Currently, the BMC adapter type requires a MAC address and IP Address when
added to a host. I would like to be able to supply a FQDN hostname
instead, and not have to supply the MAC. I'm using Dell servers with
iDRAC, and in our current provisioning workflow we have the iDRAC register
itself with DNS and static IP on a separate OOB network.
In this scenario, the MAC is useless to Foreman, and also the IP Address is
useless because there are times when the IP Address may be changed (at
which point, the DRAC would re-register the same A Record with a different
IP Address).
to be honest, I'm not familiar with other than IPMI BMC provider. But I think
we require MAC and IP not only for connecting to BMC but also for creating a
DHCP/DNS records. Recently there was added a "managed" flag to interfaces so in
your case it would probably make sense to have BMC interface flagged as
unmanaged (so no DHCP/DNS orchestration would be triggered for this
interface).
We could change validations to not require IP/MAC for unmanaged interfaces and
to use DNS name attribute when connecting to BMC if available. Would you mind
creating a RFE issue in our issue tracker [1] for this?
On Monday 03 of November 2014 07:16:24 lawre wrote:
Currently, the BMC adapter type requires a MAC address and IP Address when
added to a host. I would like to be able to supply a FQDN hostname
instead, and not have to supply the MAC. I’m using Dell servers with
iDRAC, and in our current provisioning workflow we have the iDRAC register
itself with DNS and static IP on a separate OOB network.
In this scenario, the MAC is useless to Foreman, and also the IP Address is
useless because there are times when the IP Address may be changed (at
which point, the DRAC would re-register the same A Record with a different
IP Address).
> Hello,
>
> to be honest, I'm not familiar with other than IPMI BMC provider. But I
> think
> we require MAC and IP not only for connecting to BMC but also for creating
> a
> DHCP/DNS records. Recently there was added a "managed" flag to interfaces
> so in
> your case it would probably make sense to have BMC interface flagged as
> unmanaged (so no DHCP/DNS orchestration would be triggered for this
> interface).
>
> We could change validations to not require IP/MAC for unmanaged interfaces
> and
> to use DNS name attribute when connecting to BMC if available. Would you
> mind
> creating a RFE issue in our issue tracker [1] for this?
>
> [1] http://projects.theforeman.org/
>
> –
> Marek
>
> > Currently, the BMC adapter type requires a MAC address and IP Address
> when
> > added to a host. I would like to be able to supply a FQDN hostname
> > instead, and not have to supply the MAC. I'm using Dell servers with
> > iDRAC, and in our current provisioning workflow we have the iDRAC
> register
> > itself with DNS and static IP on a separate OOB network.
> >
> > In this scenario, the MAC is useless to Foreman, and also the IP Address
> is
> > useless because there are times when the IP Address may be changed (at
> > which point, the DRAC would re-register the same A Record with a
> different
> > IP Address).
>
>
Is this the usage case where you start with a list of BMC devices prior to
host provisioning? e.g. do you want to first define the bmc interface
(regardless of a host) and then provision it via the bmc interface? (e.g.
skipping pxe, adding power management etc)?
Ohad
···
On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Marek Hulan wrote:
> On Monday 03 of November 2014 07:16:24 lawre wrote:
Thanks Marek, I have requested an account on the Redmine page, awaiting my
confirmation email. I assume you guys have to manually send these out?
···
On Wednesday, November 5, 2014 2:32:25 AM UTC-6, Marek Hulan wrote:
>
> We could change validations to not require IP/MAC for unmanaged interfaces
> and
> to use DNS name attribute when connecting to BMC if available. Would you
> mind
> creating a RFE issue in our issue tracker [1] for this?
>
>
Although you certainly give me food for thought, this is not my original
use case. In foreman, we first define the host by Serial Number of the
Motherboard (provided through the Discovery Image's facts), then add the
BMC.
We are exclusively a Dell PowerEdge house, so we will always have the
feature of iDRAC. The features that make iDRAC interesting in my use case:
Able to assign static IP Address, and define hostname, domain, DNS server
Ability to create, change and delete A Record with the hostname, IP, and
domain on the configured DNS Server, even in static IP mode. I assume the
method is the 'nsupdate' command or something similar installed on the
iDRAC. It works quite well. (I just noticed that my SuperMicro IPMI does
not provide DNS registration).
So, given the features, our workflow for provisioning new servers goes like
this:
Hardware installer racks and cables the server, then configured iDRAC.
The DNS name is something like* <SERIAL-NO>*.oob.example.net
HANDOFF: the DNS name of the iDRAC interface is recorded in our hardware
inventory system and is flagged as "Ready to Provision"
Where Foreman comes in: The system is PXE booted on one of the on-board
NICs and discovered
The system is then provisioned, with the hostname changed to <SERIAL-NO> (provided by the discovery images Serial No. fact). This is
the mechanism we are using to tie iDRAC to the Operating System:* iDRAC DNS
Hostname == OS Hostname*.
PROPOSED Now we would like to add the BMC interface to Foreman via
FQDN because it can be automatically derived from the hostname we just gave
it. Otherwise, we have to add a step that is not sustainable: resolve the
IP Address of the BMC FQDN, then hope that no one ever changes that IP
Address.
···
On Wednesday, November 5, 2014 3:24:16 AM UTC-6, ohad wrote:
>
> Is this the usage case where you start with a list of BMC devices prior to
> host provisioning? e.g. do you want to first define the bmc interface
> (regardless of a host) and then provision it via the bmc interface? (e.g.
> skipping pxe, adding power management etc)?
>
If that was a possible workflow, we would likely use it some of the time
for hardware that's been "racked up" but we aren't yet ready to provision.
We don't use foreman discovery because we're a small enough operation
that we want to be able to map the hostname of a baremetal node to front
and rear labels that are applied to the chassis during the 'rack and
stack'. Thus, we have to have some sort of record of the mac addresses
for that system. Sometimes we can get these off the outside of the
shipment box (supermicro is generally good about this for
"superservers") but not for all models and sometimes the vendor will
repack systems into the wrong box
As an example of our workflow, we're currently installing a bunch of
supermicro "microcloud chassis" that are a bit like a blade server
except the only shared resources are the PSUs. Neither the shipment
boxes nor the pull out id tags on each micro node lists the mac
addresses (they are printed on the PCBs if you pull the node out of the
chassis) so someone has to attach a crash cart to each node, enter into
the bios, find the IP address the BMC got a lease for, access the BMC
with a laptop, and cut'n'paste both the PXE interface(s) and BMC MACs
either into a spreadsheet or directly into foreman. Either way someone
has to sit down and key hostname, host mac, host ip, bmcname, bmc mac,
and bmc ip at least once.
I don't really see a good alternative to manual book keeping unless
someone comes up with a way for a chassis to introspect on it's cabinet
name / position. I could probably narrow the location down to the
cabinet by dumping the bridging tables from the top of rack switches but
that's not good enough for nodes that are running "classical" /
non-distrubuted applications. Ie, we need to be able to actually find
and fix database node that just had a raid controller failure.
As a side note, I just realized it would be really useful for foreman to
provide an "identify" button for bare metal nodes w/ BMC that blinks the
ID light.
-Josh
···
On 11/05/2014 02:24 AM, Ohad Levy wrote:
>
> Is this the usage case where you start with a list of BMC devices
> prior to host provisioning? e.g. do you want to first define the bmc
> interface (regardless of a host) and then provision it via the bmc
> interface? (e.g. skipping pxe, adding power management etc)?
--
I lived under impression that the registration is open and no confirmation is
required from our side. If it hasn't been delivered yet you should probably
contact us on #theforeman IRC channel so we can figure it out. Other emails
from redmine seems to be delivered just fine, at least to my mailbox
···
--
Marek
On Wednesday 05 of November 2014 13:48:01 lawre wrote:
On Wednesday, November 5, 2014 2:32:25 AM UTC-6, Marek Hulan wrote:
We could change validations to not require IP/MAC for unmanaged interfaces
and
to use DNS name attribute when connecting to BMC if available. Would you
mind
creating a RFE issue in our issue tracker [1] for this?
Thanks Marek, I have requested an account on the Redmine page, awaiting my
confirmation email. I assume you guys have to manually send these out?
