We are looking for a script/tool/solution that would allow us to auto-install
a linux, freeBSD or Windows bootable image (or bootable setup script?) onto
a blade(s) in a bladeserver (HW vendor neutral) from a management server.

We have seen PXE, tftp, nfs etc. which are the building blocks BUT has anyone
put together a package that lets us map which blade/IP/MAC host gets which OS
installed plus updates plus latest config changes etc. or are there any
commercial packages that can do what we require?

Thanx

Iain

--
+49-172-8196039 Skype: iain.lea

"When ideas fail, words can come in handy"
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Iain Lea" <iain@bricbrac.de> wrote in message
news:dr2co4$qmv$00$1@news.t-online.com...
> We are looking for a script/tool/solution that would allow us to
> auto-install
> a linux, freeBSD or Windows bootable image (or bootable setup script?)
> onto
> a blade(s) in a bladeserver (HW vendor neutral) from a management server.
>
> We have seen PXE, tftp, nfs etc. which are the building blocks BUT has
> anyone
> put together a package that lets us map which blade/IP/MAC host gets which
> OS
> installed plus updates plus latest config changes etc. or are there any
> commercial packages that can do what we require?

Sounds like you need to set up your PXE/DHCP to associate specific MAC
addresses with specific hostnames, then set up your DHCP address ranges
appropriately with resulting behavior. I've had *excellent* results with
this: the one missing bit that has to be written by hand is the bit that
says "this hostname gets this IP address, which translates to this
hexadecimal name for the PXE setup, which gets that particular configuration
file". I've done it myself, using Makefiles and symlinks for hostnames to
the desired configurations.

I've also done this across large networks of hundreds, even thousands of
machines by creating post-installation setup scrupts that do things based on
hostname or by contacting a server. Others use the "cfengine" tool, for
post-installing and reconfiguring things on a daily or hourly basis.

In comp.os.linux.misc Iain Lea <iain@bricbrac.de>:
> We are looking for a script/tool/solution that would allow us to auto-install
> a linux, freeBSD or Windows bootable image (or bootable setup script?) onto
> a blade(s) in a bladeserver (HW vendor neutral) from a management server.

> We have seen PXE, tftp, nfs etc. which are the building blocks BUT has anyone
> put together a package that lets us map which blade/IP/MAC host gets which OS
> installed plus updates plus latest config changes etc. or are there any
> commercial packages that can do what we require?

Not aware of any ready to go package, but this works quite nice
for me using DHCP/PXE/tftp/http to install Linux. RH kickstart
has so far proven to be the easiest maintaining, due to the fact
that the important %post part is just a simple bash script, so
you can do anything you want, patching the complete system using
yum, adding all your users, just anything you can think of.

To give you an idea, there's a kickstart configurator (GUI) for
basic setup and you can look into /root/anakonda.ks after
manually installing some box, which is the kickstart file you can
use for further installing or/and as example to roll your own.

On the other hand, presuming those blades are all the same, you
could just install one to your needs, make an image and blow this
over the network onto others. AFAIK this doesn't work with doze,
but fine with Linux and *BSD.


BTW
Please don't set response to poster, this is very annoying for
anyone who's looking for something like this in the future,
searching groups.google.com and just finding the question but
zero answer.

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 21: POSIX compliance problem

Michael Heiming wrote:
> In comp.os.linux.misc Iain Lea <iain@bricbrac.de>:
>
>>We are looking for a script/tool/solution that would allow us to auto-install
>>a linux, freeBSD or Windows bootable image (or bootable setup script?) onto
>>a blade(s) in a bladeserver (HW vendor neutral) from a management server.
>
>
>>We have seen PXE, tftp, nfs etc. which are the building blocks BUT has anyone
>>put together a package that lets us map which blade/IP/MAC host gets which OS
>>installed plus updates plus latest config changes etc. or are there any
>>commercial packages that can do what we require?
>
>
> Not aware of any ready to go package, but this works quite nice
> for me using DHCP/PXE/tftp/http to install Linux. RH kickstart
> has so far proven to be the easiest maintaining, due to the fact
> that the important %post part is just a simple bash script, so
> you can do anything you want, patching the complete system using
> yum, adding all your users, just anything you can think of.
>
> To give you an idea, there's a kickstart configurator (GUI) for
> basic setup and you can look into /root/anakonda.ks after
> manually installing some box, which is the kickstart file you can
> use for further installing or/and as example to roll your own.
>
> On the other hand, presuming those blades are all the same, you
> could just install one to your needs, make an image and blow this
> over the network onto others. AFAIK this doesn't work with doze,
> but fine with Linux and *BSD.
>
>
> BTW
> Please don't set response to poster, this is very annoying for
> anyone who's looking for something like this in the future,
> searching groups.google.com and just finding the question but
> zero answer.
>

Has the OP looked at "frisbee" on emulab.net?

/dan