On 06.08.2015 [14:32:47 +0900], Scott Mattan wrote:
Jennifer,
You are specifying that on a system already registered in cobbler
that you want to be able to switch the BIOS setting for boot source?
As Alvin mentioned, at the moment this is not possible, as an
alternative you could script it yourself... I am however, curious to
understand the reason for your needing this functionality provided
that you can tell me.
I assumed, based upon the context in the first e-mail, that Jennifer's
SuperMicro systems (note also mentioned working around the SuperMicro
tool) are somehow "broken" at the BIOS level and don't maintain this
setting.
The reason why I am curious is mainly due to the fact that once
your server is set to boot from PXE you shouldn't need to have it
changed. Unless you are pre-defining your servers in cobbler and then
using it to deploy each one?
I agree with you -- it's unclear why that's a necessary step.
My set up uses the default system settings to install a base
operating system, automatically register the system to cobbler,
determine the system type (virtual or physical) , reinstall the
correct OS/Profile, and then configure it automatically. This allows
me to get my servers from the factory preset to PXE, press the power
button and go.
It would be great to see an article about your setup (presuming your
allowed by your employer to publish it) or maybe contrib some of your
tooling around cobbler!
I would like to see various functionality like this integrated
into the cobbler framework however... of particular interest is
turning on and off CPU components i.e. hyperthreading or
virtualization at the BIOS level.
I'd be pretty impressed if BIOS level settings are so
standardized/exposed that it could really be integrated -- and would
actually work -- in Cobbler!
I'm not sure how much makes sense to integrate into cobbler proper
(given that cobbler's sole goal should be installation of clients, not
the configuration of the clients in some sense) but maybe in snippets
(if the BIOS is exposed to the client from within the client).
-Nish