right tool for PXEless boots

[Dick Davies]

We use a webapp to register servers, so we can edit our hostnames, MACs and IPs,
 but not the DHCP configuration directly. So I'm essentially PXEless.

Needless to say, 'cobbler buildiso' is helping a lot, but I only seem
to be able to
point a machine to a system definition by creating a custom ISO.

Is there a way to present the booting hosts with the menu they'd get
over TFTP? The machines under fairly heavy development and so we're building
an ISO each time we add a profile at the moment.

Ideally I'd like some way to get the booting servers to the TFTP
server, then let
the usual cobbler mechanisms take place (per-system settings etc.
pulled by MAC address).

Thanks!

[Michael DeHaan]

>  Needless to say, 'cobbler buildiso' is helping a lot, but I
> only seem
>  to be able to
>  point a machine to a system definition by creating a custom ISO.
>
>  Is there a way to present the booting hosts with the menu they'd get
>  over TFTP? The machines under fairly heavy development and so we're building
>  an ISO each time we add a profile at the moment.
>     
cobbler buildiso produces the same menu. To do it dynamically requires 
investing some more work in the Fedora-liveCD based "Cobber live CD" 
which I was working on a few
weeks ago. There is some black magic that needs to be done to make it 
interactive though. This is something I want to do but is on the back 
burner for a while. If someone would
like to have a go at it, I did add the code to koan to allow prompting 
for the live CD case -- the trick though is tweaking the actual live CD 
config to make it visable versus
just showing the login prompt, etc.

>  Ideally I'd like some way to get the booting servers to the TFTP
>  server, then let
>  the usual cobbler mechanisms take place (per-system settings etc.
>  pulled by MAC address).
>     
FWIW, The live CD does this, but all over HTTP, it doesn't need TFTP.
>  Thanks!
>  _______________________________________________
>  cobbler mailing list
>  cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>  https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>

[Dick Davies]

My use case is probably slightly different; I want to be able to define
systems by MAC address, but have a single automated ISO
(we can then use to build all our boxes).

Live CD is probably overkill for my needs - I'm hoping to get away with
pxelinux.0 on the ISO, with a hardcoded path to the (cobbler) TFTP box.
The pxelinux.cfg/<macaddr> mechanism should take care of the rest, right?

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 4:25 PM, Michael DeHaan <mdehaan(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
> > Needless to say, 'cobbler buildiso' is helping a lot, but I only seem
> > to be able to
> > point a machine to a system definition by creating a custom ISO.
> >
> > Is there a way to present the booting hosts with the menu they'd get
> > over TFTP? The machines under fairly heavy development and so we're building
> > an ISO each time we add a profile at the moment.
> >
>
>  cobbler buildiso produces the same menu. To do it dynamically requires
>  investing some more work in the Fedora-liveCD based "Cobber live CD"
>  which I was working on a few
>  weeks ago. There is some black magic that needs to be done to make it
>  interactive though. This is something I want to do but is on the back
>  burner for a while. If someone would
>  like to have a go at it, I did add the code to koan to allow prompting
>  for the live CD case -- the trick though is tweaking the actual live CD
>  config to make it visable versus
>  just showing the login prompt, etc.
>
> > Ideally I'd like some way to get the booting servers to the TFTP
> > server, then let
> > the usual cobbler mechanisms take place (per-system settings etc.
> > pulled by MAC address).
> >
>
>  FWIW, The live CD does this, but all over HTTP, it doesn't need TFTP.
> > Thanks!
> > _______________________________________________
> > cobbler mailing list
> > cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> > https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
> >
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  cobbler mailing list
>  cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>  https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>

[Michael DeHaan]

Dick Davies wrote:
>  My use case is probably slightly different; I want to be able to
> define
>  systems by MAC address, but have a single automated ISO
>  (we can then use to build all our boxes).
>
>  Live CD is probably overkill for my needs - I'm hoping to get away with
>  pxelinux.0 on the ISO, with a hardcoded path to the (cobbler) TFTP box.
>  The pxelinux.cfg/<macaddr> mechanism should take care of the rest, right?
>     
So basically you want a CD that fires up pxelinux.0 to a next-server 
address that does not originate from DHCP.

Not sure you can do this without hacking up pxelinux source.   

(The Live CD is not any more overkill than what you propose above, and 
does so without needing TFTP.   Again though, we're not finished 
resurrecting it.)

>  On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 4:25 PM, Michael DeHaan
> <mdehaan(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>    
> >> Needless to say, 'cobbler buildiso' is helping a lot, but I only seem
> >> to be able to
> >> point a machine to a system definition by creating a custom ISO.
> >>
> >> Is there a way to present the booting hosts with the menu they'd get
> >> over TFTP? The machines under fairly heavy development and so we're building
> >> an ISO each time we add a profile at the moment.
> >>
> >>       
> > cobbler buildiso produces the same menu. To do it dynamically requires
> > investing some more work in the Fedora-liveCD based "Cobber live CD"
> > which I was working on a few
> > weeks ago. There is some black magic that needs to be done to make it
> > interactive though. This is something I want to do but is on the back
> > burner for a while. If someone would
> > like to have a go at it, I did add the code to koan to allow prompting
> > for the live CD case -- the trick though is tweaking the actual live CD
> > config to make it visable versus
> > just showing the login prompt, etc.
> >
> >     
> >> Ideally I'd like some way to get the booting servers to the TFTP
> >> server, then let
> >> the usual cobbler mechanisms take place (per-system settings etc.
> >> pulled by MAC address).
> >>
> >>       
> > FWIW, The live CD does this, but all over HTTP, it doesn't need TFTP.
> >     
> >> Thanks!
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> cobbler mailing list
> >> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> >> https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
> >>
> >>       
> > _______________________________________________
> > cobbler mailing list
> > cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> > https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
> >
> >     
>  _______________________________________________
>  cobbler mailing list
>  cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>  https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>

[Dick Davies]

On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Michael DeHaan <mdehaan(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>  Dick Davies wrote:
> > My use case is probably slightly different; I want to be able to define
> > systems by MAC address, but have a single automated ISO
> > (we can then use to build all our boxes).
> >
> > Live CD is probably overkill for my needs - I'm hoping to get away with
> > pxelinux.0 on the ISO, with a hardcoded path to the (cobbler) TFTP box.
> > The pxelinux.cfg/<macaddr> mechanism should take care of the rest, right?
> >
>
>  So basically you want a CD that fires up pxelinux.0 to a next-server
>  address that does not originate from DHCP. 
That, or I'd be happy with a small kernel/initrd that could do it.

>  Not sure you can do this without hacking up pxelinux source. 
No, I didn't think so :(


>  (The Live CD is not any more overkill than what you propose above,
> and
>  does so without needing TFTP.   Again though, we're not finished
>  resurrecting it.) 
Thanks - I think I'm stuck with either:

a) cobbler buildiso per system
b) cobbler buildiso

(since both need a menu selection anyway, I'm no worse off really).
Or of course

c) bribe the DHCP admin with beer and pizza.

:)

> > On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 4:25 PM, Michael DeHaan
> <mdehaan(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
> >
> >>> Needless to say, 'cobbler buildiso' is helping a lot, but I only
> seem
> >>> to be able to
> >>> point a machine to a system definition by creating a custom ISO.
> >>>
> >>> Is there a way to present the booting hosts with the menu they'd get
> >>> over TFTP? The machines under fairly heavy development and so we're
> building
> >>> an ISO each time we add a profile at the moment.
> >>>
> >>>
> >> cobbler buildiso produces the same menu. To do it dynamically requires
> >> investing some more work in the Fedora-liveCD based "Cobber live CD"
> >> which I was working on a few
> >> weeks ago. There is some black magic that needs to be done to make it
> >> interactive though. This is something I want to do but is on the back
> >> burner for a while. If someone would
> >> like to have a go at it, I did add the code to koan to allow prompting
> >> for the live CD case -- the trick though is tweaking the actual live CD
> >> config to make it visable versus
> >> just showing the login prompt, etc.
> >>
> >>
> >>> Ideally I'd like some way to get the booting servers to the TFTP
> >>> server, then let
> >>> the usual cobbler mechanisms take place (per-system settings etc.
> >>> pulled by MAC address).
> >>>
> >>>
> >> FWIW, The live CD does this, but all over HTTP, it doesn't need TFTP.
> >>
> >>> Thanks!
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> cobbler mailing list
> >>> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> >>> https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
> >>>
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> cobbler mailing list
> >> cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> >> https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
> >>
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > cobbler mailing list
> > cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> > https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
> >
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  cobbler mailing list
>  cobbler(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
>  https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
>

[Michael DeHaan]

>  c) bribe the DHCP admin with beer and pizza.
>
>  :)
>     
Seriously, if you have a DHCP network, you should just do C.    If the 
admin is unwilling to oblidge you with such a small config change please 
tell his boss that Michael says he is being unreasonable.

--Michael