time to install packages.   For 
instance, an ISV software repository or a college with special software 
in a yum repository that was not included in Fedora  Extras.
>   
>> If you want to download from a mirror, the best way to do that is to
>> skip "distro add" altogether and just do:
>>
>> cobbler import --mirror=rsync://blah --mirror-name=blah
>>
>> as mentioned in the manpage.
>>     
>
> I couldn't just mirror 3-4G without explaining it to someone.  :-)  Since
> I had the files on CD, I've been trying to work out how to use them
> instead.
>   
Yeah, usage of the ssh parameters from the DVD will make a mirrored copy 
of what's on the CD, but that's better than leaving it mounted.  Good 
work there.
> I should have explicitly asked "how to I get cobbler to mirror from my
> CD", so that you could have answered with an SSH URL example, rather than
> trying to convince me to use an RSYNC URL, which I didn't want to have to
> set up.  :-)
>   
Yeah.  Given that the way to make rsync work locally seems to work, I'll 
include a section on that in the documentation.   I like that a lot.
>
> On Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 12:39:42PM -0500, Michael DeHaan wrote:
>
>   
>> Let me retract that. That means import worked, though the directory you
>> copied files to will likely be destroyed by cobbler, since that's a
>> directory cobbler uses for it's own purposes. If you had importanted
>> into another directory, like, say, /opt/kickstarts, you'd be a lot
>> better off. Again, the rsync:// import works very well and is a good way
>> to go.
>>     
>
> Thanks for the tip.  I've stopped poking around in /var/www/cobbler.  :-)
>   
> Regards, Msquared...
>
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