All;
I'm looking for thoughts on how to approach efficiently automating Katello
client creation. I have the following restrictions and/or goals:
a) Configuring a PXE environment is not allowable in my environment so I
lose the Foreman kickstart capability that would solve a lot of this issue.
b) We are fully VMware so I could pre-build an image that includes things
like the Puppet and Katello agents already pointed to the Katello server.
But, even then, I think there may need to be some post-instantiation logic
that needs to be run to customize the system.
Ideally, we'd have the most generic VM image possible to facilitate other
systems that aren't necessarily Katello clients. However, if we deployed a
Katello client from this VM we'd still need a way to facilitate registering
the system and deploying the Puppet and Katello agents.
I saw an option to create ISO installers from within Katello but it appears
that those would be very specific to a single system. Is there maybe some
hybrid approach were I can deploy the system from "[virtual] bare metal"
using an ISO + kickstart file but while also somehow passing customization
information to the system?
Thanks ahead of time!
-LJK
> From: "Lesley Kimmel" <lesley.j.kimmel@gmail.com>
> To: "Foreman users" <foreman-users@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 11:54:40 AM
> Subject: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
>
> All;
>
> I'm looking for thoughts on how to approach efficiently automating Katello
> client creation. I have the following restrictions and/or goals:
>
> a) Configuring a PXE environment is not allowable in my environment so I
> lose the Foreman kickstart capability that would solve a lot of this issue.
> b) We are fully VMware so I could pre-build an image that includes things
> like the Puppet and Katello agents already pointed to the Katello server.
> But, even then, I think there may need to be some post-instantiation logic
> that needs to be run to customize the system.
>
> Ideally, we'd have the most generic VM image possible to facilitate other
> systems that aren't necessarily Katello clients. However, if we deployed a
> Katello client from this VM we'd still need a way to facilitate registering
> the system and deploying the Puppet and Katello agents.
>
> I saw an option to create ISO installers from within Katello but it appears
> that those would be very specific to a single system. Is there maybe some
> hybrid approach were I can deploy the system from "[virtual] bare metal"
> using an ISO + kickstart file but while also somehow passing customization
> information to the system?
Have a look at PXEless discovery:
Foreman :: Plugin Manuals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZppAuz6kQ
You would boot the discovery ISO (which can actually have some hardcoded values like
the URL to use, etc with discovery-remaster, covered in the docs) and the host would
show up in Foreman as a Discovered host.
From there, you can provision it like a normal discovered host. No DHCP/TFTP/PXE
required.
···
----- Original Message -----
Thanks ahead of time!
-LJK
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Thanks for this input. This looks pretty cool and promising. I definitely
see the utility in making the systems known to Katello/Satellite and then
from the Katello console provide any relevant system information and allow
provisioning to complete. I wonder if it would be possible, via some API,
to push some of this required information into Katello from some other
orchestration technology (e.g. VMware vRealize Automation) to make this
more of a single step/interface process.
···
On Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 11:26:44 AM UTC-5, stephen wrote:
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Lesley Kimmel" <lesley....@gmail.com >
> > To: "Foreman users" <forema...@googlegroups.com >
> > Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 11:54:40 AM
> > Subject: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
> >
> > All;
> >
> > I'm looking for thoughts on how to approach efficiently automating
> Katello
> > client creation. I have the following restrictions and/or goals:
> >
> > a) Configuring a PXE environment is not allowable in my environment so I
> > lose the Foreman kickstart capability that would solve a lot of this
> issue.
> > b) We are fully VMware so I could pre-build an image that includes
> things
> > like the Puppet and Katello agents already pointed to the Katello
> server.
> > But, even then, I think there may need to be some post-instantiation
> logic
> > that needs to be run to customize the system.
> >
> > Ideally, we'd have the most generic VM image possible to facilitate
> other
> > systems that aren't necessarily Katello clients. However, if we deployed
> a
> > Katello client from this VM we'd still need a way to facilitate
> registering
> > the system and deploying the Puppet and Katello agents.
> >
> > I saw an option to create ISO installers from within Katello but it
> appears
> > that those would be very specific to a single system. Is there maybe
> some
> > hybrid approach were I can deploy the system from "[virtual] bare metal"
> > using an ISO + kickstart file but while also somehow passing
> customization
> > information to the system?
>
>
> Have a look at PXEless discovery:
>
>
> http://theforeman.org/plugins/foreman_discovery/5.0/index.html#5.3PXE-lessdiscovery
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZppAuz6kQ
>
>
> You would boot the discovery ISO (which can actually have some hardcoded
> values like
> the URL to use, etc with discovery-remaster, covered in the docs) and the
> host would
> show up in Foreman as a Discovered host.
>
> From there, you can provision it like a normal discovered host. No
> DHCP/TFTP/PXE
> required.
>
>
>
> > Thanks ahead of time!
> > -LJK
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups
> > "Foreman users" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an
> > email to foreman-user...@googlegroups.com .
> > To post to this group, send email to forema...@googlegroups.com
> .
> > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users.
> > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
> >
>
Here is a little script I put together to do discovery on existing systems.
It assumes you have facter installed.
Its not fancy but may be helpful as a place to start.
It took a while to find the "secret sauce" to get discover to accept the
post.
discoverme (939 Bytes)
···
On 04/07/2016 12:26 PM, Stephen Benjamin wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Lesley Kimmel"
>> To: "Foreman users"
>> Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 11:54:40 AM
>> Subject: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
>>
>> All;
>>
>> I'm looking for thoughts on how to approach efficiently automating Katello
>> client creation. I have the following restrictions and/or goals:
>>
>> a) Configuring a PXE environment is not allowable in my environment so I
>> lose the Foreman kickstart capability that would solve a lot of this issue.
>> b) We are fully VMware so I could pre-build an image that includes things
>> like the Puppet and Katello agents already pointed to the Katello server.
>> But, even then, I think there may need to be some post-instantiation logic
>> that needs to be run to customize the system.
>>
>> Ideally, we'd have the most generic VM image possible to facilitate other
>> systems that aren't necessarily Katello clients. However, if we deployed a
>> Katello client from this VM we'd still need a way to facilitate registering
>> the system and deploying the Puppet and Katello agents.
>>
>> I saw an option to create ISO installers from within Katello but it appears
>> that those would be very specific to a single system. Is there maybe some
>> hybrid approach were I can deploy the system from "[virtual] bare metal"
>> using an ISO + kickstart file but while also somehow passing customization
>> information to the system?
>
> Have a look at PXEless discovery:
>
> http://theforeman.org/plugins/foreman_discovery/5.0/index.html#5.3PXE-lessdiscovery
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZppAuz6kQ
>
>
> You would boot the discovery ISO (which can actually have some hardcoded values like
> the URL to use, etc with discovery-remaster, covered in the docs) and the host would
> show up in Foreman as a Discovered host.
>
> From there, you can provision it like a normal discovered host. No DHCP/TFTP/PXE
> required.
>
>
>
>> Thanks ahead of time!
>> -LJK
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "Foreman users" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>> email to foreman-users+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
>> To post to this group, send email to foreman-users@googlegroups.com.
>> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
–
Alvin Starr || voice: (905)513-7688
Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133
alvin@netvel.net ||
> From: "Lesley Kimmel" <lesley.j.kimmel@gmail.com>
> To: "Foreman users" <foreman-users@googlegroups.com>
> Cc: stephen@redhat.com
> Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 2:57:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
>
> Thanks for this input. This looks pretty cool and promising. I definitely
> see the utility in making the systems known to Katello/Satellite and then
> from the Katello console provide any relevant system information and allow
> provisioning to complete. I wonder if it would be possible, via some API,
> to push some of this required information into Katello from some other
> orchestration technology (e.g. VMware vRealize Automation) to make this
> more of a single step/interface process.
Foreman has discovery rules which if a host matches them (say, a new
host with > 32gb might be a mysql server), then have it immediately provision
once it's discovered.
And if the settings are baked into the Discovery ISO, then the step to
provision a new machine is just power it on.
···
----- Original Message -----
On Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 11:26:44 AM UTC-5, stephen wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: “Lesley Kimmel” <lesley....@gmail.com <javascript:>>
To: “Foreman users” <forema...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>>
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 11:54:40 AM
Subject: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
All;
I’m looking for thoughts on how to approach efficiently automating
Katello
client creation. I have the following restrictions and/or goals:
a) Configuring a PXE environment is not allowable in my environment so I
lose the Foreman kickstart capability that would solve a lot of this
issue.
b) We are fully VMware so I could pre-build an image that includes
things
like the Puppet and Katello agents already pointed to the Katello
server.
But, even then, I think there may need to be some post-instantiation
logic
that needs to be run to customize the system.
Ideally, we’d have the most generic VM image possible to facilitate
other
systems that aren’t necessarily Katello clients. However, if we deployed
a
Katello client from this VM we’d still need a way to facilitate
registering
the system and deploying the Puppet and Katello agents.
I saw an option to create ISO installers from within Katello but it
appears
that those would be very specific to a single system. Is there maybe
some
hybrid approach were I can deploy the system from "[virtual] bare metal"
using an ISO + kickstart file but while also somehow passing
customization
information to the system?
Have a look at PXEless discovery:
Foreman :: Plugin Manuals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZppAuz6kQ
You would boot the discovery ISO (which can actually have some hardcoded
values like
the URL to use, etc with discovery-remaster, covered in the docs) and the
host would
show up in Foreman as a Discovered host.
From there, you can provision it like a normal discovered host. No
DHCP/TFTP/PXE
required.
Thanks ahead of time!
-LJK
–
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups
"Foreman users" group.
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an
email to foreman-user...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>.
To post to this group, send email to forema...@googlegroups.com
<javascript:>.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
–
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What does this do for you exactly? It appears that it would make an already
existing system "known" to Katello but would it trigger the installation
and configuration of things like the Puppet and Katello agents? That stuff
all appears to be part of a bare-metal kickstart installation.
···
On Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 12:02:34 PM UTC-5, Alvin Starr wrote:
>
> Here is a little script I put together to do discovery on existing
> systems.
> It assumes you have facter installed.
>
> Its not fancy but may be helpful as a place to start.
> It took a while to find the "secret sauce" to get discover to accept the
> post.
>
> On 04/07/2016 12:26 PM, Stephen Benjamin wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Lesley Kimmel" <lesley....@gmail.com >
> >> To: "Foreman users" <forema...@googlegroups.com >
> >> Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 11:54:40 AM
> >> Subject: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
> >>
> >> All;
> >>
> >> I'm looking for thoughts on how to approach efficiently automating
> Katello
> >> client creation. I have the following restrictions and/or goals:
> >>
> >> a) Configuring a PXE environment is not allowable in my environment so
> I
> >> lose the Foreman kickstart capability that would solve a lot of this
> issue.
> >> b) We are fully VMware so I could pre-build an image that includes
> things
> >> like the Puppet and Katello agents already pointed to the Katello
> server.
> >> But, even then, I think there may need to be some post-instantiation
> logic
> >> that needs to be run to customize the system.
> >>
> >> Ideally, we'd have the most generic VM image possible to facilitate
> other
> >> systems that aren't necessarily Katello clients. However, if we
> deployed a
> >> Katello client from this VM we'd still need a way to facilitate
> registering
> >> the system and deploying the Puppet and Katello agents.
> >>
> >> I saw an option to create ISO installers from within Katello but it
> appears
> >> that those would be very specific to a single system. Is there maybe
> some
> >> hybrid approach were I can deploy the system from "[virtual] bare
> metal"
> >> using an ISO + kickstart file but while also somehow passing
> customization
> >> information to the system?
> >
> > Have a look at PXEless discovery:
> >
> >
> http://theforeman.org/plugins/foreman_discovery/5.0/index.html#5.3PXE-lessdiscovery
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZppAuz6kQ
> >
> >
> > You would boot the discovery ISO (which can actually have some hardcoded
> values like
> > the URL to use, etc with discovery-remaster, covered in the docs) and
> the host would
> > show up in Foreman as a Discovered host.
> >
> > From there, you can provision it like a normal discovered host. No
> DHCP/TFTP/PXE
> > required.
> >
> >
> >
> >> Thanks ahead of time!
> >> -LJK
> >>
> >> --
> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups
> >> "Foreman users" group.
> >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an
> >> email to foreman-user...@googlegroups.com .
> >> To post to this group, send email to forema...@googlegroups.com
> .
> >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users.
> >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
> >>
>
> --
> Alvin Starr || voice: (905)513-7688
> Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133
> al...@netvel.net ||
>
>
It looks like the discover rules are pretty good for getting you a system
mostly set up (placed in a host group). It also may work well if you have a
fluid environment where you can actually use the auto hostname generation
feature/templates. However, if you want a user/customer to be able to
specify a hostname, in the 3rd party self-service tool I mentioned, then
there needs to be a way to automate the feeding of that information into
Katello.
For you second point, customizing the Discovery ISO with all of those
specifics, then you lose the the more flexible nature of this new feature.
At that point it basically looks the same as the previously available
Bootdisk feature which required that a system-specific ISO image be
created for each system to be deployed.
···
On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 2:07 PM, Stephen Benjamin wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: “Lesley Kimmel” lesley.j.kimmel@gmail.com
To: “Foreman users” foreman-users@googlegroups.com
Cc: stephen@redhat.com
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 2:57:49 PM
Subject: Re: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
Thanks for this input. This looks pretty cool and promising. I definitely
see the utility in making the systems known to Katello/Satellite and then
from the Katello console provide any relevant system information and
allow
provisioning to complete. I wonder if it would be possible, via some API,
to push some of this required information into Katello from some other
orchestration technology (e.g. VMware vRealize Automation) to make this
more of a single step/interface process.
Foreman has discovery rules which if a host matches them (say, a new
host with > 32gb might be a mysql server), then have it immediately
provision
once it’s discovered.
And if the settings are baked into the Discovery ISO, then the step to
provision a new machine is just power it on.
On Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 11:26:44 AM UTC-5, stephen wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: “Lesley Kimmel” <lesley....@gmail.com <javascript:>>
To: “Foreman users” <forema...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>>
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 11:54:40 AM
Subject: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
All;
I’m looking for thoughts on how to approach efficiently automating
Katello
client creation. I have the following restrictions and/or goals:
a) Configuring a PXE environment is not allowable in my environment
so I
lose the Foreman kickstart capability that would solve a lot of this
issue.
b) We are fully VMware so I could pre-build an image that includes
things
like the Puppet and Katello agents already pointed to the Katello
server.
But, even then, I think there may need to be some post-instantiation
logic
that needs to be run to customize the system.
Ideally, we’d have the most generic VM image possible to facilitate
other
systems that aren’t necessarily Katello clients. However, if we
deployed
a
Katello client from this VM we’d still need a way to facilitate
registering
the system and deploying the Puppet and Katello agents.
I saw an option to create ISO installers from within Katello but it
appears
that those would be very specific to a single system. Is there maybe
some
hybrid approach were I can deploy the system from “[virtual] bare
metal”
using an ISO + kickstart file but while also somehow passing
customization
information to the system?
Have a look at PXEless discovery:
Foreman :: Plugin Manuals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZppAuz6kQ
You would boot the discovery ISO (which can actually have some
hardcoded
values like
the URL to use, etc with discovery-remaster, covered in the docs) and
the
host would
show up in Foreman as a Discovered host.
From there, you can provision it like a normal discovered host. No
DHCP/TFTP/PXE
required.
Thanks ahead of time!
-LJK
–
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups
"Foreman users" group.
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Yes sort of.
I had a need for importing existing systems and creating them manually
was a bit of a pain.
I figured that if I could run the discovery code it could import enough
to let me run a simple script on the systems to make them known to Foreman.
There is no point on doing this with bare metal systems because the pxe
install process does it all.
···
On 04/07/2016 02:54 PM, Lesley Kimmel wrote:
> What does this do for you exactly? It appears that it would make an
> already existing system "known" to Katello but would it trigger the
> installation and configuration of things like the Puppet and Katello
> agents? That stuff all appears to be part of a bare-metal kickstart
> installation.
>
> On Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 12:02:34 PM UTC-5, Alvin Starr wrote:
>
> Here is a little script I put together to do discovery on existing
> systems.
> It assumes you have facter installed.
>
> Its not fancy but may be helpful as a place to start.
> It took a while to find the "secret sauce" to get discover to
> accept the
> post.
>
> On 04/07/2016 12:26 PM, Stephen Benjamin wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Lesley Kimmel" <lesley....@gmail.com >
> >> To: "Foreman users" <forema...@googlegroups.com >
> >> Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 11:54:40 AM
> >> Subject: [foreman-users] Opinions on Katello Client Creation
> >>
> >> All;
> >>
> >> I'm looking for thoughts on how to approach efficiently
> automating Katello
> >> client creation. I have the following restrictions and/or goals:
> >>
> >> a) Configuring a PXE environment is not allowable in my
> environment so I
> >> lose the Foreman kickstart capability that would solve a lot of
> this issue.
> >> b) We are fully VMware so I could pre-build an image that
> includes things
> >> like the Puppet and Katello agents already pointed to the
> Katello server.
> >> But, even then, I think there may need to be some
> post-instantiation logic
> >> that needs to be run to customize the system.
> >>
> >> Ideally, we'd have the most generic VM image possible to
> facilitate other
> >> systems that aren't necessarily Katello clients. However, if we
> deployed a
> >> Katello client from this VM we'd still need a way to facilitate
> registering
> >> the system and deploying the Puppet and Katello agents.
> >>
> >> I saw an option to create ISO installers from within Katello
> but it appears
> >> that those would be very specific to a single system. Is there
> maybe some
> >> hybrid approach were I can deploy the system from "[virtual]
> bare metal"
> >> using an ISO + kickstart file but while also somehow passing
> customization
> >> information to the system?
> >
> > Have a look at PXEless discovery:
> >
> >
> http://theforeman.org/plugins/foreman_discovery/5.0/index.html#5.3PXE-lessdiscovery
>
>
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZppAuz6kQ
>
> >
> >
> > You would boot the discovery ISO (which can actually have some
> hardcoded values like
> > the URL to use, etc with discovery-remaster, covered in the
> docs) and the host would
> > show up in Foreman as a Discovered host.
> >
> > From there, you can provision it like a normal discovered host.
> No DHCP/TFTP/PXE
> > required.
> >
> >
> >
> >> Thanks ahead of time!
> >> -LJK
> >>
> >> --
> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> Google Groups
> >> "Foreman users" group.
> >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from
> it, send an
> >> email to foreman-user...@googlegroups.com .
> >> To post to this group, send email to forema...@googlegroups.com
> .
> >> Visit this group at
> https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users
> .
> >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout
> .
> >>
>
> --
> Alvin Starr || voice: (905)513-7688
> Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133
> al...@netvel.net ||
>
–
Alvin Starr || voice: (905)513-7688
Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133
alvin@netvel.net ||
