Re: pxe_just_once not working

[Michael DeHaan]

Christopher Johnston wrote:
>  All,
>
>  I am running cobbler-1.2.8-1 and I am having some issues getting the pxe_just_once
> feature working.  We have a scenario where the kickstart completes and the build process
> continues to go through a loop. This is mostly because we keep PXE enabled as a default on
> a large portion of our systems, but I thought the pxe_just_once flag will allow cobbler to
> disable the the system by removing the pxe links in /tftpboot when the system makes a
> final call out to cobbler to tell it has completed?
>
>  See below..
>
>  Its enabled and cobblerd is restarted/running:
>  root@xenguest01:/# grep pxe_just_once /etc/cobbler/settings
>  pxe_just_once: 1
>  root@xenguest01:/#
>
>  Host is set to netboot itself on next boot:
>  root@xenguest01:/# cobbler system report --name=client | grep netboot
>  netboot enabled?      : True
>  root@xenguest01:/#
>
>  .
>  .
>  .
>  Kickstart completes
>  .
>  .
>  .
>
>  Host remains with the netboot flag still enabled, shouldnt this have disabled itself?
>  root@xenguest01:/# cobbler system report --name=core001.lax02.mtt | grep netboot
>  netboot enabled?      : True
>  root@xenguest01:/#
>
>  $kickstart_done is specified in the %post section of the kickstart template:
>  root@xenguest01:/etc/cobbler# grep done fedora9_template.ks
>  $kickstart_done
>  root@xenguest01:/etc/cobbler#
>
>  Thanks,
>
>  - Chris
>
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>     
A couple of thoughts:

(A)

You're probably just missing the $kickstart_done template line in the 
%post of your kickstart file.

(B)

The PXE boot loop prevention requires that the MAC (or IP) address of 
the system be stored in Cobbler, so if you are PXE'ing from the default 
profile or the PXE menu, it will not be available. If you do a full 
"cobbler system report --name=core001.lax02.mtt", what do you see?

(C)

FYI -- Starting in 1.2.0, the code in question does not remove the 
per-system config file in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg but instead replaces it 
with a configuration file that says "boot the local disk". So if you're 
expecting to see that file removed, it should not be, but the contents 
of what is written to /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/{encoded-mac-address} 
should change when you toggle the netboot flag (or cobbler toggles it 
automatically).

--Michael