On 12 June 2010 23:12, Frank <support(a)server-1.com> wrote:
Thank you Dylan. I continue to be confused. Aren't the values
(e.g.
the IP or the domain name, etc.) in /etc/dhcpd.conf handed on to the
server where an OS should be installed?
I'm not sure what is confusing you - is it the address you specified
for the system is not in the dhcpd.conf file, or the address in the
kickstart file does not match that in the dhcpd.conf file. I'll try to
clarify (apologies if this is stuff you already understand)...
The DHCP server will make an offer of IP address, subnet, gateway,
dns, etc to a dhcp request. The client (ie where the os is to be
installed, the system that made the dhcp request) will then accept
this offer and the address will be allocated, by the dhcp server, to
the MAC address of the client, for the duration of the lease, or until
the client relinquishes the address. This is what DHCP does.
In addition, a 'next-server' parameter is also passed in the dhcp
offer. This tells the client where to go next to obtain further
instruction, only if this is a PXE boot. The further instruction is a
program (eg memtest) or a kernel (for installation / live distro
running)
If you use the templated version of dhcp (ie "manage_dhcp; 1" in
/etc/cobbler/settings and you have a configured
'/etc/cobbler/dhcp.template' file) then when you define a new system
and 'sync' cobbler, a new entry will be added to the working
dhcpd.conf file that defines specific instructions for the system you
have just defined. Such as:
host generic1 {
hardware ethernet e4:1f:13:60:9a:64;
fixed-address 192.168.42.1;
option host-name "node1.xxx.yyy.localdomain";
filename "/pxelinux.0";
next-server 192.168.42.152;
}
where:
* my cobbler server (cobbler + dhcp + tftpboot) is at 192.168.42.152
* the client will set up IP networking at 192.168.42.1
* my dhcp pool is 192.168.42.1-192.168.42.150
One thing to note - the IP address in the entry above is an address
from the dhcp pool, NOT the address you defined for the server in
cobbler system settings. That address will be in the kickstart file
when it is served to the client at installation time.
There should also be a generic installation entry - one that does not
define an IP address, but does tell the client where to go next. In
this case the client would boot to a menu that offers any of the
profiles for installation. It should also default to boot from disk,
meaning that a human operator would have to initiate a re-install.
I added a "System" in Cobble_web -- is the IP, subnet,
hostname info
then taken from that profile? One add-on question to this: Is there
any way to tell Cobbler how large the SWAP partition should be, and
is there a way to tell it how to partition the HDDs?
The system defines specific information, such as hostnames, IP
Addresses etc that are applied to a profile.
A profile is a combination of kickstart + distro.
You can define the hard disk layout in the kickstart file (usually
'autopart'), but if you look in most regular kickstart files you will
find a section (commented out) that defines how the hard disks have
been partitioned. These lines usualy start with 'clearpart',
'volgroup' 'logvol' and/or 'part'. Each of these keywords is
followed
by various parameters. There is good documentation online in the
RedHat manuals (google is your friend).
Hope that helps
Dylan