How to handle the life cycle of the physical server?

Support
1

Hello foreman users :wink:

Foreman is now one of the best tool I know to install an OS on a server automagically but I was wondering if we could go a little further.

When I want to install a new server, I need its mac. Two possibilities to find it :

  • I have the csv file (or xml or whatever) the vendor gave me and on it, the serials, the macs and the location (on which switch is it plugged ?)
  • I boot all the servers on a default OS and I get all this with facter (this could be done easily using pxelinux, as suggested by ohad on irc) and I can get the location using directly the switch or a tool like netdisco.

Personally I prefer the second option because there are always mistakes when someone writes something in a file by hand. That's the solution I'm currently using even if it's not connected to the foreman (for now).
If you choose this solution, I'd recommend to boot the servers in a "install" vlan to avoid problems in production vlans.

So if I run facter on all the servers I can add them to the hosts list. Then I would just need a kind of flag to say : that's a new server, you can use it.

What next ? We choose the server to install (with the great new search engine) but before installing the final OS, we might want to boot on some special distro to update the firmwares/bios, to set the raid or to run hardware diagnostics.
In order to do that I think the possibility of multiple PXE boot for one host would be useful http://theforeman.org/issues/show/983

When we uninstall a server we might want to reinstall it someday so we could put back the flag "I'm free" while doing the other uninstallation actions.

=== 2nd part : The admin interface ===

Something else we would need if we go this far is the management of the admin interfaces (ipmi,bmc,…). We could collect that using facter (it would require to add some ipmi module to facter, not too complicated). But it could be also great to be able to power on/off a server in foreman using ipmitools. I don't know how much work it represent. (or if I'm the only one interested in ipmi).

The two points (multiple pass for install and ipmi management) are implemented in the solution xcat (www.xcat.org). This is not really a foreman killer as it's mainly cluster oriented and has no webUI.

What do you think ? how do you list you physical servers before installation of the OS and after uninstallation ?

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2

>
> Hello foreman users :wink:
>
> Foreman is now one of the best tool I know to install an OS on a server
> automagically but I was wondering if we could go a little further.
>
> When I want to install a new server, I need its mac. Two possibilities to
> find it :
> * I have the csv file (or xml or whatever) the vendor gave me and on it,
> the serials, the macs and the location (on which switch is it plugged ?)
> * I boot all the servers on a default OS and I get all this with facter
> (this could be done easily using pxelinux, as suggested by ohad on irc) and
> I can get the location using directly the switch or a tool like netdisco.
>
>
> Personally I prefer the second option because there are always mistakes
> when someone writes something in a file by hand. That's the solution I'm
> currently using even if it's not connected to the foreman (for now).
> If you choose this solution, I'd recommend to boot the servers in a
> "install" vlan to avoid problems in production vlans.
>
who would switch the host from one vlan to another? is that a manual
process? or do you see foreman proxy communicating with switches as well?

>
> So if I run facter on all the servers I can add them to the hosts list.
> Then I would just need a kind of flag to say : that's a new server, you can
> use it.
>
> What next ? We choose the server to install (with the great new search
> engine) but before installing the final OS, we might want to boot on some
> special distro to update the firmwares/bios, to set the raid or to run
> hardware diagnostics.
> In order to do that I think the possibility of multiple PXE boot for one
> host would be useful http://theforeman.org/issues/show/983
>
> When we uninstall a server we might want to reinstall it someday so we
> could put back the flag "I'm free" while doing the other uninstallation
> actions.
>
>

> === 2nd part : The admin interface ===
>
> Something else we would need if we go this far is the management of the
> admin interfaces (ipmi,bmc,…). We could collect that using facter (it
> would require to add some ipmi module to facter, not too complicated). But
> it could be also great to be able to power on/off a server in foreman using
> ipmitools. I don't know how much work it represent. (or if I'm the only one
> interested in ipmi).
>
>
> The two points (multiple pass for install and ipmi management) are
> implemented in the solution xcat (www.xcat.org). This is not really a
> foreman killer as it's mainly cluster oriented and has no webUI.
>
>
>
> What do you think ? how do you list you physical servers before
> installation of the OS and after uninstallation ?
>
> sounds like the right way forward to me… I guess we should break it down
to smaller issues for example:

  • each host should know is management device (ilo, power managmement etc).
  • allow to define new entity for boot (e.g. for firmware upgrades etc)
  • support non managed hosts (e.g. availavble new host pool ) etc.
  • support fence-agents in the proxy
··· On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 1:02 AM, xim1 wrote:

Une messagerie gratuite, garantie à vie et des services en plus, ça vous
tente ?
Je crée ma boîte mail www.laposte.net

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