Please provide better error logs / troubleshooting section for the "failed to fetch kickstart issue!

[ji-podhead]

i provided a process of systematically identifying and eliminating potential causes of the issue in this thread: Warning: Anaconda failed to fetch kickstart issue - #13 by ji-podhead

@ji-podhead

I believe another potential reason could be the deletion of the activation key, although this hasn’t been personally tested or reported yet.

Let’s break this down and provide a reasonable solution on how to debug this and identify the root cause:

If you encounter these logs in the production logs, as I mentioned in a previous post, it’s likely that you don’t have a DNS/network-related issue. It shouldn’t be possible for your PXE booting machine to report to the Foreman server or node you’re trying to provision without encountering such errors:

you can also try curl to see if your dns is responding

tail -f /var/log/foreman/production.log 

2024-05-29T10:57:40 [I|app|99a24a09] Started GET "/unattended/provision?token=1493e8d6-d45c-402f-97db-5a80aab4f093" for 192.168.2.104 at 2024-05-29 10:57:40 +0200
2024-05-29T10:57:40 [I|app|99a24a09] Processing by UnattendedController#host_template as TEXT
2024-05-29T10:57:40 [I|app|99a24a09]   Parameters: {"token"=>"1493e8d6-d45c-402f-97db-5a80aab4f093", "kind"=>"provision"}
2024-05-29T10:57:40 [E|app|99a24a09] unattended: unable to find a host that matches the request from 192.168.2.104
2024-05-29T10:57:40 [I|app|99a24a09]   Rendered text template (Duration: 0.0ms | Allocations: 1)
2024-05-29T10:57:40 [I|app|99a24a09] Completed 404 Not Found in 13ms (Views: 0.5ms | ActiveRecord: 6.1ms | Allocations: 2161)

• if you see those logs and you have discovered the machine before:

• get the mac of that machine and find out if theres some pxe config left in cd /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ (there should be a file/folder named after the machines mac to provide hardlink)

• if thats not the case you most likely have altered the pxe presets that is used by the os in foreman, or you have deleted activation key that was used by a previously provisioned machine

I am reaching out to request that the insights shared in this thread be integrated into the official documentation. The primary aim is to clarify the complexity surrounding the root cause of the error discussed, particularly highlighting how many individuals encounter the same error code yet face vastly different underlying issues.
I kindly request that this information be incorporated into the documentation or that future iterations of the boot image boot process and Foreman logging mechanisms include checks for these factors as part of their error handling processes. Specifically, documenting the steps for testing DNS responsiveness and checking the /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ directory could significantly aid in diagnosing similar issues in the future.

[ji-podhead]

i run into this error for a reason that wasn’t even reported yet and i was really confused when i read a statement by a user that lead me on a wrong path.
i had a forman anomaly which wasnt even my fault

ps: sorry for for the typo in the title: ! should be a "