[Users] Pxeboot

[Mike Burns]

On Wed, 2012-02-08 at 15:43 -0800, Li, David wrote:
> Ok, I think we are on the same page now regarding stateless node.  It
> looks like the achipel diff you just pulled in might be able to do
> this. But I can't quite make it out what the kernel option should be.
> Is it "stateless=1"?
> 

stateless=1 or just stateless, both will work.  


> David
> 
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Mike Burns [mailto:mburns at redhat.com]
> >Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 3:27 PM
> >To: Li, David
> >Cc: Perry Myers; users at ovirt.org
> >Subject: Re: [Users] Pxeboot
> >
> >On Wed, 2012-02-08 at 15:19 -0800, Li, David wrote:
> >> Perry,
> >>
> >> I am glad you brought this up.
> >> I 'd be perfectly happy to run the root fs entirely in RAM. In fact that would
> >be ideal for me. It's just I am not quite sure how to use pxeboot to achieve
> >this.
> >>
> >> I am doing a test now using the tftpboot files created from the iso.
> >> As far as I see, the kernel boot options (pxelinux.cfg/default) has:
> >>
> >> root=live:/ovirt-node-image-2.2.2-1.1.fc16.iso
> >>
> >> With this I can only pxeboot to the intall screen.  What should I use to let the
> >kernel mount the root fs in memory? Something like root=/dev/ram0?
> >>
> >> David
> >
> >It's not currently possible with ovirt-node.  That's the whole stateless feature
> >that we outlined.  Once we actually have it implemented, it will be something
> >along the lines of adding "stateless" to the kernel commandline.
> >
> >Mike
> >>
> >>
> >> >-----Original Message-----
> >> >From: Perry Myers [mailto:pmyers at redhat.com]
> >> >Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 2:54 PM
> >> >To: Mike Burns
> >> >Cc: Li, David; users at ovirt.org
> >> >Subject: Re: [Users] Pxeboot
> >> >
> >> >On 02/08/2012 05:03 PM, Mike Burns wrote:
> >> >> On Wed, 2012-02-08 at 13:46 -0800, Li, David wrote:
> >> >>> Mike,
> >> >>>
> >> >>> If I understand this correctly, today I should be able to pxeboot
> >> >>> and nfs mount the root fs from a remote server.  Apart from
> >> >>> setting up the pxe stuff, I 'd have to populate the ovirt node
> >> >>> root fs on the server
> >> >>> - perhaps steal it from a disk install.  In other words I am
> >> >>> concerned about the point from which the kernel starts to execute
> >> >>> /init script (in the initramfs) to the point /init is able to
> >> >>> mount the final root fs from a remote server.
> >> >>
> >> >> No, there is no way to set this up currently in ovirt-node.  You
> >> >> could install using a remote iscsi lun if you have a hardware iscsi
> >> >> HBA, but there isn't a way to mount a remote nfs share as the root fs.
> >> >>
> >> >> Supporting a remote NFS share as the root fs isn't even something
> >> >> that requested as an RFE at this point or on the roadmap as far as
> >> >> I'm aware.
> >> >>
> >> >> It sounds like what you're really looking for is a shared root fs
> >> >> that multiple hosts could use.  This is something that we will
> >> >> probably look into eventually, but it's not on the immediate roadmap.
> >> >
> >> >Given that the rootfs of oVirt Node is fairly small and in a truly
> >> >stateless environment would just run out of system RAM, there's no
> >> >real reason to try to do a shared NFS based rootfs.  It's an
> >> >unnecessary complication I think, if the end goal is to move to truly
> >stateless.
> >> >
> >> >For larger systems where the rootfs is on the order of GB's, shared
> >> >root may make more sense.
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> >
>