cobbler April 2009

cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org

51 participants
71 discussions

yum upgrade to 1.2.6-1.el5
by Harry Hoffman 27 Aug '09

27 Aug '09

Just upgraded to the latest cobbler from epel-testing... the post-install script fails :-( Updating : cobbler ####################### [ 5/10] profile CentOS-5.2-x86_64 not found, inheritance not possible Stopping cobbler daemon: [ OK ] Starting cobbler daemon: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/cobblerd", line 32, in ? api = bootapi.BootAPI() File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 90, in __init__ self.deserialize() File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 448, in deserialize return self._config.deserialize() File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/config.py", line 186, in deserialize serializer.deserialize(self._profiles) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/serializer.py", line 125, in deserialize rc = storage_module.deserialize(obj,topological) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/modules/serializer_yaml.py", line 136, in deserialize obj.from_datastruct(datastruct) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/collection.py", line 144, in from_datastruct item = self.factory_produce(self.config,seed_data) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/collection_profiles.py", line 41, in factory_produce return profile.Profile(config).from_datastruct(seed_data) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/item_profile.py", line 87, in from_datastruct self.set_parent(self.parent) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/item_profile.py", line 131, in set_parent raise CX(_("profile %s not found, inheritance not possible") % parent_name) cobbler.cexceptions.CX: 'profile CentOS-5.2-x86_64 not found, inheritance not possible' [FAILED] error: %post(cobbler-1.2.6-1.el5.noarch) scriptlet failed, exit status 1 Any ideas? Cheers, Harry

4 9

$tree in kickstart
by Tom Brown 29 May '09

29 May '09

Is this now depricated in 1.6 ?? +------+ Kickstart Error +-------+ | | | Unknown Url method $tree | | | | +----+ | | | OK | | | +----+ | | | | | +--------------------------------+ and the template looks like # Use network installation url --url=$tree thanks

5 13

Ideas for automating desktop installs?
by Gino LV. Ledesma 08 May '09

08 May '09

Hi, all I'm curious to know what other users have done for automating desktop installs. I've been reading the wiki and got a number of ideas using snippets. What I'm trying to do is do "self-installs", where a user can provision his or her own desktop with customizations for that user. It would be something like: 1. User PXE boots machine 2. User selects a profile 3. ??? 4. Machine gets provisioned according to profile 5. Machine is ready for use with user's custom settings The constraint here is that I'd like to move away from creating system profiles prior to the install (which would normally require getting the MAC address and registering it with cobbler). What I'd like to tell cobbler (step 3) is that I'm provisioning this machine for a specific user -- perhaps by passing something onto the kernel command line as a parameter, and then having the post-install section do the customization based on that. For example, I could pass in username=$username and then a script/trigger could fire off and lookup a DB for that user, and then create the accounts/profiles/apps/configs/etc automatically. I'm constrained to working with Windows managing DHCP, so I'm trying to pass the hostname onto the kickstart parameters somehow so I can get it register itself and update DDNS. As you can tell from the above, we're trying to reuse a single "generic" profile (which is my baseline) and simply customizing the install for a specific user (i.e. by adding that user's account) without creating. So my questions are: 1. Is supplying this last information via kernel command line the best option? 2. Can we somehow get a ksmeta variable set at profile-selection time outside of cobbler (e.g. in the boot selection menu)? (I doubt it) 3. Short of implementing integration with LDAP/Kerberos/Active Directory for authentication and using roaming user directories, are there any recommendations for "user provisioning" via cobbler? My last recourse is to have the account provisioning be done as a first-boot option. - gino

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Templating error on per_profile template
by Alex Davies 02 May '09

02 May '09

Hi, I've just built a new cobbler machine this evening and have a problem with snippets that is probably very obvious but I can't work out. If I create a completly blank per_profile snippet, suddenly cheetah throws a wobbly. The relevant line in the .ks file is $SNIPPET('partition') With this line commented, all works well. With this line in the file however as soon as I create the correct file in the per_profile directory it all falls apart: [root@cobbler ~]# cobbler system getks --name=test # Works fine [root@cobbler partition]# pwd /var/lib/cobbler/snippets/per_profile/partition [root@cobbler partition]# touch centos5-xen-x86_64 [root@cobbler ~]# cobbler system getks --name=test # *** ERROR *** # # There is a templating error preventing this file from rendering correctly. # # This is most likely not due to a bug in Cobbler and is something you can fix. # # Look at the message below to see what things are causing problems. # # (1) Does the template file reference a $variable that is not defined? # (2) is there a formatting error in a Cheetah directive? # (3) Should dollar signs ($) be escaped that are not being escaped? # # Try fixing the problem and then investigate to see if this message goes # away or changes. # # # module.__init__() argument 1 must be string, not unicode # File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/templar.py", line 115, in render # data_out = str(t) # # File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/Cheetah/Template.py", line 982, in __str__ # def __str__(self): return getattr(self, mainMethName)() # # File "cheetah_DynamicallyCompiledCheetahTemplate_1241128756_44_46288.py", line 146, in respond # # File "cheetah_DynamicallyCompiledCheetahTemplate_1241128756_44_46288.py", line 92, in __errorCatcher4 # # File "<string>", line 0, in ? # # File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/template_api.py", line 156, in SNIPPET # result = BuiltinTemplate.SNIPPET(self, file) # # File "DynamicallyCompiledCheetahTemplate.py", line 89, in SNIPPET # # File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/Cheetah/Template.py", line 1512, in _handleCheetahInclude # nestedTemplateClass = compiler.compile(source=source,file=file) # # File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/template_api.py", line 124, in compile # return Cheetah.Template.Template.compile(*args, **kwargs) # # File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/Cheetah/Template.py", line 754, in compile # mod = new.module(uniqueModuleName) # I'm running cobbler 1.6.3 on CentOS 5.3 (epel testing RPM). I know that the output tells me that this probably isnt a bug and almost certainly me being thick, I would love someone to point me in the right direction! Many thanks, Alex

3 12

Monitoring cobbler
by Jim Wildman 30 Apr '09

30 Apr '09

What/how are people monitoring their cobbler servers? particularly if you have several. ie, our management is very interested in how long installs take, how many there are, who is doing them, etc. A lot of that could be gleaned from a combination of messages, cobblerd.log and the kicklogs. Anybody have a solution then can share? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Wildman, CISSP, RHCE jim(a)rossberry.com http://www.rossberry.com "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine

3 2

ideas for configuring network wanted
by Christian Horn 30 Apr '09

30 Apr '09

Hi all, looking for idea/ways to do things. a) setting network-modes We run some network interfaces in 100full-mode and some in 1gbit mode. Wondering how to set this up best. The mode is unknown at the time 'cobbler system add' is done, so i do not wand to use ksopts handing over vars to a snippet configuring the mode. My idea for now is using ethtool to ask for interfaces current speed. If its 1gbit do nothing, if its autonegotiated to 100-half or 100-full i echo 'ETHTOOL_OPTS="speed 100 duplex full autoneg off"' \ >>/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth$number to set the mode since if its 100 we run 100full by default. Any more cobblerish way for this yet? b) Finding out networks. Usually admins deploying a new server have a list by hand containing this: - new servers hostname: xyz - one interface, ip 10.0.0.2 /24 gw .1 - one interface, ip 11.0.0.2 /16 - one interface, ip 12.0.0.3 /24 Network-people plug cables into the server, and we try to get out pxe- interface onto first rj45-plug on the motherboard. The mac has to be read from the remote service board. I would like to have heuristics for finding out on what other interfaces the other networks are plugged in. Unfortunatelly not all of these have gateways, otherwise i could have taken interfaces up, tried to ping the gateway, and in case of success configure the network. How are others handling this? Christian

3 4

Fix for repo editing on the profiles page for the web app
by Michael DeHaan 29 Apr '09

29 Apr '09

Some code from a previous version was removed, and also needed a bit of tweaking. The following two patches will fix a 1.6.3 instance so that this particular page/field of the web application works again. Currently I do not have a date set for a 1.6.4 release. Generally this means two weeks or so pass and see see what else needs to be fixed by then, and we'll include those as well, if anything. If nothing else shows up, we will probably not do another release before 1.8. TBD. [1] http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/cobbler?p=cobbler;a=commitdiff;h=6630930ae9… [2] http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/cobbler?p=cobbler;a=blobdiff;f=cobbler/util… Those using git can also just do a git pull on the master branch. --Michael

2 1

Re: standalone
by Joe G 29 Apr '09

29 Apr '09

James, Still no joy. The rpm's I'm looking for are in the Workstation directory. The DVD came from RedHat. One thing I noticed, I don't know if it will help, but: I removed the -quiet from the mkisofs line, I copied and pasted the line, and it gave me: Using BOGL_000.RPM;1 for /tmp/buildiso/Client/bogl-0.1.18-11.2.1.el5.1.x86_64.rpm (bogl-0.1.18-11.2.1.el5.1.i386.rpm) Using FONTS004.RPM;1 for /tmp/buildiso/Client/fonts-KOI8-R-1.0-9.1.1.noarch.rpm (fonts-KOI8-R-100dpi-1.0-9.1.1.noarch.rpm) Using MESA_006.RPM;1 for /tmp/buildiso/Client/mesa-libGLU-6.5.1-7.7.el5.x86_64.rpm (mesa-libGL-6.5.1-7.7.el5.x86_64.rpm) Size of boot image is 4 sectors -> No emulation 0.23% done, estimate finish Tue Apr 28 19:52:51 2009 0.46% done, estimate finish Tue Apr 28 19:49:15 2009 0.69% done, estimate finish Tue Apr 28 19:50:28 2009 0.92% done, estimate finish Tue Apr 28 19:49:15 all the way to 100.00% but the the top half, only went in to the Client directory. I don't know if it helps, but it's worth a shot. Joe --- On Mon, 4/27/09, James Cammarata <jimi(a)sngx.net> wrote: > From: James Cammarata <jimi(a)sngx.net> > Subject: Re: standalone > To: "Joe G" <jophey(a)yahoo.com> > Cc: "cobbler mailing list" <cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org> > Date: Monday, April 27, 2009, 11:16 PM > > On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:19:10 -0700 (PDT), Joe G <jophey(a)yahoo.com> > wrote: > > James, > > > > Thanks for the reply. > > > > The command I use to make the iso is"cobbler buildiso > > --distro=RH5.3client-x86_64 --standalone" > > > > I tried it with --source/path to iso with the same > result. > > > > Thanks > > > > Joe > > Try specifying the --tempdir as well, and after the build > is done look at > the contents of that directory. Also make sure that > you're using an > official release ISO and not a custom made one. I > know we've had issues > with people using custom rolled CD's before. > > -- > This message has been scanned for viruses and > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is > believed to be clean. > >

1 0

Cobbler survey -- you still have a week!
by Michael DeHaan 28 Apr '09

28 Apr '09

So far about 20 incredibly awesome folks have responded. That means there are 300 or so more of you on the list that have still need to do so :) https://fedorahosted.org/pipermail/cobbler/2009-April/003884.html This helps us understand what features are being used the most, what kind of environments we are managing, and what features are most wanted ... so your response is greatly appreciated. If this is the only contribution you make to Cobbler this year, this would be a good one. (Our phone operators are standing by, call in the next 30 minutes and get the complete source code!, now back to regularly scheduled programming) --Michael

2 2

inherit option
by Pieter Thoma 28 Apr '09

28 Apr '09

Hi, I was wondering if it is possible to set the inherit option in a profile or system? # cobbler profile edit --name=CentOS-5.2-i386 --kickstart="<<inherit>>" doesnt work. Regards, Pieter

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cobbler April 2009