I just updated a test system running fedora 11 from cobbler 1.6.6 to cobbler 2.0.3.1 and came across something rather unsettling, I hope it can be repaired by updating my understanding of cobbler.
One of my distro configurations points to a kernel image which is now unavailable, I can replace the kernel image, but what unsettles me is that cobbler won't start, and if I wanted to alter the configuration I would need to communicate with a running cobbler server.
I while I am going to agree that a mis-configured server should not start, my problem is that cobbler is configured through access to the running server. Now I need to repair the paths manually or remove all of the json files which referenced my distro while crossing my fingers that I don't disturb the cobbler internals somehow.
I am going to recommend that the behavior be such that a mis-configured element would raise a warning or log message rather than preventing the service from being reconfigured. From a design perspective, since the decision has been made to ensure a working configuration through the api, then the api should not prevent repairing a configuration. This is especially true because of the disparate external circumstances in which the configuration can be compromised.
-Tom Hatch