Re: cobbler kickstart does not pull in the http: ks file?

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Terry McIntyre wrote:
I've been trying to get a kickstart working with cobbler for a while,
and it just isn't working. I am totally missing something, but what?

Ok, so you're PXE'ing the system.... I don't have all the information I need to go on, so I'll start you off with some info and if you still
have problems we can take it from there.

In order for PXE to work, several conditions must be satisifed. "Cobbler check" looks after most of these and will let you know about most of the common setup problems. If you have not run "cobbler check", do so now and fix any errors it reports.

The most common problem is if your DHCP server does not set a "next-server" line, which is especially likely if DHCP is run from another box and is not under your control. If this happens, your server will be requesting PXE files from /another/ box or possibly none at all. The next-server in your DHCP config must point at your cobbler server. If using cobbler to manage a dhcp configuration, most of this is provided for you, and that information is included on the main cobbler page and on the Wiki... most likely you already
have working DHCP so you just need to talk with your DHCP admin.

First check to see that while your computer is booting, that it is contacting a server over TFTP and that this is your cobbler server.

As for your server requesting a dynamic IP when booting, this is normal, and is required in order to actually use PXE. The system will DHCP for the first time and then configure the system for a static IP on subsequent restarts. If you do not see your computer requesting a TFTP file while it is booting -- that's a DHCP problem.

If it successfully requests the kernel/initrd, goes into Anaconda, and then just doesn't request the kickstart file, that's more of an indication that the web server is not reachable from the install location -- which is a network problem. If that is the case, use a machine on the network to verify the kickstart file can be retrieved with wget/curl or a browser.

I also saw from IRC last night you're using a pretty old version of Cobbler -- PXE has worked fine in all versions, though you should upgrade to 0.8.2. It will make debugging easier and eliminate some potential communication errors when talking about things. The latest version of Cobbler is available in EPEL for both EL4 and 5 according to the instructions on the Cobbler download page.

Hopefully that helps, if not, let me know more info and we'll see if we can't fix you...

--Michael


The target system: IBM  x3850 M/T 8864
Trying to install RHEL 4.4

I added -vvvv flags to /etc/xinet.d/tftp to follow the progress of tftp

Apr  3 22:17:57 admin in.tftpd[3261]: RRQ from 192.168.62.172 filename
/pxelinux.0
Apr  3 22:17:57 admin in.tftpd[3261]: tftp: client does not accept options
Apr  3 22:17:57 admin in.tftpd[3262]: RRQ from 192.168.62.172 filename
/pxelinux.0
Apr  3 22:17:59 admin in.tftpd[3263]: RRQ from 192.168.62.172 filename
/pxelinux.cfg/01-00-14-5e-bc-69-e2
Apr  3 22:17:59 admin in.tftpd[3264]: RRQ from 192.168.62.172 filename
//images/rhel4.4/vmlinuz
Apr  3 22:17:59 admin in.tftpd[3265]: RRQ from 192.168.62.172 filename
//images/rhel4.4/initrd.img

-- which looks reasonable. All files listed above exist, and are
world-readable.

Contents of /pxelinux.cfg/01-00-14-5e-bc-69-e2

default linux
prompt 0
timeout 1
label linux
        kernel /images/rhel4.4/vmlinuz
        append ksdevice=eth0 lang=en_US text
syslog=192.168.63.57:25150  initrd=/images/rhel4.4/initrd.img
ks=http://192.168.63.57/cblr/kickstarts_sys/00:14:5e:bc:69:e2/ks.cfg

Now, when I put the
http://192.168.63.57/cblr/kickstarts_sys/00:14:5e:bc:69:e2/ks.cfg url
in my browser, it works. I also see a log entry at
/etc/http/logs/access_log when I request the page:

192.168.63.245 - - [03/Apr/2008:14:59:03 -0700] "GET
/cblr/kickstarts_sys/00:14:5e:bc:69:e2/ks.cfg HTTP/1.1" 200 1730 "-"
"Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.13) Gecko/20080325
Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.13"

When I boot the server from the network, I do not see a log entry for
the kickstart file, and it requests a dynamic IP address in spite of
the kickstart file specifying a static IP address.

#System  language
lang en_US
#Language modules to install
langsupport en_US
#System keyboard
keyboard us
#System mouse
mouse
#Sytem timezone
timezone --utc America/Los_Angeles
#Root password
rootpw changeme
#Reboot after installation
reboot
#Use text mode install
text
#Install OS instead of upgrade
install
#Use Web installation
url --url http://192.168.63.57/4.4/OneCd/
#System bootloader configuration
bootloader --location=mbr
#Clear the Master Boot Record
zerombr yes
#Partition clearing information
clearpart --all --initlabel
#Disk partitioning information
part / --fstype ext3 --size 5000
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 300
part swap --size 10240
part /var --fstype ext3 --size 5120
part /home --fstype ext3 --size 3036
part /opt --fstype ext3 --size 3036
part /usr --fstype ext3 --size 1 --grow
#System authorization infomation
auth  --useshadow  --enablemd5
network --bootproto=static --ip=192.168.62.172 --netmask=255.255.254.0
 --gateway=192.168.62.40 --nameserver=192.168.67.154 --device=eth0
--hostname=rac12.crm.bizsys.tmcs --onboot=on
#Firewall configuration
firewall --disabled
selinux --disabled
# disable the firstboot config
firstboot --disable
#Do not configure XWindows
skipx
#Package install information
%packages --resolvedeps
@ development-tools
@ admin-tools
@ system-tools
@ server-cfg
kernel-smp
grub
e2fsprogs
perl
lynx
postfix
sysstat
%post

hostname rac12.crm.bizsys.tmcs

rpm -e sendmail kudzu redhat-config-mouse kernel-pcmcia-cs ppp rp-pppoe \
        wvdial redhat-config-network-tui redhat-lsb

chkconfig keytable off
chkconfig rhnsd off
chkconfig iptables off
chkconfig xfs off
chkconfig gpm off
chkconfig --level 345 ntpd on
chkconfig --level 345 snmpd on
chkconfig --level 2345 postfix on


Thanks in advance for any assistance!





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