Cobbler - Fast and reliable multi-OS provisioning
3 likes4,895 views
The document discusses the challenges of deploying new virtual machines (VMs) and presents Cobbler as a solution for automating this process. It describes the components needed for PXE booting and highlights Cobbler's ease of use, integration capabilities, and historical context. The document also emphasizes Cobbler's extensibility and practical applications in emergency recovery scenarios.
![Normation – CC-BY-SA
normation.com 7
Context
ID Card
● Name :
● Birthdate : 2007
● Language : Python
● Licence : GPL
● Author : Michael DeHaan ( You went to the Ansible
presentation this morning, did you ? )
● Dependencies : DHCP/TFTP/[DNS]
● Disponibility : Packages ( or sources )
● Tested and approved™ :](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/cobbler-v3-0-130603094151-phpapp02/85/Cobbler-Fast-and-reliable-multi-OS-provisioning-7-320.jpg)
![Normation – CC-BY-SA
normation.com 18
Usefulness
●
“Can I deploy this in my company / home / toaster now ?”
● Yes ! It actually integrates well with existing machines/services.
● Just works, out of the box
● All you need is a machine, a distro CD / ISO and you're done.
● Can by used as an emergency crash recovery solution
● Used in a french company after a natural catastrophe (flood) to
restore quickly a new bunch of machines back to an
operationnal state. [reference needed]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/cobbler-v3-0-130603094151-phpapp02/85/Cobbler-Fast-and-reliable-multi-OS-provisioning-18-320.jpg)
Cobbler - Fast and reliable multi-OS provisioning
- 1. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com CobblerCobbler Fast and reliable multi-OS provisionningFast and reliable multi-OS provisionning Matthieu CERDA – LOADays 2013
- 2. Normation – Tous droits réservés normation.com Who are you Job System administrator Phone: +33 6 30 53 40 00 Email : matthieu.cerda@normation.com Web site : www.normation.com @Kegeruneku
- 3. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 3 Problem ● Problem : Deploying new VMs is a painfully heavy and error-prone process. ● Solution: A tool able to automatize this the best way possible !
- 4. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 4 PXE ● “The Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE, also known as Pre- Execution Environment; sometimes pronounced "pixie") is an environment to boot computers using a network interface independently of data storage devices (like hard disks) or installed operating systems.” (Thanks Wikipedia) ●Created to respond to a simple problem: before it, even with automated installations, the administrator needed to move towards the machine, and boot it manually with a media. ● Administrators are lazy (well, I am), and thus needed something to install a machine from the boot to the login prompt, with the least human interference possible.
- 5. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 5 Problem (again) ● PXE boot needs a tight and coherent integration of all these services: ● DHCP ● TFTP ● HTTP ● (DNS, optionnal) ● Installing them and setting them requires specific experience, skills and time. ● Time + skills = investment (either from people or from the wallet) ● 1st problem: PXE is expensive
- 6. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 6 Problem (this is getting annoying !!!) ● PXE boot needs a tight and coherent integration of all these services: ● DHCP ● TFTP ● HTTP ● (DNS, optionnal) ● Keeping them in sync is horrifyingly painful, you KNOW something will break one day or another (typos, forgot to copy a file ...) ● So, 2nd trouble: PXE is hard to manage
- 7. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 7 Context ID Card ● Name : ● Birthdate : 2007 ● Language : Python ● Licence : GPL ● Author : Michael DeHaan ( You went to the Ansible presentation this morning, did you ? ) ● Dependencies : DHCP/TFTP/[DNS] ● Disponibility : Packages ( or sources ) ● Tested and approved™ :
- 8. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 8 A little project history Birth 2011: Site switching from Fedora hosting to Github 2012: Used by Canonical for OpenStack tests
- 9. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 9 Global architecture Distributions Kernel Initrd Arguments Classes Profiles Repositories Network Proxy Classes System LDAP RHN/RHM Network Virtualization Puppet REST API
- 10. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 10 Global architecture CLI Koan LibVirt API Cobbler PXE DNS TFTP DHCP Physical machines Virtual machines HTTP Web UI
- 11. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 11 Distro ●A basic representation of an OS ●Added through the CLI
- 12. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 12 Profile ●Abstraction layer between distros ans systems ●Can be used to define roles, for example: web_server, dns_server...
- 13. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 13 System ●The most important part, what the user will see ! ●Will define physical or virtual entities, like a libvirt VM or a plain computer. The MAC address serves as a binding between the low level PXE and the system definition.
- 14. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 14 KOAN ● Works “out of the box” ● Adds LibVirt support to Cobbler
- 15. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 15 KOAN ● Demo !!!
- 16. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 16 Configuration ● /etc/cobbler/settings ● YAML file, setting global variables and special cobblerd specific parameters ● Can then be overriden by other abstraction layers ● /etc/cobbler/modules ● Defines which services will be managed (and how) ● Also defines how authentication will be done (for web UI for example) ● /var/lib/cobbler/... ● Stores all the distro/profile/system/... configurations
- 17. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 17 Usefulness ● “So, why is Cobbler so useful for you ?” ● Aptitude/yum install cobbler, as simple as that ● Just works, out of the box ● Easy integration with Virtualization software ● Seriously, managing PXE by hand is a pain in the neck... ● “Remember when we used to manage kickstart files by hand ?” ● “Yeah, so many hours I could have used to slack looking at cat videos...”
- 18. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 18 Usefulness ● “Can I deploy this in my company / home / toaster now ?” ● Yes ! It actually integrates well with existing machines/services. ● Just works, out of the box ● All you need is a machine, a distro CD / ISO and you're done. ● Can by used as an emergency crash recovery solution ● Used in a french company after a natural catastrophe (flood) to restore quickly a new bunch of machines back to an operationnal state. [reference needed]
- 19. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 19 Integration with existing services ● Cobbler can integrate with services like: ● Local repository mirrors ● Local DNS / TFTP / ... services ● Configuration management: CFEngine / Puppet / Chef / Ansible / ...
- 20. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 20 Protips ● When you install Cobbler, remember some important points ● SELinux is tricky ● DISABLE STP ON YOUR BRIDGES !!! ● If something fails, check your firewall. If it still fails, check again. ● Always have a sandbox environment to play with. ● KVM is a great tool, especially with libvirt ● Keep It Simple and Safe
- 21. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 21 Extensibility ● We develop Rudder, an IT automatization and conformity tool. ● Goal: Add a support for Cobbler ● Problem: Cobbler only supports Cobbler at this time ! ● Solution: Add the necessary bindings ourselves ! (All hail Python o/) Let us take a slightly more complex case... System LDAP RHN/RHM Network Virtualization Puppet Rudder
- 22. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 22 Extensibility
- 23. Normation – CC-BY-SA normation.com 23 Thank you for your attention ! ( Questions time )