[et-mgmt-tools] Two Minor Problems with Cobbler

[Michael DeHaan]

Demetri Mouratis wrote:
> On 3/8/07, Michael DeHaan <mdehaan at redhat.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Michael,
>
> Thanks for looking at the directory creation issue I found.
>
>
>> >
>> > Second, I have two configuration changes I need made to
>> > /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default. These have to do with NIC ordering and
>> > a doc I found here:
>> >
>> > http://linux.dell.com/files/whitepapers/nic-enum-whitepaper-v2.pdf
>> >
>> > There, it suggests making two changes to the pxe configuration, adding
>> > the following lines:
>> >
>> > IPAPPEND 2
>> > APPEND ksdevice=bootif
>>
>> > I put a config file called default.pxe in /etc/cobbler and run cobbler
>> > sync but I see a vanilla default file in
>> > /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default.
>>
>> Kickstart parameters can be managed with a cobbler profile or even on
>> specific systems or distros.
>>
>> "cobbler profile add ... --kopts="ksdevice=bootif otheroption=blah etc
>> etc foo  etc"
>>
>> The vanilla cobbler "default" file in recent versions now is used for
>> PXE menus.   If you would like to use a specific profile as a default
>> profile instead, you can do the following:
>>
>> cobbler system add --name=default
>> --profile=name-of-profile-to-use-as-default
>>
>> If you have a kernel option you would like to use on every single
>> cobbler profile you have, you can also add that kernel option to
>> /var/lib/cobbler/settings and it will automagically appear on every
>> profile and system.   (run "cobbler sync" to apply changes)
>
> In this case, I am concerned with a problem at PXE boot time, prior to
> kickstart.  In particular, the IPAPPEND 2 line above, I thought the
> IPAPPEND was an element in the pxe configuration, not a kernel option.
> For ksdevice, yea, I can see how to do that now.
>
> My point was, I didn't see a good way to make changes to
> /tftboot/pxelinux.cfg/default stick.  Maybe I misunderstood the docs.
> What is the point of /etc/cobbler/default.pxe?
>
> Thanks.
>
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/etc/cobbler/default.pxe is unmanaged by the RPM at this point -- as it 
was flagged a configuration file, RPM won't delete it when it's no 
longer managed.

As for IPAPPEND2, I was not familiar with it, but the docs ... 
http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php#config ... seem to indicate that only 
affects kernel arguments.
This is good.

Cobbler can muck with kernel arguments on it's own, using system 
--kopts, but that's probably more work than you want if you are not 
using "cobbler system add" already.

If you feel like beta testing, try this...

[mdehaan at mdehaan cobbler]$ hg diff
diff -r a0817e4a44f6e6b732a2ab350dfe2ca838a71f76 cobbler/action_sync.py
--- a/cobbler/action_sync.py    Thu Mar 08 12:00:16 2007 -0500
+++ b/cobbler/action_sync.py    Thu Mar 08 12:12:46 2007 -0500
@@ -622,6 +622,7 @@ class BootSync:
                 buffer = buffer + "prompt 0\n"
                 buffer = buffer + "timeout 1\n"
                 buffer = buffer + "label linux\n"
+                buffer = buffer + "ipappend 2\n"
             buffer = buffer + "\tkernel %s\n" % kernel_path
         else:
             # elilo thrown in root

And then all profiles will use that.

Does anyone see a problem with IPAPPEND 2 being added all of the time?   
It seems like it would cause no adverse affects.   If not, I can make it 
a configuration option.

--Michael