Re: [Fedora Magazine] New Editorial Comment: "How to Build a Netboot Server, Part 5"

[Gregory Lee Bartholomew]

On Wed, 2019-01-16 at 21:27 +0000, WordPress wrote:
> Adding a note from last week's meeting -- I think the consensus was that ZFS
> and a custom kernel (we think that's required?) were not something the editors
> felt we should strongly promote in Fedora, since it means the kernel taint
> flag is set. Can this be rethought with another compression option?

The kernel does not have to be recompiled, but a module (zfs.ko) does. The
module, when loaded, does indeed taint the kernel. Here is the line that
displays in my dmesg output:

znvpair: module license CDDL taints kernel.

There is a "zfs-fuse" package available in the Fedora repositories and a quick
online search appears to show that it can be used to boot a zfs root (
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/zfs-fuse/Pngazp3mALw). But the solution
looks a bit too hackish for my taste.

Here is an explanation of why zfs-fuse package is is allowed in Fedora, but
zfs.ko is not: 
http://warpmech.com/?news=myth-busting-series-zfs-on-linux-has-license-probl...

Btrfs was mentioned as a possibility, but I am a little weary of it. It looks
like RHEL is also deprecating it: 
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/htm...

It looks like there is a possibility that Oracle may someday change the ZFS
license: 
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Oracle-ZFS-2017-Poss...

My intention at the moment is to hold off on doing netboot pt. 5 and maybe
revisit the issue if Oracle does update the ZFS license.

Thanks.

[Fedora Magazine] New Editorial Comment: "How to Build a Netboot Server, Part 5"

[Paul Frields]

That sounds fair to me, Greg. Do you have some ideas for other content
you're interested in, whether along the lines of sysadmin solutions or
something else?

Paul

On Wed, Jan 16, 2019 at 5:05 PM Gregory Lee Bartholomew
 wrote:
> On Wed, 2019-01-16 at 21:27 +0000, WordPress wrote:
> > Adding a note from last week's meeting -- I think the consensus was that ZFS
> > and a custom kernel (we think that's required?) were not something the editors
> > felt we should strongly promote in Fedora, since it means the kernel taint
> > flag is set. Can this be rethought with another compression option?
>
> The kernel does not have to be recompiled, but a module (zfs.ko) does. The
> module, when loaded, does indeed taint the kernel. Here is the line that
> displays in my dmesg output:
>
> znvpair: module license CDDL taints kernel.
>
> There is a "zfs-fuse" package available in the Fedora repositories and a quick
> online search appears to show that it can be used to boot a zfs root (
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/zfs-fuse/Pngazp3mALw). But the solution
> looks a bit too hackish for my taste.
>
> Here is an explanation of why zfs-fuse package is is allowed in Fedora, but
> zfs.ko is not:
> http://warpmech.com/?news=myth-busting-series-zfs-on-linux-has-license-probl...
>
> Btrfs was mentioned as a possibility, but I am a little weary of it. It looks
> like RHEL is also deprecating it:
> https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/htm...
>
> It looks like there is a possibility that Oracle may someday change the ZFS
> license:
> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Oracle-ZFS-2017-Poss...
>
> My intention at the moment is to hold off on doing netboot pt. 5 and maybe
> revisit the issue if Oracle does update the ZFS license.
>
> Thanks.
> _______________________________________________
> Fedora Magazine mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://getfedora.org/code-of-conduct.html
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail].o...

[Fedora Magazine] New Editorial Comment: "How to Build a Netboot Server, Part 5"

[Gregory Lee Bartholomew]

I was considering a "Netboot a LiveCD" article. It would be a much simpler and
shorter guide than the "full enchilada" that I provided in the previous series
and it might suffice for some people's use cases.

The howto would basically amount to tweaking the syslinux.cfg file on the
downloaded LiveCD to include the "netroot=iscsi:..." parameter and then up
loading the modified iso to the iscsi server. Then you can just use iPXE's
"sanboot" command to netboot it.

It would mainly be a convenience to sysadmins who wanted a "rescue/installation"
netboot option for their workstations. Though it could also be used for a lab
that just wanted a very basic readonly OS with a browser. Maybe also to
developers who could use an archive of a bunch of older OS's/kernels/browsers
for testing.

What do you think?

On Fri, 2019-01-18 at 16:25 -0500, Paul Frields wrote:
> That sounds fair to me, Greg. Do you have some ideas for other content
> you're interested in, whether along the lines of sysadmin solutions or
> something else?
>
> Paul
>
> On Wed, Jan 16, 2019 at 5:05 PM Gregory Lee Bartholomew
>  wrote:
> > On Wed, 2019-01-16 at 21:27 +0000, WordPress wrote:
> > > Adding a note from last week's meeting -- I think the consensus was that ZFS
> > > and a custom kernel (we think that's required?) were not something the editors
> > > felt we should strongly promote in Fedora, since it means the kernel taint
> > > flag is set. Can this be rethought with another compression option?
> >
> > The kernel does not have to be recompiled, but a module (zfs.ko) does. The
> > module, when loaded, does indeed taint the kernel. Here is the line that
> > displays in my dmesg output:
> >
> > znvpair: module license CDDL taints kernel.
> >
> > There is a "zfs-fuse" package available in the Fedora repositories and a quick
> > online search appears to show that it can be used to boot a zfs root (
> > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/zfs-fuse/Pngazp3mALw). But the solution
> > looks a bit too hackish for my taste.
> >
> > Here is an explanation of why zfs-fuse package is is allowed in Fedora, but
> > zfs.ko is not:
> > http://warpmech.com/?news=myth-busting-series-zfs-on-linux-has-license-probl...
> >
> > Btrfs was mentioned as a possibility, but I am a little weary of it. It looks
> > like RHEL is also deprecating it:
> > https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/htm...
> >
> > It looks like there is a possibility that Oracle may someday change the ZFS
> > license:
> > https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Oracle-ZFS-2017-Poss...
> >
> > My intention at the moment is to hold off on doing netboot pt. 5 and maybe
> > revisit the issue if Oracle does update the ZFS license.
> >
> > Thanks.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Fedora Magazine mailing list -- [e-mail]
> > To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> > Fedora Code of Conduct: https://getfedora.org/code-of-conduct.html
> > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> > List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail].o...

[Fedora Magazine] New Editorial Comment: "How to Build a Netboot Server, Part 5"

[Paul W. Frields]

I like this idea!

Paul

On Fri, Jan 18, 2019 at 03:39:23PM -0600, Gregory Lee Bartholomew wrote:
> I was considering a "Netboot a LiveCD" article. It would be a much simpler and
> shorter guide than the "full enchilada" that I provided in the previous series
> and it might suffice for some people's use cases.
>
> The howto would basically amount to tweaking the syslinux.cfg file on the
> downloaded LiveCD to include the "netroot=iscsi:..." parameter and then up
> loading the modified iso to the iscsi server. Then you can just use iPXE's
> "sanboot" command to netboot it.
>
> It would mainly be a convenience to sysadmins who wanted a "rescue/installation"
> netboot option for their workstations. Though it could also be used for a lab
> that just wanted a very basic readonly OS with a browser. Maybe also to
> developers who could use an archive of a bunch of older OS's/kernels/browsers
> for testing.
>
> What do you think?
>
> On Fri, 2019-01-18 at 16:25 -0500, Paul Frields wrote:
> > That sounds fair to me, Greg. Do you have some ideas for other content
> > you're interested in, whether along the lines of sysadmin solutions or
> > something else?
> >
> > Paul
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 16, 2019 at 5:05 PM Gregory Lee Bartholomew
> >  wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2019-01-16 at 21:27 +0000, WordPress wrote:
> > > > Adding a note from last week's meeting -- I think the consensus was that ZFS
> > > > and a custom kernel (we think that's required?) were not something the editors
> > > > felt we should strongly promote in Fedora, since it means the kernel taint
> > > > flag is set. Can this be rethought with another compression option?
> > >
> > > The kernel does not have to be recompiled, but a module (zfs.ko) does. The
> > > module, when loaded, does indeed taint the kernel. Here is the line that
> > > displays in my dmesg output:
> > >
> > > znvpair: module license CDDL taints kernel.
> > >
> > > There is a "zfs-fuse" package available in the Fedora repositories and a quick
> > > online search appears to show that it can be used to boot a zfs root (
> > > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/zfs-fuse/Pngazp3mALw). But the solution
> > > looks a bit too hackish for my taste.
> > >
> > > Here is an explanation of why zfs-fuse package is is allowed in Fedora, but
> > > zfs.ko is not:
> > > http://warpmech.com/?news=myth-busting-series-zfs-on-linux-has-license-probl...
> > >
> > > Btrfs was mentioned as a possibility, but I am a little weary of it. It looks
> > > like RHEL is also deprecating it:
> > > https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/htm...
> > >
> > > It looks like there is a possibility that Oracle may someday change the ZFS
> > > license:
> > > https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Oracle-ZFS-2017-Poss...
> > >
> > > My intention at the moment is to hold off on doing netboot pt. 5 and maybe
> > > revisit the issue if Oracle does update the ZFS license.
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Fedora Magazine mailing list -- [e-mail]
> > > To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> > > Fedora Code of Conduct: https://getfedora.org/code-of-conduct.html
> > > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> > > List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail].o...