I have seen a couple messages here and around the net around getting the cobbler partition selection to work, but I am having a devil of a time.
I have a kickstart that I have converted to use in cobbler. I have slightly modified the pre_partition_select snippet that comes with cobbler 2.0.11. It is working fine under centos 6, but I cannot get it to work on centos 5. Under centos 5 kickstarting it appeared that the /tmp/partinfo file is never created or imported. I saw some a tip about the python path possibly not getting set within anaconda, so I changed the 'set \$(list-harddrives)' line to 'set \$(PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/booty list-harddrives)', which didn't help. When kickstarting centos 5, anaconda never seems to get the PART= lines and prompts me to decide on partitions. Needless to say this invalidates the whole unattended setup paradigm :). With centos 6, it just seemed to work. As of today, I am getting a different set of errors. Now I am getting all sorts of weird errors on centos 5 & 6. When I run cobbler validateks, all my EL6 profiles and systems check out fine, but all the 5 ones error with: checking url: http://10.74.67.42/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/centos5_32 running: /usr/bin/ksvalidator "http://10.74.67.42/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/centos5_32"; received on stdout: The following problem occurred on line 52 of the kickstart file: Unknown command: set The following problem occurred on line 53 of the kickstart file: Unknown command: let The following problem occurred on line 54 of the kickstart file: etc, about 50 of these per kickstart. When I actually tried to kickstart a test machine with that profile, anaconda bailed at the same line, with the same error "Unknown command: set" I have two questions. 1) is there any way to get better visibility into the kickstart/anaconda process? It is very frustrating to try and debug this process by manually working through the kickstart (when possible) and then copying the log files over to another machine to look at, not to mention the 10+ minutes these servers take to reboot. 2) Are people generally using something else for partition selection? Our environment doesn't really have that many variables around partitioning. I set a ksmeta "isvirt" so that vms get a different partition layout than physical servers, and I need a good way to select the first /dev/cciss/ drive for HP servers, and ideally a way to exclude SAN volumes so I don't accidentally reformat a SAN database when rebuilding a box (which has happened, luckily a SAN volume that was due to be reclaimed anyway and was unneeded). I saw some messages on the redhat-kickstart list about using /proc/partitions to do this perhaps? Sorry about the length of this email, trying to be thorough. For anybody still reading, here is the snippet, followed by the relevant portions of my kickstart templates. # partition details calculation # Determine how many drives we have set \$(PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/booty list-harddrives) let numd=\$#/2 d1=\$1 d2=\$3 # want to know exactly what the list-harddrives outputs # from the stub code it is a sorted list of <name> <size> of all drives. # echo \$(list-harddrives) # Get the ksmeta variable, if passed in. If this is a virtual, we want to set up the partitions correctly. #set $isvirt = $getVar('isvirt', None) # Determine architecture-specific partitioning needs EFI_PART="" PPC_PREP_PART="" BOOT_PART="" ROOT_PART="" SWAP_PART="" VAR_PART="" case \$(uname -m) in ia64) EFI_PART="part /boot/efi --fstype vfat --size 200 --recommended --ondisk=\$d1" ;; ppc*) PPC_PREP_PART="part None --fstype 'PPC PReP Boot' --size 8" BOOT_PART="part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 200 --recommended --ondisk=\$d1" ;; *) BOOT_PART="part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 200 --recommended --ondisk=\$d1" ;; esac # Now set our partitions based on whether this is a vm or not #if $isvirt == "true" ROOT_PART="part / --asprimary --fstype ext3 --fsoptions=\"defaults,noatime\" --size=5000 --ondisk=\$d1 --recommended" SWAP_PART="part swap --asprimary --fstype swap --size=1000 --ondisk=\$d1 --recommended" VAR_PART="part /var --asprimary --fstype ext3 --fsoptions=\"defaults,noatime\" --size=8000 --grow --ondisk=\$d1" #else ROOT_PART="part / --asprimary --fstype ext3 --fsoptions=\"defaults,noatime\" --size=12000 --grow --ondisk=\$d1 --recommended" SWAP_PART="part swap --asprimary --fstype swap --size=8192 --ondisk=\$d1 --recommended" #end if cat <<EOF > /tmp/partinfo \$EFI_PART \$PPC_PREP_PART \$BOOT_PART \$ROOT_PART \$VAR_PART \$SWAP_PART # This should be the last line of pre_partition_info_gmi cobbler snippet EOF # End pre_partition_select_gmi /tmp/partinfo and /root/partinfo should hold instructions Kickstart template: # kickstart template for el5 OSes # partinfo not currently working. #platform=x86, AMD64, or Intel EM64T # System authorization information auth --useshadow --enablemd5 # System bootloader configuration bootloader --location=mbr # Partition clearing information clearpart --all --initlabel # Use text mode install text # Firewall configuration firewall --disable # Run the Setup Agent on first boot firstboot --disable # System keyboard keyboard us # System language lang en_US # Use network installation url --url=$tree # If any cobbler repo definitions were referenced in the kickstart profile, include them here. $yum_repo_stanza # Network information $SNIPPET('network_config') # Reboot after installation reboot #Root password rootpw --iscrypted $default_password_crypted # SELinux configuration selinux --disabled # Do not configure the X Window System skipx # System timezone timezone --utc America/Vancouver # Install OS instead of upgrade install # Clear the Master Boot Record zerombr # Allow anaconda to partition the system as needed $SNIPPET('pre_partition_select_gmi') %pre $SNIPPET('log_ks_pre') $kickstart_start $SNIPPET('pre_install_network_config') $SNIPPET('main_partition_select') # Enable installation monitoring #$SNIPPET('pre_anamon') %end %packages --excludedocs $SNIPPET('func_install_if_enabled') $SNIPPET('puppet_install_if_enabled') $SNIPPET('koan_install_if_virt') @legacy-software-support @system-tools vim-enhanced %post $SNIPPET('log_ks_post') # Start yum configuration $yum_config_stanza # End yum configuration $SNIPPET('post_install_kernel_options') $SNIPPET('post_install_network_config') $SNIPPET('func_register_if_enabled') # $SNIPPET('download_config_files') $SNIPPET('koan_environment') $SNIPPET('redhat_register') $SNIPPET('cobbler_register') # Enable post-install boot notification # $SNIPPET('post_anamon') # Start final steps $SNIPPET('post_housecleaning_gmi') $SNIPPET('puppet_register_if_enabled') $SNIPPET('post_puppet_initial_runs') $kickstart_done # End final steps Pretty much the only differences between my centos 5 & 6 kickstart templates is the removal of the %end tags: diff gmi_base.ks gmi_base_centos5.ks 1,3c1,2 < # kickstart template for Fedora 8 and later. < # (includes %end blocks) < # do not use with earlier distros --- > # kickstart template for el5 OSes > # partinfo not currently working. 44c43 < --- > $SNIPPET('pre_partition_select_gmi') 49c48,49 < $SNIPPET('pre_partition_select_gmi') --- > $SNIPPET('main_partition_select') > 54,55c54 < $SNIPPET('main_partition_select') < %packages --excludedocs --ignoremissing --- > %packages --excludedocs 142d140 < %end 165d162 < %end Thanks so much for any assistance with this. Jim Goddard
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