Why do a hostgroup AND a host both require an environment? (and a DHCP question)

I'm just in the process of setting up my first Foreman system to test
with, and it's looking really nice so far… a couple of questions
though:

  1. Is there any way to have the smart-proxy register hosts? In my own
    home-brew system, the default DHCP settings direct an unknown host to
    a pxelinux file and centos ks file where all that happens is the post
    script runs dmidecode, and fetches a URL to register itself with the
    build system, then keep trying to wait for confirmation that there's
    now a valid config for the host. Is there something similar with
    Foreman? I guess with the REST API I could modify my existing setup,
    but it'd be cool if there's already a little floppy image for this…
    (also, how would a default DHCP setup like that play with Foreman's
    own DHCP changes?) - So it'd be a little client that registers the MAC
    address and hardware info, copying the rest of the information from a
    template host. It just saves collecting all those MAC addresses
    manually :slight_smile:

  2. Why do hosts AND hostgroups have an environment? What will happen
    if they are set differently? Why can't I just have the host inherit
    it's environment from the host group? Or am I misunderstanding the
    distinction? I have 3 environments, and so far I've been creating sets
    of 3 hostgroups - dev, test, prod - for each actual function/location/
    customer grouping. This does feel a bit wrong.

Thanks in advance for any pointers from the old hands…

Howie

> I'm just in the process of setting up my first Foreman system to test
> with, and it's looking really nice so far… a couple of questions
> though:
>
Welcome aboard :slight_smile:

>
> 1) Is there any way to have the smart-proxy register hosts? In my own
> home-brew system, the default DHCP settings direct an unknown host to
> a pxelinux file and centos ks file where all that happens is the post
> script runs dmidecode, and fetches a URL to register itself with the
> build system, then keep trying to wait for confirmation that there's
> now a valid config for the host. Is there something similar with
> Foreman? I guess with the REST API I could modify my existing setup,
> but it'd be cool if there's already a little floppy image for this…
> (also, how would a default DHCP setup like that play with Foreman's
> own DHCP changes?) - So it'd be a little client that registers the MAC
> address and hardware info, copying the rest of the information from a
> template host. It just saves collecting all those MAC addresses
> manually :slight_smile:
>
That is Feature #983: Need 3 state support in tftp and build management - Foreman, we would love to get support for
that built in foreman itself.

> 2) Why do hosts AND hostgroups have an environment? What will happen
> if they are set differently? Why can't I just have the host inherit
> it's environment from the host group? Or am I misunderstanding the
> distinction? I have 3 environments, and so far I've been creating sets
> of 3 hostgroups - dev, test, prod - for each actual function/location/
> customer grouping. This does feel a bit wrong.
>
I think the environment in the hostgroups is used for:

  1. making sure that you see only the modules/classes the belongs to a
    specific environment.
  2. as a default place holder for a host.

You can change the host environment if you wish (same like other attributes)
but the hostgroup is kind of a way to set defaults.

··· On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Howard Jones wrote:

Thanks in advance for any pointers from the old hands…

Howie


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