[katello-devel] Provisioning Suggestion

[Ohad Levy]

----- Original Message ----- 

| Guys,

| Have been thinking about how to eliminate some of the key-presses in
| our Satellite kickstart installs and came up with the following
| (note: I'm not fully up to speed on Foreman provisioning, so don't
| know if this is already covered):

| I wondered if it would add any useful functionality to be able to
| create a boot.kernel.org-style image on the Katello server. The
| resultant image would then boot a system and go direct to the
| Katello server for instructions. I know it's a basic copy of PXE
| booting, but it allows this functionality to exist in a few key
| areas.

So just to be clear, you are talking about a minimal OS boot, which would goto katello for more instructions?

How would you install / use that in the first place? CD, USB etc?

You could use g/ipxe for this, which could hit a url and process scripts (like which kernel to boot).


| 1. Deploying to VMware machines. I could create a template with this
| boot image on. Firing up a machine created from this template would
| head direct for the Katello server for provisioning. PXE isn't the
| default boot method for a VMware guest. Using an image like this
| would get around having to configure the machine to boot into BIOS
| and then tweak the BIOS settings to boot PXE first.
| 2. Situations where PXE is not permitted. No - there aren't many. Or
| so I thought. When adding the PXE settings to your corporate DHCP
| servers isn't permitted, you can be left high and dry when trying to
| provision new machines. An ISO image to boot from that heads
| directly to the Katello server for menu etc would remove the task of
| having to alter syslinux ISO's whenever a new kickstart is created,
| for example.

You'll be happy to hear that we are working on VMWare integration (similar to the existing RHEVM) where we would create instances in ESX/VCenter too, and we'll also take care for the boot order issue.

btw: on the same subject, I recommend to define all boot orders to boot from PXE first by default, this way you dont need to access the host you are provisioning after the initial putting the hw in place phase.


| The value-add would be that both these scenarios would only need to
| be done once (barring a change of hostname for the Katello server).
| All the logic, kickstarts, menu system (if wanted) stay on the
| Katello server.

| Would this be at all useful to Katello - or have I missed a trick
| with Foreman?

Foreman supports gpxe based scripts/snippets, and afaik, this is one usage way of how users provision with gpxe.

Thanks!
Ohad

PS. if any of you guys want to see how foreman works, please let me know, I'll be more than happy to demo.


| Cheers

| Duncan Innes | Linux Architect | Virgin Money
| This e-mail is intended to be confidential to the recipient. If you
| receive a copy in error, please inform the sender and then delete
| this message. Virgin Money do not accept responsibility for changes
| made to any e-mail after sending. Virgin Money have swept, and
| believe this e-mail to be free of viruses and profanity but make no
| guarantees to this effect.

| Virgin Money Personal Financial Service Limited is authorised and
| regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered in England
| no. 3072766. Entered on the Financial Services Authority's Register
| http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/. Register Number 179271.

| Church House Trust Limited is authorised and regulated by the
| Financial Services Authority. Registered in England no. 980698.
| Entered on the Financial Services Authority's Register
| http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/. Register Number 204459.

| Virgin Money Unit Trust Managers Limited is authorised and regulated
| by the Financial Services Authority. Registered in England no.
| 3000482. Entered on the Financial Services Authority's Register.
| Register Number 171748.

| Virgin Money Limited. Registered in England no. 4232392. Introducer
| appointed representative only of Virgin Money Personal Financial
| Service Limited.

| Virgin Money Management Services Limited. Registered in England no.
| 3072772.

| Virgin Money Holdings (UK) Limited. Registered in England no.
| 3087587.

| All the above companies have their Registered office at Discovery
| House, Whiting Road, Norwich NR4 6EJ.

| Northern Rock plc - Registered in England (Company No. 6952311).
| Registered Office: Northern Rock House Gosforth Newcastle upon Tyne
| NE3 4PL. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services
| Authority.

| All products are open only to residents of the United Kingdom.

| This message has been checked for viruses and spam by the Virgin
| Money email scanning system powered by Messagelabs.

| _______________________________________________
| katello-devel mailing list
| katello-devel at redhat.com
| https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/katello-devel