Cobbler Install on CentOS 6.2

Cobbler - not the kind you put peaches in, this is an automated install tool

Here's the quick and dirty to get it installed and the web interface working:

1. CentOS 6.2 install
• Basic Server install option
• as root, run "setenable 0" to turn selinux to permissive (without this, selinux caused me many headaches with the "cobbler check" command later)
• as root, run "vi /etc/selinux/config" and change the SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=permissive.  This keeps it in permissive mode over reboots.
• optional: set up a local user with wheel access, enable wheel sudo access, and set /etc/ssh/sshd_config with "PermitLocalRootLogin without-password"
2. add EPEL repo
1. point browser to: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL
2. right-click, copy link
3. on CentOS system (I connect through putty and change to root at this point), run
• rpm -ivh <SHIFT+INSERT> (last two keys will paste the link from step 2)
3. Install Cobbler
1. yum -y install cobbler cobbler-web koan policycoreutils-python
2. service cobblerd start
3. service httpd start
4. cobbler check
1. resolve all reported issues (I had about 10)
4. Configure Cobbler-Web
1. see cobbler-web wiki page, just remember to try http if https fails

I think you might be able to skip step 3.4 and do that after step 4 if you'd like to have the web gui, since it is available there, but I don't know if you can resolve all the issues from there.

Kudos to Mike DeHaan for a really helpful config checker; wish all software came with something like that.

Setting up OpenFiler 2.3 for VMWare ESXi storage

so I'm looking to set up openfiler as a storage backend for VMWare ESXi, just wanted to include some notes here, since the examples I've found in the forums isn't what I wanted to set up (disk sizes were fairly small).

So, main thing to remember is that OpenFiler doesn't handle the automated partitioning of the hard drive you're installing it on.  Best info I've found on this (without purchasing the Manual) is on Greg Porter's Wiki.  He has much excellent info on Openfiler, and I would highly recommend reading through his info.  This list here is just intended to be a quick checklist of things that need to be done to get this set up.

really rough run-down:

1. Get disk set up in RAID 5 on Dell 2850 (or hardware of your choice), preferably in hardware RAID rather than software RAID.
2. Boot from Openfiler 2.3 install disk (x86_64 in this case.... what, you haven't downloaded it already? (=  )
3. Using Graphical install, manually partition the disk as follows:
       /boot : 100MB ext3, Fixed size, Force Primary
       / (root): 2048MB ext3, Fixed size, Force Primary
      swap : 2048MB swap, Fixed size, Force Primary
4. Finish install (time, root password, etc.)
5. update, update, update (I've had some issues with this from the webgui; however, per the last entry of this forum, using "conary updateall" from the command line worked just fine.)
6. see Greg Porter's Wiki about the iSCSI reboot issue to prevent your stores from vanishing from the network upon reboot.  Last thing you want is for your system to boot and your services to fail.

At this point, you should be able to log in to OpenFiler, configure your shares, and get rolling.

Installing RACADM for Dell DRAC 4/I on RHEL/CEntOS

Had several places this has become useful.  Follow the steps below to get Dell's RACADM tools installed on a RHEL/CEntOS 5.x system

UPDATE(2011.06.25) - use the LIVE CD when doing this, and you don't have to install CEntOS to fix this (ie: fix a system that already has something installed on it).  See notes at the end for additional commands.

Install CEntOS5.x Server and Server GUI from CD/DVD

install firefox with yum:
       yum install firefox
download the Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit:
       wget http://ftp.us.dell.com/sysman/dtk_3.5_new_43_Linux.iso

create a directory, mount the iso there and cd to that directory:
      mkdir /mnt/dtk_3.5_new_43_Linux
      mount -o loop -t iso9660 /path/to/dtk_3.5_new_43_Linux.iso /mnt/dtk_3.5._new_43_Linux/

      cd /mnt/dtk_3.5_new_43_Linux/
from here, run the following command to install the racadm tools:
       yum --nogpgcheck localinstall RPMs/x86/smbios-utils-bin-2.2.26-3.1.el5.i386.rpm RPMs/noarch/srvadmin-omilcore-6.5.0-1.385.1.el5.noarch.rpm RPMs/x86/srvadmin-racsvc-6.5.0-1.154.1.el5.i386.rpm RPMs/x86/libsmbios-2.2.26-3.1.el5.i386.rpm RPMs/x86/srvadmin-racadm4-6.5.0-1.154.1.el5.i386.rpm

UPDATE(2011.06.25) -  run the following commands to reset the DRAC without installing the OS

service racsvc start
locate racadm (it's in /opt/dell/something/i/dont/remember)
/opt/dell/rest/of/path/racadm racresetcfg

even though this will scream that it can't access the card, the card should be reset when you reboot

Getting Windows Deployment Services running

There are some good resources out there for Windows Deployment Services (WDS), such as the following:

technet.microsoft.com (obligatory manual reference)
Dan Stolts blog
Tom and Jason include some nitty gritty details on their blog
www.google.com (obligatory google reference)

Basically, I'm trying to set up the following:

WDS service on non-DHCP server in an AD environment with DHCP running on AD Domain Controllers only
Should note that the server is 2008 Standard R2, and the AD DC's are 2008 R2 and 2003.

DHCP scope option settings:
66 - <ip of WDS server>
67 - boot\x86\wdsnbp.com

I'm also setting this up so that unknown devices need admin approval in AD (pending devices approval in WDS), and the problem I've run into is the following:

-------------snip-------------
An error occurred while trying to create the machine account for the following  device:

 Name: install01
 OU: CN=Computers,DC=<company_name>,DC=local
 MAC Address: 00000000000000000000BC305B9C1C03
 GUID: 44454C4C560010348039B8C04F435031

 Error Information: 0x5
-----------end snip-----------

This also shows up with Task category BINLSVC and an Application Error code of 524 (google search of "microsoft wds error 524" has details).

Solution to this is at the following technet page, and included below:

Per Microsoft's Technet page:
--------------------------------

Ensure that the server has the necessary permissions

To perform this procedure, you must either be a member of the local Domain Admins group or have been delegated the appropriate authority.
To grant permissions:

1. In Active Directory Users and Computers, locate the organizational unit that you are creating machine accounts in. The organizational unit is specified in the server properties for the Windows Deployment Services server.
2. To view the organizational unit information, open the Windows Deployment Services MMC snap-in, right-click the server name, click Properties, and then click the Directory Services tab.
3. Right-click the organizational unit, and then click Delegate Control to grant the Windows Deployment Services server Full permission to create and edit accounts.

Note: The computer that caused this issue is specified in the event message string. To view this information, open Event Viewer, expand Custom Views, expand Server Roles, click Windows Deployment Services, and then locate BINLSVC event 524 or 525.
--------------------------------

In my case, I opened AD Users and Computers, selected the OU where I wanted the installed systems to show up, r-click and select "Delegate Control", then had to do the following:

change "Object Types..." to Computers
enter the beginning of the system name and "Check Names"
verify computer name and click next
select "Create a custom task to delegate", click next
select "Only the following objects in the folder:"
check the "Computer objects" box
check the "Create selected objects in this folder"
leave "Delete selected objects in this folder" UNchecked
click next
check "Full Control", click next
click finish

At this point, you'll be able to name devices in the "Pending Devices" tab for the WDS role when you approve them without that annoying error.

The beauty of this is that once you have the server set up and the OS's configured for an install, you can literally just plug the computer in at it's location and PXE boot it and install the OS and pull in the user data in one fell swoop.  Also, you can use this system to manage server images as well as desktop images.  While there are other ways of installing systems, especially in a VM environment (templates, ghost images, etc.), the advantage this holds is that you can install both virtual and physical systems from this one server, and be sure that you have the same config on all your systems.  See Chapter 3 of "The Practice of Systems and Network Administration, 2nd Edition" for more wise counsel related to systems configuration and automated installation.