[et-mgmt-tools] Idea for Cobbler pxe rescue mode?

[Jennifer Cranfill]

Last night I had to do the following procedure with Cobbler to boot a 
remote server into rescue mode. I'm wondering if any one else thinks it 
would be worthwhile to incorporate a rescue mode feature into Cobbler's 
handling of pxe files? Or is there already one that I don't know about?

We maintain a number of remote critical servers, and I think it would be 
useful, especially as in the procedure below I had to be careful that no 
one else rebooted the server or ran "cobbler sync" while I was updating 
the pxe file. Also, it might be possible to automate more of the rescue 
boot.

1) cobbler system edit --name=<sysname> --netboot-enabled=y; cobbler sync
2) cd /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
3) Edit the file corresponding to the MAC of <sysname>. Take everything 
out of the append line except the initrd and add "rescue", like so:
      append rescue initrd=/images/51x64/initrd.img
4) Reboot <sysname>
5) When the system boots, it will ask you for language and keyboard and 
then it will ask you for the location of the *rescue* media. Just give 
it the http to the normal install files for the distro matching the initrd.
6) cobbler system edit --name=<sysname> --netboot-enabled=n; cobbler sync

I took the idea from this Red Hat page:
http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/07/05/solutions-from-the-road-red-hat-enterprise-linux-rescue-mode-over-pxe-part-i/

I'd be happy to help with the code, but not sure the right way to 
architect it, perhaps some variant of netboot-enabled?

Thanks for your consideration!

--
Jennifer Cranfill
Systems Engineer
Sony Pictures Imageworks
cranfill at imageworks.com