[et-mgmt-tools] EPEL/Scientific Linux [WAS: "Crash" of cobbler on x86_64 machine]

Tue Jan 29 18:47:49 UTC 2008

All I know is that I just installed Cobbler and Koan on a clean up-to-date
EL(slc)4 from SRPM and it works like a dream. All I needed was
python-cheetah & and something or other so insignificant that I care not to
remember.. it was CERN branded though, It was a real breeze*

However, when I tried this last night with yum, all hell broke out. dag was
useless but hopefully it can be fixed quickly.

It's a problem with CERN Scientific Linux, not necessarily SL or Cobbler.
It's a fragile thing, SLC4, so when you give it a bit more room to play
with, it can all go wrong. I just threw EPEL in and went off to grab Cobbler
but it all went horribly wrong... I tried newer versions of python (2.3 &
2.4 & 2.5), but this kills yum completely... nothing works because of this
dependency and that dependency. being wrong with t'other dependency.

So I removed myself from that situation as I wasn't in control. I'm going to
try and do it that way again shortly, to find out why.

point is, it does work on EL4*. I'm going to compare to the devel branch
shortly.

Vladimir, I recommend you give Cobbler a quick go again, as it's so damn
cool I think you'll like it**. A recipe like:

[No warranty offered, if it breaks, keep both pieces]

check your /etc/*.repo's are all enabled in the right places.
yum install python-cheetah

wget -vvv http://cobbler.et.redhat.com/download/cobbler-0.6.5-1.fc8.src.rpm
wget -vvv http://cobbler.et.redhat.com/download/koan-0.6.4.tar.gz
rpmbuild --rebuild cobbler-0.6.5-1.fc8.src.rpm
rpmbuild --rebuild koan-0.6.4.tar.gz
rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/cobbler-0.6.5-1.noarch.rpm
rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/koan-0.6.4-1.noarch.rpm

(you might be missing the odd thing here and there, but nothing which should
cause a problem.)

Run "cobbler check"  just to familiarise yourself with what you're about to
go through.

Things like

[1] /sbin/services httpd start
[2] /sbin/services cobblerd start
[3] /sbin/services iptables stop
[4] Amend NEXT_SERVER and SERVER fields in /var/lib/cobbler/settings

You might want to formulate a plan for [3].

Then follow the instructions in the man page:

WEB USER INTERFACE

Most of the day-to-day actions in cobbler's command line can be performed in
Cobbler's Web UI.  To enable and access the WebUI, perform the following
steps.

       1) Set xmlrpc_rw_enabled to 1 in /var/lib/cobbler/settings to enable
network control.

       2) Change the admin xmlrpc secret in /etc/cobbler/auth.conf.  You
won't have to remember it.

       3) The default Web UI password is "cobbler/ILoveCobbler", to change
this, run:

       htdigest /var/www/cgi-bin/cobbler/.htpasswd "Cobbler WebUI
Authentication" cobbler

       4) SELinux users may also have to run:

       setsebool httpd_can_network_connect true

       chcon httpd_sys_content_t /etc/cobbler/auth.conf

       5) Run /sbin/service cobblerd restart.

       6) Visit http://yourserver.example.org/cgi-bin/cobbler/webui.cgi and
log in with whatever you chose in step 3.

I didn't have to worry about 4) really.

By now, things should be green. Seriously, read "man cobbler" and "man
koan". They are actually two man pages which are nice to read.

Hope some of that helps :)

* /var/www/cgi-bin/cobbler/.htaccess not containing AuthDigestFile stumped
me for a coffee again.
** why are you creating this setup from stratch? Does using AIMS not
interest you?

On 29/01/2008, Vladimir Fekete <fekete at melkor.dnp.fmph.uniba.sk> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 10:51:25AM -0500, Michael DeHaan wrote:
> > Vladimir Fekete wrote:
> > >On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 09:37:52AM -0500, Michael DeHaan wrote:
> > >
> > >>>which is true, because after last upgrade python was in version 2.3.4but
> > >>>this is problem of ScientificLinux.
> > >>>
> > >>You could of course just do rpmbuild --rebuild on the cobbler src RPM.
> > >>
> > >>Cobbler does not require that particular Python ABI.
> > >>
> > >
> > >I don't want to spend
> > >95% of my life with searching for correct dependency version and
> correct
> > >dependency version for previous dependency, e.t.c....
> > >
> > >
> > You seem to be saying that the packages in the EPEL 4/5 tree do not work
> > for Scientific Linux?
> >
> Yes, so it seems.
> I followed instructions at page:
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/FAQ#howtouse
>
> then I run
>
> yum update
> yum upgrade
>
> and after that cobbler dep. problem showed up
>
> I guess that page is general way how to use epel. Obviously I
> modified/created repo files for yum correctly (tree has been found and yum
> wanted to start with upgrade). I have no doubts that EPEL is intended to
> work for SLC, however, when I followed steps on mentioned site, it does
> not
> work.
>
> > I'm finding this a bit strange, as EPEL is intended to work for that
> > distro and this is the first I've heard of
> > that.
> >
> >
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/About#head-7f5c56add93b7a549e24150cc4e0183aefc9120b
> >
> >
> > >Next problem is upgrade of the system (=upgrade of dependencies => new
> > >build
> > >which does not have to work, because of new features which may need new
> > >stuff you don't know about, so you spend 6 nights just to check what
> you
> > >really need). Also I'd like to add, that it should be responsibility of
> > >maintainer to keep things running for given platform.
> > >
> >
> > If your SL can't use the EPEL packages, it would be best to bring it up
> > with those lists.
> >
> > >Besides, if the highest version of application in specific distribution
> > >is so old that it cannot work with rest of the distro then it's time to
> > >think
> > >about another distribution. (As I said in previous mail, problem is
> > >already solved:
> > >Debian+tftp server+pxe... without problem)
> > >
> >
> > Cobbler is not just TFTP. If all you need is a simple /tftpboot tree, of
> > course, you can use whatever you like.
> > Of course your current distro already contains a tftp server as well :)
>
> I wanted to create an installation server. TFTP+PXE were only part of
> the services that server should provide. However, when this problem with
> cobbler arrised, I started to think whether I really need it or not.
> Result
> is that now it's not beauty, it's not easy to maintain, it is slow, but it
> works, at least. (I did not wanted to install cobbler only because of
> TFTP)
>
> V.
>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > et-mgmt-tools mailing list
> > et-mgmt-tools at redhat.com
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/et-mgmt-tools
> >
>
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-- 
MT
Dan
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