perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Trey Dockendorf <>]

Jason,

I have this working, but not yet "refined".

Basic steps:

mkdir /mnt/perfsonar
mount -o loop pS-Performance_Toolkit-3.3.2-NetInstall-x86_64.iso 
/mnt/perfsonar
mkdir /tmp/perfsonar
cd /tmp/perfsonar
cat /mnt/perfsonar/isolinux/initrd.img | xz --format=lzma --decompress 
--stdout | cpio -id

# There will be a 'centos6-netinstall.cfg' file in /tmp/perfsonar
# Edit file

Since I'm using Foreman (steps probably similar for Cobbler users) my 
PXELinux files are automatically generated, and look like this:

-----
default linux
label linux
kernel boot/CentOS-6.5-x86_64-vmlinuz
append initrd=boot/CentOS-6.5-x86_64-initrd.img ks=http://<FOREMAN 
FQDN>:80/unattended/provision ksdevice=bootif network kssendmac
IPAPPEND 2
-----

The files CentOS-6.5-x86_64-vmlinuz and CentOS-6.5-x86_64-initrd.img come 
from a CentOS mirror's "6/os/x86_64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz" and 
"6/os/x86_64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img".

Can likely also use files from "/mnt/perfsonar/images/pxeboot" once the 
perfsonar ISO is mounted.

The kickstart file can be modified in various ways...here's example of what I 
changed:

* Added "--proxy=http://squid.fqdn:3128"; to "url" line and "repo" lines so 
that provisioning behind restricted NAT could reach external repos
* Set timezone to "America/Chicago" (CST)
* Changed auth line to "authconfig --enableshadow --passalgo=sha512"
* Set "rootpw" line
* Set partitioning to give 500MB to /boot, "--recommended" to swap and rest 
to / [1]
* Add "network" line to set IP for public interface which was not used to 
kickstart
* Remove "interactive" line
* Add "reboot" line

In the %post section:

* Remove all items having to do with resizing filesystem and /home
* chkconfig sshd on

[1]: Partitions

bootloader --location=mbr 

zerombr
clearpart --all --initlabel
part /boot --fstype=ext4 --size=500 --asprimary
part / --fstype=ext4 --size=1 --grow --asprimary
part swap --recommended

More to come later.  Now that I see how the NetInstall is performed it seems 
rather trivial to setup a Puppet module to do the exact same thing since 
everything is packaged as an RPM.

- Trey

=============================

Trey Dockendorf 
Systems Analyst I 
Texas A&M University 
Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies 
Phone: (979)458-2396 
Email: 

 
Jabber: 


----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jason Zurawski" 
> <>
> To: "Trey Dockendorf" 
> <>
> Cc: 
> 
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 7:32:02 AM
> Subject: Re: [perfsonar-user] PXE booting NetInstall & automated install
> 
> Hi Trey;
> 
> The community supplied documentation was for the previous version of
> the toolkit software (3.2.x), so there are bound to be differences
> between the underlying CentOS 5 and 6 operating systems.  If you are
> able to get this working, I would be happy to include any notes you
> make during the process into that document so it can be useful to
> others.
> 
> Thanks;
> 
> -jason
> 
> On Jul 21, 2014, at 7:53 PM, Trey Dockendorf 
> <>
> wrote:
> 
> > Jason,
> > 
> > Thanks, that does help.  The steps in that document are slightly
> > different than what I'm finding in the 3.3.2 image.  For example
> > the ks file in that PDF doesn't exist.
> > 
> > I found a kickstart file in isolinux/initrd.img, named
> > 'centos6-netinstall.cfg'.  Should that file and a CentOS 6.5
> > initrd be enough to kickstart a perfsonar box as if it was
> > NetInstalled?  I also noticed the bulk of the NetInstall ISO's
> > size is "images/install.img" but I don't see it referenced in any
> > of the cfg files or the kickstart file...so likely some normal
> > syslinux behavior being used that I'm just unfamiliar with.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > - Trey
> > 
> > =============================
> > 
> > Trey Dockendorf
> > Systems Analyst I
> > Texas A&M University
> > Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies
> > Phone: (979)458-2396
> > Email: 
> > 
> > Jabber: 
> > 
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Jason Zurawski" 
> >> <>
> >> To: "Trey Dockendorf" 
> >> <>
> >> Cc: 
> >> 
> >> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 4:14:19 PM
> >> Subject: Re: [perfsonar-user] PXE booting NetInstall & automated
> >> install
> >> 
> >> Hi Trey;
> >> 
> >> The perfSONAR project has found that everyone does things slightly
> >> different, and as a result of that we try to make the toolkit as
> >> fungible as possible to support all of the various approaches to
> >> configuration management.  We know of people using puppet and
> >> cfengine, they may be able to post recipes that are specific to
> >> their use case.
> >> 
> >> I can note that engineers from Penn State provided us a very
> >> detailed
> >> write up of the approach they took to netbooting images for their
> >> statewide deployment, I have posted a PDF on this page:
> >> 
> >> http://psps.perfsonar.net/toolkit/use-cases.html
> >> 
> >> Hope this helps to get you started, and hopefully others can chime
> >> in
> >> as well.
> >> 
> >> Thanks;
> >> 
> >> -jason
> >> 
> >> On Jul 21, 2014, at 4:58 PM, Trey Dockendorf 
> >> <>
> >> wrote:
> >> 
> >>> Is it possible to PXE boot the NetInstall CD, and if so does
> >>> anyone
> >>> have some steps on making the ISO into something that can be used
> >>> with PXE?
> >>> 
> >>> I manage all my systems and all provisioning through Foreman, so
> >>> it
> >>> would be ideal if our PerfSONAR boxes could also be provisioned
> >>> within Foreman.
> >>> 
> >>> Does PerfSONAR support any kind of automated installation, or is
> >>> it
> >>> feasible to install the software on top of a stock CentOS 6.5
> >>> host
> >>> and have it function like it was installed via NetInstall method?
> >>> It would be very useful if I could manage our PerfSONAR boxes
> >>> using Puppet :)
> >>> 
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> - Trey
> >>> 
> >>> =============================
> >>> 
> >>> Trey Dockendorf
> >>> Systems Analyst I
> >>> Texas A&M University
> >>> Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies
> >>> Phone: (979)458-2396
> >>> Email: 
> >>> 
> >>> Jabber: 
> >>> 
>