perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Philip Papadopoulos <>]

FWIW,
I've created a Rocks roll for PerfSONAR (does not install the web100-modded kernel, since we often have other things that depend on the kernel and the mods introduce uncertainty (yes I know that the system then cannot be used as an NDT endpoint, but that seems OK).

I've updated this to 3.4rc2 for testing.   No significant issues, so far.

On another topic,
Do you have a write-up on configuring Cacti on 3.4rc2, seems that things have changed.

I've gotten as far as getting the message when trying to look at cacti graphs of
"Error: Web Basic Authentication configured, but no username was passed from the web server. Please make sure you have authentication enabled on the web server."

-P

On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 9:52 AM, Jason Zurawski <> wrote:

Thanks for the information, I will update document.

-jason

On Jul 23, 2014, at 10:59 AM, Trey Dockendorf <> wrote:

> 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:

--
Philip Papadopoulos, PhD
University of California, San Diego
858-822-3628 (Ofc)
619-331-2990 (Fax)