gitea-pages/admin-guide/deployment/basic_installation.md

Installation

Example Installation

In this section we describe the deployment of a new server from scratch. All the operations will be performed using bob, the command-line client for interacting with sysdb.

The informations we need are:

• the server name: logging-ra.psi.ch
• the server MAC address: 23:3d:ef:33:11:22
• optional static or dynamic IP: static (RHEL7 & RHEL8 only)
• the OS installer: rhel8install
• the server role: role::logging_server
• optional the server environment in puppet: prod
• the sysdb deployment environment: daas
• optional the group inside the sysdb environment (default if not specified): logging
• optional the subgroup inside the group: collector

Setting up bob

The bob tool is already set up on lxsup.psi.ch. You might connect with ssh and use it from there.

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/

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

We add the node to the environment, specifing netboot as the boot action

bob node add logging-ra.psi.ch daas netboot

We setup its MAC address:

bob node add-mac logging-ra.psi.ch 23:3d:ef:33:11:22

Next decide how the IP address is configured (dhcp or static):

bob node set-attr logging-ra.psi.ch network=static

And which installer is used:

bob node set-attr logging-ra.psi.ch ipxe_installer=rhel8install

And we finally setup the puppet role and puppet environment:

bob node set-attr logging-ra.psi.ch puppet_role=role::log_server
bob node set-attr logging-ra.psi.ch puppet_env=prod
bob node set-attr logging-ra.psi.ch puppet_group=logging
bob node set-attr logging-ra.psi.ch puppet_subgroup=collector

Example

Full 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
bob node list -v lx-test-02

Ensure that a potential previous puppet certificate for this server is deleted on the puppet server: https://puppet.psi.ch

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

Please check out the Partitioning page.

Linux systems are generally deployed using PXE and Kickstart. We use iPXE, which can retrieve its configuration via HTTP(S) and therefore gives us a lot of flexibility, because the iPXE configuration can be generated on the fly with the specific settings needed by the booting client. In the same way the Kickstart configuration for the RHEL installer is auto-generated.

The information used for generating the iPXE and Kickstart configurations is stored in the sysdb (see below). The sysdb is accessible through a web api, and a command line client is available.

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 deployment/installation is:

1. Register the system with sysdb (only for new systems).
2. Tell sysdb to perform an installation on the next boot.
3. Reboot the system and trigger a PXE boot (usually by pressing F12 during POST).

The easiest way to interact with sysdb is to use bob, a command-line client, set up ready to use on lxsup.psi.ch. Alternatively it is possible to use the web API directly.

First, add the new node:

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:

bob node set-attr $FQDN puppet_group=cluster
bob node set-attr $FQDN puppet_subgroup=compute
bob node set-attr $FQDN network=static
bob node set-attr $FQDN puppet_env=prod

Redeployment

After the initial installation the boot mode has been reset from netboot to local so it will then always boot from the local disk. For a redeployment the netboot needs to be set anew (on UEFI based systems netboot also needs to be always selected by the UEFI menu)):

bob node netboot $FQDN