This is the process and overview of working through Cobbler to deploy a physical server or VM in the RHEV farm. This guide is not meant to include any pre-work on a server or inventory or post-install work with salt configuration and switch configurations.
To start deploying a server from scratch, refer to the Deployment Checklist. Any references to GTSWD or Simon should be ignored, as SALT has replaced these tools.
If you want documentation for deploying SALT on a server, refer to Deploy RHEL 9 With SALT.
Add to Cobbler
- Navigate to https://shoemaker.cc.gatech.edu/cobbler_web
- Sign in with GT credentials
- Navigate to "Systems" in the left-hand bar
- If you have a system you know fits what you want:
- Find that system and click "Copy"
- Set the name of your new host
- If there is not a system that fits what you want:
- Click "Create New System" at the top of the page
Verify the Cobbler configuration
- Name: This will set
$HOSTNAMEon the host - Profile: Determines OS and base metadata
- Use "RHEL9.0-x86_64-coc-salt"
- Netboot Enabled: Required for first/re-install
- Once the install successfully completes, this will become unchecked and will need to be re-enabled for future reinstalls
- Kickstart metadata: This will determine all of the variables we will use
- The available metadata options are detailed below
- Kickstart
- Leave as "inherit"
- Edit Interface: Should have name of network interface
- MAC Address: In
1f:1f:1f:1f:1f:1fformat, the MAC address that will be connecting to Cobbler
Save and sync!
Cobbler Metadata Options and Storage Configuration
| Variable Name | Default Value | Info |
|---|---|---|
| disks | sda | Comma-separated list of disks to use for OS installation. Defining two disks will create a RAID 1 setup. Do not prepend with "/dev/". E.g, "disks=sda,sdb" |
| swap_size | 8192 | Size in MiB of the swap space on the machine. Setting to "0" will not create any swap space during installation. |
| swap_part | 0 (False) | By default, a swap file ("/swapfile") will be created on the machine. Setting to 1 (True) will create a swap partition instead. Note: If using a swap partition, the value of "swap_size" will be doubled if there are two disks. E.g., "swap_part=1" |
| legacy | 0 (False) | By default, UEFI firmware is assumed to be available. Setting to 1 (True) will use Legacy hardware. Note: Installation will FAIL if this value has not been defined & the system is using Legacy firmware. |
| boot_size | 2048 | The size of the "/boot" partition in MiB |
| boot_size_efi | 1024 | The size of the "/boot/efi" partition in MiB |
| root_size | N/A | If defined, the size of the system's root partition ("/") in MiB. If undefined, the "/" partition will grow to fill the remaining disk space after any "tmp", "var", or "usr" definitions |
| tmp_size | N/A | If defined, the size of the system's "/tmp" partition in MiB. If undefined, no separate partition/logical volume (LV) will be created |
| var_size | N/A | If defined, the size of the system's "/var" partition in MiB. If undefined, no separate partition/LV will be created |
| usr_size | N/A | If defined, the size of the system's "/usr" partition in MiB. If undefined, no separate partition/LV will be created |
| home_size | N/A | If defined, the size of the system's "/home" partition in MiB. If undefined, no separate partition/LV will be created |
A space should separate all variable definitions. i.e., "var1=value var2=value"
Examples:
- (no metadata defined; defaults) - UEFI installation on a single "sda" disk. An 8 GiB "/swapfile" will be created. "/boot" will be 2GiB, and "/boot/efi" will be 1GiB. "/" will take the rest of the disk space.
- "disks=nvme0n1,nvme1n1 swap_part=1 var_size=4196" - UEFI installation on disks "nvme0n1" & "nvme1n1" as RAID 1. Two 8GiB swap partitions will be created—one on each disk for 16GiB of swap total. "/var" will be a 4GiB partition. "/boot" and "/boot/efi" will use default config. No separate "/usr", "/tmp", or "/home" partitions will be created. "/" will use the rest of the disk space.
- "disks=sdx,sdy swap_size=0 legacy=1 root_size=12288" - Legacy installation on disks "sdx" & "sdy" as RAID 1. No "/swapfile" or swap partition will be created. "/boot" will use the default config. No separate "/boot/efi", "/usr", "/tmp", "/home", or "/var" partitions will be created. "/" will use 12GiB of space. The remainder of the disk will be unallocated.
Troubleshooting and Figuring out Disk Names/NIC Names
If you don't know the disk names you need for OS installation, attempt to boot with the defaults and watch the console. The installer will fail to install and enter a crash mode. From a management console, you can enter a shell and run lsblk or ip a to get information about the drives and network interfaces. Update the metadata or network interface information and attempt to boot again.
For more troubleshooting tips, refer to the troubleshooting guide to get started.