[gentoo-installer] how to setup deployment server

[gentoo-installer] how to setup deployment server

[Gavin Seo]

Does anyone have any documentation/guides on how to setup a automated
deployment server?  I currently want to install gentoo on 30 nodes, I have
an existing machine running gentoo that has identical hardware to the 30
nodes that need gentoo system installed. If anyone has experience in
setting up a deployment server, it would be greatly appreciated if you
would share your experience.

Thank you!
Gavin



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Re: [gentoo-installer] how to setup deployment server

[Sven Vermeulen]

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On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 04:24:13PM -1000, Gavin Seo wrote:
> Does anyone have any documentation/guides on how to setup a automated
> deployment server?  I currently want to install gentoo on 30 nodes, I have
> an existing machine running gentoo that has identical hardware to the 30
> nodes that need gentoo system installed. If anyone has experience in
> setting up a deployment server, it would be greatly appreciated if you
> would share your experience.

I have some experience on a quite similar field. The entire network is using
the same DHCP server; when the system boots from the network (which is only
allowed with the appropriate credentials af course) a small Linux image is
downloaded and started. 

That image fires up the machine, connects to a PartImage server and places
an image on the file system. The image itself is not tied to a particular
host as all configuration specific to the system is obtained from LDAP or
otherwise.

However, due to the lack of PartImage development speed, I am contemplating
on developing something more robust and flexible, so I am also interested in
hearing from others...

Wkr,
      Sven Vermeulen

-- 
  Gentoo Foundation Trustee          |  http://foundation.gentoo.org
  Gentoo Council Member  

  The Gentoo Project   <<< http://www.gentoo.org >>>

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Re: [gentoo-installer] how to setup deployment server

[Tom McDonald]

Sven Vermeulen wrote:

>On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 04:24:13PM -1000, Gavin Seo wrote:
>  
>
>>Does anyone have any documentation/guides on how to setup a automated
>>deployment server?  I currently want to install gentoo on 30 nodes, I have
>>an existing machine running gentoo that has identical hardware to the 30
>>nodes that need gentoo system installed. If anyone has experience in
>>setting up a deployment server, it would be greatly appreciated if you
>>would share your experience.
>>    
>>
>
>I have some experience on a quite similar field. The entire network is using
>the same DHCP server; when the system boots from the network (which is only
>allowed with the appropriate credentials af course) a small Linux image is
>downloaded and started. 
>
>That image fires up the machine, connects to a PartImage server and places
>an image on the file system. The image itself is not tied to a particular
>host as all configuration specific to the system is obtained from LDAP or
>otherwise.
>
>However, due to the lack of PartImage development speed, I am contemplating
>on developing something more robust and flexible, so I am also interested in
>hearing from others...
>
>Wkr,
>      Sven Vermeulen
>
>  
>
Check out systemImager on source forge.

Tom

-- 

Tom McDonald <mickeyd@compuclaim.com>


The last person who said that (God rest his soul) lived to regret it.

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Re: [gentoo-installer] how to setup deployment server

[Chris Gianelloni]

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On Thu, 2006-01-12 at 04:39 -0600, Tom McDonald wrote:
> Sven Vermeulen wrote:
> 
> >On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 04:24:13PM -1000, Gavin Seo wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>Does anyone have any documentation/guides on how to setup a automated
> >>deployment server?  I currently want to install gentoo on 30 nodes, I have
> >>an existing machine running gentoo that has identical hardware to the 30
> >>nodes that need gentoo system installed. If anyone has experience in
> >>setting up a deployment server, it would be greatly appreciated if you
> >>would share your experience.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >I have some experience on a quite similar field. The entire network is using
> >the same DHCP server; when the system boots from the network (which is only
> >allowed with the appropriate credentials af course) a small Linux image is
> >downloaded and started. 
> >
> >That image fires up the machine, connects to a PartImage server and places
> >an image on the file system. The image itself is not tied to a particular
> >host as all configuration specific to the system is obtained from LDAP or
> >otherwise.
> >
> >However, due to the lack of PartImage development speed, I am contemplating
> >on developing something more robust and flexible, so I am also interested in
> >hearing from others...
> >
> >Wkr,
> >      Sven Vermeulen
> >
> >  
> >
> Check out systemImager on source forge.

I have setup such a system for a previous employer.  Unfortunately, I
have not gotten permission to distribute it as an open source project
outside of the company.  Anyway, it is really fairly simple..

First, I built a custom kernel, using genkernel.  I used the initramfs
overlay option to add my own files to the initramfs, along with my own
linurc.  Essentially, I only extended genkernel's linuxrc to make it
fire up a bunch of extra scripts at the end.  The scripts determine the
architecture type of the machine, then proceed to download the latest
version of a stage4 tarball from a web location specified in the kernel
command line (similar to kickstart).  This allows for multiple server
types per architecture.  The drives are partitioned and the file-system
is built, then the tarball is uncompressed onto the file-system.  The
system boots via DHCP and reports its IP address to DNS using DDNS.  It
also fires off a provisioning script for our DHCP server to setup a
reservation.  After that, the bootloader is installed on the system, and
upon completion, the system sends an email to a specified address, then
reboots.  Of course, we also use LDAP for authentication, and store most
of our information in either LDAP or on large filers running NFS, so
configuration isn't as much of an issue, though the tarballs are
pre-configured.

Since this doesn't use any form of imaging, it is actually quite quick,
and also allows for any type of file-system supported by the kernel to
be used.

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
x86 Architecture Team
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux

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Re: [gentoo-installer] how to setup deployment server

[Preston Cody]

> > >>Does anyone have any documentation/guides on how to setup a automated
> > >>deployment server?  I currently want to install gentoo on 30 nodes, I have
> > >>an existing machine running gentoo that has identical hardware to the 30
> > >>nodes that need gentoo system installed. If anyone has experience in
> > >>setting up a deployment server, it would be greatly appreciated if you
> > >>would share your experience.

GLI Status Update:
Just so you guys know, this functionality has been one of the primary
goals of the installer project since the beginning.  It has been
backburnered for quite some time while we got the desktop-end up and
running.  Now that it is almost stable, we have been shifting our
focus to getting automated mass-installs working.  We have already
successfully completed a remote installs over XMLRPC.  I just need to
finish up the UI so it's nice and useable.  The netboot aspect will
take a little while longer to set up, but rest assured we are working
on it... or talking about working on it. :)
-Codeman

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