perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Jason Zurawski <>]

Hey Phil

If you would like to share a redacted version of the rocks documentation, I 
can post that as well.  

With regards to cacti, that is an error we haven't seen before.  can you send 
the contents of "/etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf"?  We don't have the final 
documentation ready for what will change with cacti, but will by the official 
3.4 release.  

Thanks;

-jason

On Jul 23, 2014, at 1:00 PM, Philip Papadopoulos 
<>
 wrote:

> 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)