[Users] Pxeboot

[Mike Burns]

On Wed, 2012-02-08 at 10:51 -0800, Li, David wrote:
> Mike,
> 
> I 'd like to understand what it takes to do this. 
> Do we need a special initramfs for oVirt node to help with the stateless pxeboot? Some tools like Dracut and Dracut-network to create such an initramfs? 

There are a few things needed, many of which are discussed on the
Node_Stateless wiki page.  There was some work done by some other people
to get a stateless node working for archipel that I haven't pulled back
into the node yet.  

The biggest challenge is that pieces of the oVirt project require there
to be persistent storage locally.  For example, when you register a node
with the engine, a manual step is required to approve the node.  After
this manual step, some certificates are copied locally into the node and
stored.  That way, the node can immediately identify itself with the
engine and start working with no need to identify itself.  

To solve this problem, we need to either 
1.  remove the need to store stuff locally
2.  provide some way to package up this config and store it somewhere,
then retrieve on boot
3.  embed some sort of key or certificate in the pxe image that allows
the engine to know that this valid machine and automatically approve it.

The archipel stuff doesn't deal with all of that.  My understanding is
that they just start using whatever clients identify themselves.

I do have a task on my plate to pull the stuff from archipel-node back
into ovirt-node and incorporate what they've done into the overall
stateless design.  

Mike

> 
> David
> 
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Mike Burns [mailto:mburns at redhat.com]
> >Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 10:35 AM
> >To: Li, David
> >Cc: users at ovirt.org
> >Subject: Re: [Users] Pxeboot
> >
> >On Wed, 2012-02-08 at 10:24 -0800, Li, David wrote:
> >> Hi Mike,
> >>
> >> I read the oVirt node  Wiki and had an impression it's not ready in 2.3 yet:
> >http://ovirt.org/wiki/Node_Stateless .
> >>
> >> Ok, I saw that tool in the ISO. Let me dig in to how to use it.
> >> The real question now is if I can nfs mount the the real rootfs which would
> >also be on the TFTP/DHCP server in the final pxe booting stage.  Is that
> >something you are doing too?
> >
> >Ok, I think I see where the confusion is now.  We support using pxeboot to
> >install to a local disk, but not full stateless booting and pulling the configuration
> >from elsewhere.
> >
> >It won't really be feasible to so something like this until we have stateless
> >support worked out, but you're welcome to work with us to get it working.
> >
> >Mike
> >
> >>
> >> David
> >>
> >> >-----Original Message-----
> >> >From: Mike Burns [mailto:mburns at redhat.com]
> >> >Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 10:11 AM
> >> >To: Li, David
> >> >Cc: users at ovirt.org
> >> >Subject: Re: [Users] Pxeboot
> >> >
> >> >On Wed, 2012-02-08 at 09:53 -0800, Li, David wrote:
> >> >> Since oVirt node doesn’t support pxeboot in the current release,
> >> >> does anyone know if I can use RHEV-H to pxeboot and nfs mout the
> >rootfs?
> >> >
> >> >Where does it say that ovirt-node doesn't support pxe boot?  I use
> >> >PXE in my testing.  I haven't heard of any issues with PXE either.
> >> >
> >> >The livecd-iso-to-pxeboot script in livecd-tools will create the
> >> >initrd and vmlinuz files for you to import into your PXE server.
> >> >
> >> >Mike
> >> >>
> >> >> David
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> Users mailing list
> >> >> Users at ovirt.org
> >> >> http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/users
> >> >
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> 
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