[cobbler] Re: Multiple subnets, multiple dhcp --dhcp-tag, profiles, distro

[Tory M Blue]

On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 3:26 AM,   wrote:
> Hi
>
> i didnt say we use different profiles. we use the same profile across all
> subnets. we actually have 4 cobbler servers and all the slaves replicate
> from one master. our cobbler servers are in different data centers. each dc
> has one or more subnets we pxe boot on. you set the server override at the
> system item level and cobbler takes care of the rest. so if a host is on
> netA it must have server override IP x.
>
> btw, are you using an old version of cobbler? best to get up to date if u
> can. appreciate this can be tricky if your cobbler is integrated into a
> product like satelite or katello.
>
> regarding profiles: we only have one per major release of the os. eg el5,
> el6, el7, ub1404. so thats 4 profiles that are used across rhel, centos,
> oracle linux and ubuntu 1404, plus all the point releases, and loads of
> different configs. furthermore we dont differentiate between vms and real
> servers. one profile works across them all. also you can use the meta ks
> variables to pass your requirements to the builds. so we have build=vm,
> build=bda, build=hadoop, build=sas94vm. these then setup different disk
> layouts. we also implemented the ability to turn off or on functionality
> using enable= or disable=. eg enable=proxy,nimsoft,uek disable=swap, vas4.
> these are not cobbler builtins, its just coding the templating engine.
> cobbler used the cheetah templating engine which allows you embed bits of
> python code.
>
> its much better to have a simple build system and then have a cfg mgmt tool
> like puppet do all the post build config.
>

I missed this one, thanks again Alastair.

I'm using the latest and greatest cobbler, I rebuilt the system so
it's all new shiny.
Okay single profile, thanks. But you are using server setups, which
can take the various switches. If I'm purely using a single Profile,
no systems configured, I think I'm still in a situation where things
are not working as "I think,  I should be able to get them to"

Ya I've started looking inside the KS and using some of the  cheetah
stuff but failing miserable. I figured i could do  something like

#if $next_server == "10.13.200"
   #set $server="10.13.200.101"
#else  set $server = "10.13.5.100"
#end if

For example, using the right cheetah # syntax,  Figure this would be
way to achieve what I want. I should be able to overwrite dynamically
what the next_server or in fact what $server is.

Thanks again, still looking.

Tory
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[cobbler] Re: Multiple subnets, multiple dhcp --dhcp-tag, profiles, distro

[alastair]

Hi Tory

We now use vrealize in vmware to automate the build of vm's. However behind the 
scenes it uses cobbler and creates a system in cobbler to build each vm, even 
though pxe is used to build the vm. Once the vm is built the system definition 
is removed from cobbler. The vm always has a static ip even though they are pxe 
built.

In my 25 years or so of being a sysadmin i have not come across anyone using 
dhcp for servers to get their ip (exception being cloud environments such as 
Azure where the infrastructure controls ip allocation). Thus it makes sense for 
servers to use static ip's even if the build uses pxe (dhcp/tftp). For example 
if the server cannot get its ip then its not available.

Just my tuppence worth. You dont need to follow my advice, but a wise man once 
said dont make the mistakes yourself but learn from others mistakes.

--
Alastair Munro

-Original Message-
From: Tory M Blue 
To: cobbler mailing list 
Sent: Thu, 05 May 2016 21:28
Subject: [cobbler] Re: Multiple subnets, multiple dhcp --dhcp-tag, profiles, 
distro

On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 3:26 AM,   wrote:
> Hi
>
> i didnt say we use different profiles. we use the same profile across all
> subnets. we actually have 4 cobbler servers and all the slaves replicate
> from one master. our cobbler servers are in different data centers. each dc
> has one or more subnets we pxe boot on. you set the server override at the
> system item level and cobbler takes care of the rest. so if a host is on
> netA it must have server override IP x.
>
> btw, are you using an old version of cobbler? best to get up to date if u
> can. appreciate this can be tricky if your cobbler is integrated into a
> product like satelite or katello.
>
> regarding profiles: we only have one per major release of the os. eg el5,
> el6, el7, ub1404. so thats 4 profiles that are used across rhel, centos,
> oracle linux and ubuntu 1404, plus all the point releases, and loads of
> different configs. furthermore we dont differentiate between vms and real
> servers. one profile works across them all. also you can use the meta ks
> variables to pass your requirements to the builds. so we have build=vm,
> build=bda, build=hadoop, build=sas94vm. these then setup different disk
> layouts. we also implemented the ability to turn off or on functionality
> using enable= or disable=. eg enable=proxy,nimsoft,uek disable=swap, vas4.
> these are not cobbler builtins, its just coding the templating engine.
> cobbler used the cheetah templating engine which allows you embed bits of
> python code.
>
> its much better to have a simple build system and then have a cfg mgmt tool
> like puppet do all the post build config.
>

I missed this one, thanks again Alastair.

I'm using the latest and greatest cobbler, I rebuilt the system so
it's all new shiny.
Okay single profile, thanks. But you are using server setups, which
can take the various switches. If I'm purely using a single Profile,
no systems configured, I think I'm still in a situation where things
are not working as "I think,  I should be able to get them to"

Ya I've started looking inside the KS and using some of the  cheetah
stuff but failing miserable. I figured i could do  something like

#if $next_server == "10.13.200"
   #set $server="10.13.200.101"
#else  set $server = "10.13.5.100"
#end if

For example, using the right cheetah # syntax,  Figure this would be
way to achieve what I want. I should be able to overwrite dynamically
what the next_server or in fact what $server is.

Thanks again, still looking.

Tory
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[cobbler] Re: Multiple subnets, multiple dhcp --dhcp-tag, profiles, distro

[Tory M Blue]

On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 2:15 PM,   wrote:
> Hi Tory
>
> We now use vrealize in vmware to automate the build of vm's. However behind
> the scenes it uses cobbler and creates a system in cobbler to build each vm,
> even though pxe is used to build the vm. Once the vm is built the system
> definition is removed from cobbler. The vm always has a static ip even
> though they are pxe built.
>
> In my 25 years or so of being a sysadmin i have not come across anyone using
> dhcp for servers to get their ip (exception being cloud environments such as
> Azure where the infrastructure controls ip allocation). Thus it makes sense
> for servers to use static ip's even if the build uses pxe (dhcp/tftp). For
> example if the server cannot get its ip then its not available.
>
> Just my tuppence worth. You dont need to follow my advice, but a wise man
> once said dont make the mistakes yourself but learn from others mistakes.
>
> --
> Alastair Munro

Yes sir, currently I'm rebuilding systems, migrating from CentOS6 to
CentOS7 in a production environment. So instead of playing with DNS,
I'm building the system as the replacement system in place. I then
shut down the current system and bring up the new one, so the DHCP
makes sense in this regard. Obviously I could use a throw away static
but really that seems like an unnecessary hurdle.

And remember my issue is not with an IP, it's with cobbler using a
hardcoded http_server and next_server, when it could easily take the
next_server from the DHCP profile (for my use anyways).

Again I appreciate the continued support and ideas.

I'm not discounting anything. I have it working, but it's not how I
see it working. I still think there is something I fundamentally am
not wrapping my head around, or a fundamental flaw in how cobbler
approaches multi network environments.  Because I'm stubborn,  I'm not
happy that it's working, since I had to do some network tricks to
allow it to work. (everything talking to 13.5 interface for the
kickstart process).

I really thought I was on to something using the if/else clauses in
the kickstart file, but Cheetah/Python are now giving me the big
finger :)  But there is a way, I am just floundering at this point!!

Thanks again
Tory
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[cobbler] Documentation on new mgmt_classes fields

[Pezzarossi, Gianni]

Hey guys,  So while setting up a new cobbler server (2.6.11)  I was adding in 
some management classes and noticed that since the last version we had running 
(2.2.2), the web management fields have changed.

2.2.2 only had fields for: Name, Owners, Comment, Packages, and Files.

2.6.11 now has those same fields, plus: Class Name, Is Definition?, 
Parameters/Variables

However I can't find anything that says where/if these fields are used? Like 
what is the difference between Name, and Class Name fields?

We use the management classes to export to ansible for config management, and 
they show up as expected if we just populate the name field.  But I'm just 
curious as to what the function of the rest is.

Thanks,

-
Gianni Pezzarossi
Linux Systems Administrator
User Services:Research
Engineering IT Shared Services
University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign
(217)244-7549
270 Materials Research Laboratory
engrit-h...@illinois.edu

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[cobbler] Re: Multiple subnets, multiple dhcp --dhcp-tag, profiles, distro

[alastair]

Hi Tory

Just a thought: have you tried cobbler web? Nice thing about the gui is it 
gives you an idea of the options are available for systems/profiles/distros.

I think you would need to define systems in cobbler, even if they had dhcp 
assigned ip addresses. Then you could define the server override that way. So 
at a minimum you define hostname, interface, mac address and server override. 
Then see what cobbler sync generates for dhcpd.conf and the tftpconfig?

--
Alastair Munro

-Original Message-
From: Tory M Blue 
To: cobbler mailing list 
Sent: Thu, 05 May 2016 22:39
Subject: [cobbler] Re: Multiple subnets, multiple dhcp --dhcp-tag, profiles, 
distro

On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 2:15 PM,   wrote:
> Hi Tory
>
> We now use vrealize in vmware to automate the build of vm's. However behind
> the scenes it uses cobbler and creates a system in cobbler to build each vm,
> even though pxe is used to build the vm. Once the vm is built the system
> definition is removed from cobbler. The vm always has a static ip even
> though they are pxe built.
>
> In my 25 years or so of being a sysadmin i have not come across anyone using
> dhcp for servers to get their ip (exception being cloud environments such as
> Azure where the infrastructure controls ip allocation). Thus it makes sense
> for servers to use static ip's even if the build uses pxe (dhcp/tftp). For
> example if the server cannot get its ip then its not available.
>
> Just my tuppence worth. You dont need to follow my advice, but a wise man
> once said dont make the mistakes yourself but learn from others mistakes.
>
> --
> Alastair Munro

Yes sir, currently I'm rebuilding systems, migrating from CentOS6 to
CentOS7 in a production environment. So instead of playing with DNS,
I'm building the system as the replacement system in place. I then
shut down the current system and bring up the new one, so the DHCP
makes sense in this regard. Obviously I could use a throw away static
but really that seems like an unnecessary hurdle.

And remember my issue is not with an IP, it's with cobbler using a
hardcoded http_server and next_server, when it could easily take the
next_server from the DHCP profile (for my use anyways).

Again I appreciate the continued support and ideas.

I'm not discounting anything. I have it working, but it's not how I
see it working. I still think there is something I fundamentally am
not wrapping my head around, or a fundamental flaw in how cobbler
approaches multi network environments.  Because I'm stubborn,  I'm not
happy that it's working, since I had to do some network tricks to
allow it to work. (everything talking to 13.5 interface for the
kickstart process).

I really thought I was on to something using the if/else clauses in
the kickstart file, but Cheetah/Python are now giving me the big
finger :)  But there is a way, I am just floundering at this point!!

Thanks again
Tory
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[cobbler] Re: Multiple subnets, multiple dhcp --dhcp-tag, profiles, distro

[Tory M Blue]

Okay just circling back.

So some of this was my misunderstanding and my days of trying to
modify the "template" (it's not the actual kickstart file), as well as
mis understanding what Cobbler's role in this whole thing was. So what
I was after was not really even possible, thanks to NACC on the
#cobbler irc channel, he was able to straighten out my terminology.

So ya Cobbler has no idea and never will (unless you go static!) what
my clients IP is. This is really an anaconda/pxe issue and not
Cobbler, Cobbler is creating the kickstart files and stuff out of my
template, so really I need to attack this from a different angle.. So
this was much more of me not understanding Cobbler's role in my
pxebooting process.

NACC found me some cool stuff via the pxelinux and some stuff I can do
there to get the right information (prevent PXE from traversing the
network)..

May not get me 100%, but I'm a much better person now that my
misconceptions have been cleared up.

Sorry Cobbler this was on me, not you!!

Thanks for everyones assistance!

Tory
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