[et-mgmt-tools] More Cobbler, Koan and Xen questions

[Michael DeHaan]

Foreman, Tim wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: et-mgmt-tools-bounces at redhat.com
>> [mailto:et-mgmt-tools-bounces at redhat.com]On Behalf Of Michael DeHaan
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 12:04 PM
>> To: Fedora/Linux Management Tools
>> Subject: Re: [et-mgmt-tools] More Cobbler, Koan and Xen questions
>>
>>
>> Yup, that's true.
>>     
>>> Then I did a "koan --virt --server=servername --system=10.9.90.11"
>>>   
>>>       
>> Sure, IP's are fine too.   
>> Even though koan has nothing to do with PXE, the requirement for 
>> "--system" parameters to be resolveable to IP's or MAC's is 
>> grounded in that. So one or the other and you are good to go.
>>
>>     
>>> Maybe what I need to do is run a manual install with no 
>>> kickstart file and see what's in that anaconda.ks. I might be
>>> missing something still.
>>>       
>>   
>> I'm pretty sure that's it.    When you do find out, if you can, share 
>> what you found -- somebody else might have the same problem.
>>     
>
> Well, that's interesting. Explain this if you can. :-)
>
> I created a new profile that uses the empty default.ks file. I added a
> system that uses that profile.
>
> I ran koan and did an interactive install. Then I copied the
> ananconda-ks.cfg file from that sucessful install to the cobbler box.
>
> I edited the anaconda-ks.cfg file to change the hostname and IP address
> and to enable the disk partitioning section. That's all I changed.
>
> Then I created a new profile to use this anaconda-ks.cfg file and added
> a new system using that profile.
>
> I kicked off another koan session using this new profile and system.
> Guess what it did?
>
> It started running an interactive install again!
>   
You have to run "cobbler sync" after hand-editing any files, whether 
those are kickstart files or files in /var/lib/cobbler.   So it's still 
using the old file.

> I see in the web server log that it is requesting the ks.cfg file, and
> I looked at the file it's requesting and saw that it has the right info
> in it.
>
> I also can't figure out how to make 'cobbler status' work. I have a
> cobbler_track dir, I path everything through it, and 'cobbler status'
> returns no data.
>   
The "cobbler status" / logging stuff works based on who things:

(A) remote syslog data, which currently is set to use port 25150 in 
/var/lib/cobbler/settings.  If a firewall is in the way, that's probably it.
(B) file requests to URL's that start with /cobbler_track; these are 
logged by a mod_python filter handler that cobbler installs.

Part (B) is disabled on non-python2.4+ systems because the mod_python 
filter handler doesn't work very well there.   In later versions and 
Fedora, as well as the coming RHEL5, they should be fine.

If for some reason you don't get syslog information, it's likely that 
"cobbler status" won't return anything because it never saw the install 
start.   If you want to send me the output of "tree /var/log/cobbler" 
that might be helpful to see if that's the case.

>
>
> --
> Timothy W. Foreman ~ Security Administrator ~ tforeman at ibsys.com
> (651) 365-4181     ~ Internet Broadcasting  ~ www.ibsys.com
> --
> The Onion: Have you decided what you want to be when you grow up?
> Berkeley Breathed: Dad. The rest is frosting.
>
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