Linux OS provisioning on remote location

Support
1

Problem:
Is it possible to do remote provisioning of Linux OS (RedHat/Ubuntu) on a laptop which is located outside enterprise network(for eg. user is located at home) using Foreman?

Expected outcome:
If yes pls share any details available for the same and Guidance on the network setup.
Foreman and Proxy versions:

Foreman and Proxy plugin versions:

Distribution and version:

Other relevant data:

2

I assume by “outside enterprise network” you mean some unmanaged network like peoples personal network at home?
If so, the only option I can currently think of which might work is foreman-bootdisk. With the per-host image options, you do not need DHCP (according to the docs), but you will need to find a way to get that image to the people with the laptop and get them to boot it from a USB drive or similar.
I have not done so personally, so I can’t tell for sure it it will work like this, but that’s the most likely option to work. All other bare-metal provisioning options require you to have at least some control over the network afaik.

3

Thanks @areyus for your response, yes I was referring to personal network only.
If we use foreman-bootdisk option, how will foreman connect with the machine reporting on personal network and will the boot disk medium have the complete ISO or some basic network configuration?
Also any suggestion on the type of network setup I have to do for foreman? like a DMZ setup or something else by which the foreman server will be able to connect with the device available on personal network.

4

As mentioned, I do not have personal experience with such a setup, so I can just make assumptions based on the docs.

  • What is in the ISO will depend on the type of image you generate, but it will never be a “full installation ISO”. Your best bet is probably the Full Host Image since you most likely will need EFI. That will contain the Bootloader files (which would normally be fetched from Foreman), but has the drawback that the image may become outdated.
  • There should be basic network configuration in the image, but that probably means you need to know peoples home network setup (netmask/network address). Maybe dynamic booting will work, the docs are rather vague about that.
  • You will at least need some sort of DMZ server that the clients can reach. That can be the Foreman server itself, but from my understanding a smart-proxy with the appropriate features (at least TFTP and templates, I would guess) should also work.