I am in an environment where I cannot control DHCP, so I have gone to using Cobbler buildISO's to boot new installs.
Today, for no reason I can locate, the process stops on a screen saying it cannot load the kickstart file. The given URL is valid and contains a proper, cobbler-generated kickstart.
I checked firewalls, restarted apache, restarted cobblerd, did a "cobbler sync" and still the same roadblock.
What am I missing, please ? This worked yesterday, but not today.
Cobbler 2.2.3 Red Hat Enterprise Server release 5.8 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.18-308.20.1.el5
“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.” Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobbes)
Hi,
I am in an environment where I cannot control DHCP, so I have gone to using Cobbler buildISO's to boot new installs.
That's a common and widespread misconception, regrettably :-(
You *never* need to have direct control of a DHCP server to be able to use PXE boot with cobbler.
The two DHCP servers that cobbler 2.2.3 (and later versions) work with OOTB: ISC DHCP and dnsmasq, both can act either as the authoritative DHCP for selected MAC addresses or simply just as proxies. Please check the relevant man page depending on your own preference.
cobbler hides some details, but my first hand experience has indicated that I still need to know *really* well the tools that it attempts to integrate to master cobbler.
You use image booting only if
0. The OS (e.g. MS Windows) is not amenable for PXE booting via cobbler (yet) 1. You need fast start-up, e.g. your environment is like AWS EC2 or a virtual server hosting provider's such as linode's.
There might be some other usages at this moment I can't recall. But PXE booting is clean, and fast enough for most situations.
Today, for no reason I can locate, the process stops on a screen saying it cannot load the kickstart file. The given URL is valid and contains a proper, cobbler-generated kickstart.
Do a cobbler system getks --name=... Can you see the rendered kickstar file?
I checked firewalls, restarted apache, restarted cobblerd, did a "cobbler sync" and still the same roadblock.
These come later. Please do the above first. Always as the first step, often in conjunction with cobbler system dumpvars --name=... |less as a helpful companion.
[...]
HTP
-- Zack
On Dec 4, 2012, at 6:56 PM, Zack Perry wrote:
Hi,
I am in an environment where I cannot control DHCP, so I have gone to using Cobbler buildISO's to boot new installs.
That's a common and widespread misconception, regrettably :-(
You *never* need to have direct control of a DHCP server to be able to use PXE boot with cobbler.
The two DHCP servers that cobbler 2.2.3 (and later versions) work with OOTB: ISC DHCP and dnsmasq, both can act either as the authoritative DHCP for selected MAC addresses or simply just as proxies. Please check the relevant man page depending on your own preference.
In this environment, DHCP is neither ISC or dnsmasq, but Microsoft. Trying to get a DHCP reservation properly set up with the folks that run it has been a multi-day process that seldom gets done properly the first time. A dnsmasq proxy would be wonderful, but still requires cooperation.
cobbler hides some details, but my first hand experience has indicated that I still need to know *really* well the tools that it attempts to integrate to master cobbler.
You use image booting only if
- The OS (e.g. MS Windows) is not amenable for PXE booting via cobbler
(yet)
- You need fast start-up, e.g. your environment is like AWS EC2 or
a virtual server hosting provider's such as linode's
1a: PXE is impossible because the Microsoft folks have the network completely boogered up.
.
There might be some other usages at this moment I can't recall. But PXE booting is clean, and fast enough for most situations.
Today, for no reason I can locate, the process stops on a screen saying it cannot load the kickstart file. The given URL is valid and contains a proper, cobbler-generated kickstart.
Do a cobbler system getks --name=... Can you see the rendered kickstar file?
Answering this from home. I did not try that, but I did use a browser to check the URL that it claims is no-good and it comes up just fine. Also, I can get to the kickstart from the Cobbler web interface. I believe that is equivalent to the command line getks, yes ?
I checked firewalls, restarted apache, restarted cobblerd, did a "cobbler sync" and still the same roadblock.
These come later. Please do the above first. Always as the first step, often in conjunction with cobbler system dumpvars --name=... |less as a helpful companion.
I will do that. Thanks for responding.
One last thought: This problem is on HP xw4600 workstation-towers. At the risk of ragging on the MS folks again, they do things like set BIOS passwords and set Safe-Boot and such as their idea of "securing" the workstation. Could any BIOS misconfigurations be causing this roadblock ?
Hi,
I am in an environment where I cannot control DHCP, so I have gone to using Cobbler buildISO's to boot new installs.
That's a common and widespread misconception, regrettably :-(
You *never* need to have direct control of a DHCP server to be able to use PXE boot with cobbler.
The two DHCP servers that cobbler 2.2.3 (and later versions) work with OOTB: ISC DHCP and dnsmasq, both can act either as the authoritative DHCP for selected MAC addresses or simply just as proxies. Please check the relevant man page depending on your own preference.
In this environment, DHCP is neither ISC or dnsmasq, but Microsoft.
That should be fine. I know first hand that having the control of the DHCP server is completely unnecessary to carry out even a large scale PXE booting.
Let me clarify a bit:
0. If you use static IP address assignment to your hosts, then as soon as the PXE network install is over, the DHCP server is out of the picture. Thus, whether the DHCP is from M$, ISC, or maintained by Simon Kelly doesn't matter. 1. The cobbler host can run a DHCP server and *manage* it. Please take a look of https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/tree/master/templates/etc So, you can set up for example, dnsmasq, and mask the M$ DHCP anytime that you prefer. 2. dnsmasq gives you the ability to proxy just a range, the rest it can be authoritative. This is a powerful feature that I often take advantage of. I highly encourage you to review (in the following order):
a. http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/docs/dnsmasq-man.html b. http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/docs/dnsmasq.conf.example
Once understood well, the M$ nightmare will be behind you. 3. If you prefer and more familiar with ISC DHCP, look at how to configure it for selected MAC addresses for static IP address assignment.
I never care of who runs the DHCP server or what brand it is.
[...]
cobbler hides some details, but my first hand experience has indicated that I still need to know *really* well the tools that it attempts to integrate to master cobbler.
You use image booting only if
- The OS (e.g. MS Windows) is not amenable for PXE
booting via cobbler(yet)
- You need fast start-up, e.g. your environment is like AWS EC2 or a virtual server hosting provider's uch as linode's
[...]
1a: PXE is impossible because the Microsoft folks have the network completely boogered up.
You should be able to. Once you run your own DHCP server, and have adjusted the relevant template properly, these M$ folks' deeds are completely irrelevant to you.
Do a cobbler system getks --name=... Can you see the rendered kickstar file?
Answering this from home. I did not try that, but I did use a browser to check the URL that it claims is no-good and it comes up just fine. Also, I can get to the kickstart from the Cobbler web interface. I believe that is equivalent to the command line getks, yes ?
Correct. I live in the CLI world 95% of the time. Much quicker, and besides, I can do remote debugging that way, also in CLI mode, again, much quicker. rpdb2 if you are interested.
[...]
HTP
-- Zack
Happy ending with a Homer Simpson "D-oh!" and a smack of the heel of the hand to the forehead.
In copying previous system definitions to make new ones, the netmask and nameserver info got dropped. The resulting boot options on the buildISO disc contained "dns=<blank space>" A co-worker discovered this by interrupting the Grub menu screen and bringing up the options line. By removing that, the installation was able to proceed. Once I knew what was causing the problem, the dropped dns/netmask info popped right out.
Thanks, Zack, for responding and offering helpful suggestions.
It all comes down to a bit of PEBCAK :P
On Dec 4, 2012, at 2:48 PM, Dan White wrote:
I am in an environment where I cannot control DHCP, so I have gone to using Cobbler buildISO's to boot new installs.
Today, for no reason I can locate, the process stops on a screen saying it cannot load the kickstart file. The given URL is valid and contains a proper, cobbler-generated kickstart.
I checked firewalls, restarted apache, restarted cobblerd, did a "cobbler sync" and still the same roadblock.
What am I missing, please ? This worked yesterday, but not today.
Cobbler 2.2.3 Red Hat Enterprise Server release 5.8 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.18-308.20.1.el5
“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.” Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobbes)
cobbler mailing list cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
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Zack Perry