[et-mgmt-tools] Installing without PXE, and without the live CD -- "cobbler buildiso"

[Subhendu Ghosh]

Michael DeHaan wrote:
> For a while Cobbler has had a solution based on koan and the live CD to 
> enable network provisioning of bare metal in environments that either do 
> not have DHCP, or do not have control over DHCP that is sufficient 
> enough to set up a PXE environment.  Naturally, if you can set up a PXE 
> environment with Cobbler, it's very useful to have, and you'll want it.
> 
> So, along came the live CD.
> 
> The live CD was built using a recent Fedora, and it had the magic 
> ability to install any distro -- /except/ you had to use Fedora to build 
> the Live CD, and the build process was slow, and the live image was a 
> bit bigger than it needed to be.   However, due to driver constraints, 
> it didn't always support the latest in storage technology -- that was a 
  problem.
> 
> We have finally implemented the low-tech solution, thanks to various 
> folks in Red Hat GPS, and some hacking I've done to integrate that 
> closer into cobbler.
> 
> Using 0.9.X or later (it's checked in now into the git "devel" branch) 
> you can do:
> 
>    cobbler buildiso [--iso=] [--tempdir=] [--profiles=]
> 
> This will automatically generate an ISO that allows for menus just like 
> Cobbler's PXE boot menus, for installing new systems.  I also plan to 
> allow a configurable default profile for those who want to mass deploy 
> this image using remote management processors, etc.
> 
> The menu will contain an entry for each bare metal bootable profile, 
> with the current data set in Cobbler.    Given that Cobbler now 
> generates kickstarts in real time, changes to the kickstart templates 
> can be made without reburning the CD!
> 
> Again, the live CD is more dynamic, but this is much smaller, faster, 
> and easier to build.
> The one thing the live CD still offers is simulation of the MAC address 
> detection feature of PXE, but if you don't need to use cobbler system 
> records to provision your lab/datacenter/etc, this will also get you 
> there -- and is probably the perfect fit if the Live CD was not working 
> out for you.
> 
> Test release will be available soon, git is available now.
> 
> --Michael
> 

If the iso(s) can be made available through the web infrastructure, and 
accessible via a predefined or calculated path, then a external rules engine 
could drive the provisioning process through the remote management 
processors's virtual media capabilities.

Perhaps the profiles module could be extended to define whether a iso should 
be generated or not. An easy way to automatically generate boot isos.

-sg

-- 
Red Hat Summit Boston |  June 18-20, 2008
Learn more: http://www.redhat.com/summit

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sghosh.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 266 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/attachments/20080502/5fa83c33/attachment.vcf>