[et-mgmt-tools] Re: Boot CD Installs (was LiveCD Installs)

[adamwolf at feelslikeburning.com]

> adamwolf at feelslikeburning.com wrote:
>> Silly me.  Sending the wrong script out.
>>
>> Attached is the proper script.
>>
>> Adam Wolf
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>
> This is a neat trick... while you could just serve up the kickstart in
> question over http:// already, the IP address autodetection allows for
> having one boot image for multiple cobbler system entries, and have them
> discovered automatically.
>
> In Cobbler 0.5.0, for those unfamiliar, you can do:
>
> cobbler system add --name=xyz1234--mac=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF
> --ip=192.168.5.10 --profile=foo1
> cobbler system add --name=xyz1235 --mac=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:EE
> --ip=192.168.5.11 --profile=foo2
>
> and in this case, the same modified rescue disk image could reinstall
> the system appropriately depending on the recognized IP.
> 192.168.5.10 when booted would get "foo1" and 192.168.5.11 could get
> "foo2".   Nice.
>
> This gets us to most of where we want to be going with the full-on Live
> CD -- which would probably additionally offer:
> (A)  automatic MAC address detection in addition to IP detection
> (B)  having one boot image for all distributions (the above requires a
> distribution-specific image)
>
> I'll include this in 0.5.1 ... if the full-on Live CD makes some of this
> redundant, it won't hurt anything -- and more importantly, it's already
> available :)
>
> --Michael

We can append kssendmac to the parameters where
ks=http://cobbler.example.org/findks.py is currently, and the mac address
is made available through headers.  Or something.

Supposedly it provides environment variables that can be tested from the
CGI to determine the mac address.

It would be good to have mac detection in findks.py as well.  If the mac
resolves with one system, and the IP resolves to another, the mac should
have precedence, like in PXE.

I'll do this later this week if no one gets to it by then.

That should bring this rescue CD solution up to speed and sufficient for a
fair amount of real-world scenarios.

Adam Wolf