Hello puppet users, I know this is not really a puppet thing but i wanted to know what tools do you use for server provisionning ? I have to build quite a lot of servers for a prject and i need to instal them. Of course puppet take care of the configuration but i wondered if some of you use things like FAI . It seems that i could use puppet to script FAI to install machines. What do you use for provisionning you server ? -- Cordialement, Ghislain _______________________________________________ Puppet-users mailing list Puppet-users@madstop.com https://mail.madstop.com/mailman/listinfo/puppet-users
On Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 10:59:00AM +0200, ADNET Ghislain wrote:> I know this is not really a puppet thing but i wanted to know what > tools do you use for server provisionning ?A customised installation CD that does juuuuust enough to get Puppet running, then Puppet from then on. I see no point in doing any more work than I have to outside of Puppet, because I''ll just be replicating that work in Puppet to make sure that the machine state stays as-is in the future. - Matt -- I tend to think of "solution" as just a pretentious term for "thingy". Doing that word substitution in my head makes IT marketing literature somewhat more tolerable. -- lutchann, in http://lwn.net/Articles/124703/
Matt Palmer schrieb:> On Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 10:59:00AM +0200, ADNET Ghislain wrote: > >> I know this is not really a puppet thing but i wanted to know what >> tools do you use for server provisionning ? >> > > A customised installation CD that does juuuuust enough to get Puppet > running, then Puppet from then on. I see no point in doing any more work > than I have to outside of Puppet, because I''ll just be replicating that work > in Puppet to make sure that the machine state stays as-is in the future. > > - Matt > >*nod* I´d stick to the OSes native autoinstaller (never used FAI but anaconda and autoyast /w pxe, so if FAI fits your needs go for it ;) ) and just use it to get puppet going. I´d really shift the focus from autoinstaller to puppet for doing the "heavy" lifting. cheers
> -----Original Message----- > From: puppet-users-bounces@madstop.com > [mailto:puppet-users-bounces@madstop.com] On Behalf Of ADNET Ghislain > Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 3:59 AM > To: Puppet User Discussion > Subject: [Puppet-users] server provisionning > > Hello puppet users, > > I know this is not really a puppet thing but i wanted to > know what tools do you use for server provisionning ?I''m currently standardizing a 40 box shop on SLES 10 with autoyast. I''ll have autoyast do a minimal image, then let puppet do the majority of the work. I agree with Matt that it makes sense to let your day to day tool do the majority of the work. DT Dave Thacker, Senior Systems Administrator Omni Hotels Reservation Center
> I have to build quite a lot of servers for a prject and i need to > instal them. Of course puppet take care of the configuration but i > wondered if some of you use things like FAI . It seems that i could use > puppet to script FAI to install machines. What do you use for > provisionning you server ?Intel/Linux: PXE boot; kickstart install that includes ruby/puppet/facter Sun/Solaris: "boot net:dhcp - install" and jumpstart install includes ruby/puppet/facter (in both cases the install media are on NAS. Then Puppet does *everything* else. Matthew ------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit Guardian Unlimited - the UK''s most popular newspaper website http://guardian.co.uk http://observer.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Newspaper Marketing Agency Opening Up Newspapers http://www.nmauk.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------ This e-mail and all attachments are confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, please notify the sender and delete the e-mail and all attachments immediately. Do not disclose the contents to another person. You may not use the information for any purpose, or store, or copy, it in any way. Guardian News & Media Limited is not liable for any computer viruses or other material transmitted with or as part of this e-mail. You should employ virus checking software. Guardian News & Media Limited A member of Guardian Media Group PLC Registered Office Number 1 Scott Place, Manchester M3 3GG Registered in England Number 908396
ADNET Ghislain wrote:> I know this is not really a puppet thing but i wanted to know what > tools do you use for server provisionning ?Adding my vote for "vendor-specific automated tools that do just enough to get puppet installed". So far that''s just for Debian, but Solaris is on the horizon this fall: http://blogs.cae.tntech.edu/mwr/2007/04/17/unattended-debian-installations-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-preseedcfg/ http://blogs.cae.tntech.edu/mwr/2007/08/02/the-new-file-server-preseeding-and-lvm/ -- Mike Renfro / R&D Engineer, Center for Manufacturing Research, 931 372-3601 / Tennessee Technological University
We use FAI, currently it does the bare minimum to get puppet running; setup partitions, installs debian base, installs ruby etc. OpenQRM was suggested at the Seattle meetup, it looks very nice, but unfortunately it doesn''t support Debian yet. -Blake On 9/19/07, ADNET Ghislain <gadnet@aqueos.com> wrote:> > Hello puppet users, > > I know this is not really a puppet thing but i wanted to know what > tools do you use for server provisionning ? > > I have to build quite a lot of servers for a prject and i need to > instal them. Of course puppet take care of the configuration but i > wondered if some of you use things like FAI . It seems that i could use > puppet to script FAI to install machines. What do you use for > provisionning you server ? > > -- > Cordialement, > Ghislain > > _______________________________________________ > Puppet-users mailing list > Puppet-users@madstop.com > https://mail.madstop.com/mailman/listinfo/puppet-users > > >_______________________________________________ Puppet-users mailing list Puppet-users@madstop.com https://mail.madstop.com/mailman/listinfo/puppet-users
> I''m currently standardizing a 40 box shop on SLES 10 with autoyast. > I''ll have autoyast do a minimal image, then let puppet do the majority > of the work. I agree with Matt that it makes sense to let your day to > day tool do the majority of the work. > > DT >ok thanks for sharing your experiences :) I was evaluating the possibility to use things like FAI for the PXE/configure disk/install system part via pxe, and then let puppet run the whole configuration thing. I have also seen that openqrm support puppet but i have no idea if this could be a good idea to use this one with the puppet plugin :) I speak about FAI because i think it can be scripted by puppet itself with text based configuration files so i configure everything including FAI in puppet. That openQRM thing is quite appealing too but has drawbacks: - it must use shared storage that is HUGE cost for small number of machine, local storage does not support raid or lvm so its no use. - single point of failure (?) - it does not like debian :) Thanks for all your answers. If if use the couple FAI/puppet i will publish my result on the wiki :) -- Cordialement, Ghislain _______________________________________________ Puppet-users mailing list Puppet-users@madstop.com https://mail.madstop.com/mailman/listinfo/puppet-users
ADNET Ghislain wrote:> I know this is not really a puppet thing but i wanted to know what > tools do you use for server provisionning ? > > I have to build quite a lot of servers for a prject and i need to > instal them. Of course puppet take care of the configuration but i > wondered if some of you use things like FAI . It seems that i could use > puppet to script FAI to install machines. What do you use for > provisionning you server ?pxe + the cli-installer for gentoo + catalyst buildtool for gentoo + homegrown node classification database + puppet We use pxe to boot the server and give it a provisional kernel and fs in ram. Afterwards we use the cli-installer from gentoo to install a pre-baked image onto the server, we modified the cli-installer to query our homegrown node classification database. The installer also sets up networking on the new server. Puppet kicks in and does all other configuration. Outside puppet scope are: network configuration and partitioning/formatting We figured we''d leave the net-config to the install-tool to prevent puppet from shutting itself out due to manifest bugs. We also figured that setting up hostname, partitions and filesystems was something best left to a dedicated install tool. These decisions force the node-classification tool as a dependency for the install-tool because we have different partition layouts per serverclass and different network requirements per serverclass. We create the pre-baked images with gentoo''s release tool catalyst, which can be used to create live-cd''s and other release media. Originally we started with a custom install cd, but that didn''t scale to our serverpark. Since we switched to pxe we can do roughly 30 installs in 30 minutes including the puppet phase. We currently have approx 600 servers under puppet control and strive to bring the entire serverpark to puppet. I''m curious how other people that responded manage different partitioning and network requirements per server class. And do you let puppet handle the network config ? Regards, Ramon
puppet-users-bounces@madstop.com wrote on 20/09/2007 11:22:10:> > I''m curious how other people that responded manage different > partitioning and network requirements per server class. > And do you let puppet handle the network config ?We try very hard to minimise the config required to start an install. It comes down to * Servername * DNS entry - IP address * DHCP entry - MAC address The IP/MAC being for the main/primary/first network port that will be used for the base install. For Solaris the locations of the boot image and install media are in the dhcpd.conf and there is a single jumpstart profile for all puppet controlled machines. For Redhat machines there is a PXE config file and a kickstart profile per machine. They vary only in details like host IP address and distribution to install. Puppet and its dependencies are integrated into those base installs - Solaris by defining an NFS source for the packages and RedHat Linux by defining a Yum repository with the packages in the jump/kickstart respectively, this means that the copies of the install media are as provided and therefore easily updated. Solaris jumpstart: # GU Ruby & Puppet Packages package ruby add nfs://${NFServer}:${Path_to}/pkg/ package facter add nfs://${NFServer}:${Path_to}/pkg/ package puppet add nfs://nfs:${NFServer}:${Path_to}/pkg/ package subversion add nfs://nfs:${NFServer}:${Path_to}/pkg/ redhat kickstart: # add the repo so that we can get puppet on the machine repo --name=NAME --baseurl=http://${YumHTTPServer}/${Path_to_repo}/RPMS/ The add the packages at the end of the list. Everything after the base install phase is done with Puppet. Partitioning. So far we have not varied partitioning much and use Solaris: swap = 4G and / = rest of disc Linux: swap = 2 or 4G, /boot = 1G asprimary, / = rest of disc. We already have a per-host kickstart file for Linux so this is trivial. We could make further jumpstart profiles for Solaris but so far haven''t needed to. This is *much* aided by having all application data and all users'' home directories mounted NFS which permits us to have such simple and consistent disc lay outs. Clearly greater variation in hardware or particular application requirements might force a change. Networking. The base install may have hostIP, DHCP and install media servers in the same network, if it can''t then there need to be "next server" entries in the dhcp config to allow hosts to reach their install media . Once Puppet starts playing it is use to add additional NICs for multihomed/bonded interfaces and all the networking config required. That does mean that we have to ensure that switch ports are configured correctly, but then we''d have to do that whatever install method we adopted. Matthew ------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit Guardian Unlimited - the UK''s most popular newspaper website http://guardian.co.uk http://observer.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Newspaper Marketing Agency Opening Up Newspapers http://www.nmauk.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------ This e-mail and all attachments are confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, please notify the sender and delete the e-mail and all attachments immediately. Do not disclose the contents to another person. You may not use the information for any purpose, or store, or copy, it in any way. Guardian News & Media Limited is not liable for any computer viruses or other material transmitted with or as part of this e-mail. You should employ virus checking software. Guardian News & Media Limited A member of Guardian Media Group PLC Registered Office Number 1 Scott Place, Manchester M3 3GG Registered in England Number 908396
Guys, I have a silly question.. I want a file to sync with the client node.. i did specify the file in the server under class and file as source => puppt://puppet/files/testfile I am not sure where I should create the folder "files" and have the "testfile" -Raj _______________________________________________ Puppet-users mailing list Puppet-users@madstop.com https://mail.madstop.com/mailman/listinfo/puppet-users
On 9/20/07, Ramon van Alteren <ramon@hyves.nl> wrote:> I''m curious how other people that responded manage different > partitioning and network requirements per server class. > And do you let puppet handle the network config ?For our environment, I''m using a customized network interfaces configuration recipe. The ''interfaces'' type new to puppet 0.23.2 doesn''t fulfill our needs and I haven''t read my Ruby Pickaxe book yet to flesh out the providers that I am familiar with. The state of the manifest I''m using is in flux since we''re still building our environment and writing puppet recipes. We''re bringing online 20 different server pairs providing a single service each (except smtp/dns/ntp on one pair). I plan to post the recipe to the puppet site as soon as it is "finalized". Maybe it will help someone who has more Ruby skills than I to write providers for the interface type. -- Joshua Timberman
On 9/20/07, Ramon van Alteren <ramon@hyves.nl> wrote:> I''m curious how other people that responded manage different > partitioning and network requirements per server class. > And do you let puppet handle the network config ?For our environment, I''m using a customized network interfaces configuration recipe. The ''interfaces'' type new to puppet 0.23.2 doesn''t fulfill our needs and I haven''t read my Ruby Pickaxe book yet to flesh out the providers that I am familiar with. The state of the manifest I''m using is in flux since we''re still building our environment and writing puppet recipes. We''re bringing online 20 different server pairs providing a single service each (except smtp/dns/ntp on one pair). I plan to post the recipe to the puppet site as soon as it is "finalized". Maybe it will help someone who has more Ruby skills than I to write providers for the interface type. Sorry if this was duplicated. Saw a moderator approval message required when I sent wih the wrong gmail account.. -- Joshua Timberman