Basic Installation

Linux systems are installed using PXE and Kickstart. The Kickstart configuration is auto-generated base on the configuration stored in sysdb/bob.

When PXE boot is not an option, e.g. in restricted networks, it is possible to start iPXE from a USB stick or other media.

The general process for a installation is:

Register and configure the system with sysdb
Tell sysdb to perform an installation on the next boot
Reboot the system and trigger a PXE boot (usually by pressing F12 during POST)

The default way to interact with sysdb is to use bob. bob is already set up on lxsup.psi.ch for general use.

Altenatively you many have on your workstation a local copy of bob. This can be done by installing the RPM from the pli-misc repository - https://repos.psi.ch/rhel8/latest/pli-misc/ or by installing the Python package manually.

You might need to set a PSI_BOB_USER environment variable (export PSI_BOB_USER=<you-name-it>) or use the option --user if your local user is different from the one on sysdb.

Sysdb Configuration

bob node add $FQDN $ENV netboot

To be able to PXE boot we need to configure at least one MAC address for the new node:

bob node add-mac $FQDN 00:50:56:aa:fe:9b

Finally we need to configure the installer to use, and the Puppet-related parameters:

bob node set-attr $FQDN ipxe_installer=rhel8install
bob node set-attr $FQDN puppet_role=role::server

and optional:

# static IP address (options: static, dhcp)
bob node set-attr $FQDN network=static
bob node set-attr $FQDN puppet_group=cluster
bob node set-attr $FQDN puppet_subgroup=compute
bob node set-attr $FQDN puppet_env=prod

Finally ensure that the node is set to netboot:

bob node netboot $FQDN

Example

Minimal example:

bob node add lx-test-02.psi.ch lx netboot
bob node add-mac lx-test-02 00:50:56:9d:19:76
bob node set-attr lx-test-02.psi.ch ipxe_installer=rhel8install puppet_role=role::server
bob node netboot lx-test-02.psi.ch

# show the configuration
bob node list -v lx-test-02

# start network boot on the machine

Special Settings

Custom Kernel Commandline Arguments

For custom kernel commandline arguments for the installer (e.g. to provide drivers) the sysdb attribute kernel_cmdline can be used:

bob node set-attr lx-test-02.psi.ch kernel_cmdline=inst.dd=https://linuxsoft.cern.ch/elrepo/dud/el8/x86_64/dd-megaraid_sas-07.725.01.00-1.el8_9.elrepo.iso

Custom Partitioning

Partitions system are configured with a standard schema using LVM, so that they can be possibly changed afterwards.

By default the whole space available on the first block device is used and any existing partition is removed.

Alternatively you might set the sysdb attribute system_disk with the device name of the disk which should be used instead::

bob node set-attr $FQDN system_disk=md126

It is also possible to customize the partitioning by using the partitions attribute on sysdb. See https://git.psi.ch/linux-infra/bob for more details.

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