At a small site, I did automated installs using kickstarter and a USB boot disk. Since I didn't need to image dozens of machines, it worked ok.
In a larger environment now, we use PXEboot, and we're getting ready to move into some other, more managed boot solution (something along the lines of Razor (http://puppetlabs.com/blog/puppet-razor-module/)) to provision machines into a state where we can administer them using Puppet. To solve the question of having PXE over a working network, there are a lot of things you can do. I've seen where people automate the creation and removal of the PXE file, so that when a machine boots and picks up its configuration, something comes in later and removes that file, so that it doesn't wipe a good machine. I've also heard of people migrating a specific machine onto another VLAN to PXEboot it. I think that the prevailing trend is to merely get a machine going enough to get it on the network, then hand it off to the relevant configuration management platform. The best solution will probably depend on your environment. --Matt On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 12:40 PM, Eystein Måløy Stenberg < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi gents, > > I would like to ask for your experiences when it comes to bringing a > server from bare metal to production-ready. From talking to people, it > seems like there are many ways this is done. > > I assume you are using network-booting to kick things off? > > Are you just provisioning one operating system? If not, how do you make > the selection between multiple OSes? Is this fully automated (e.g. using > mac-addresses)? Is this important to you, or do you provision the same OS > >90% of the time? > > Do you have a separate environment where you do your provisioning? How do > you move between the provisioning environment and the production > environment? > > One option I've seen is physically replugging the server to separate > production from PXE environment. Is there a more automated way to do this? > One problem I can see for automation is that the PXE booting relies on > DHCP, and you don't want multiple DHCP servers (production vs. PXE > environment). What about relying on static IPs for production servers, and > only using DHCP for new servers? > > Finally, what are your biggest problems with your setup (if any)? How > could you save more time and make it easier? Do you have thoughts or plans > for the future? > > I really appreciate any experiences you would like to share on this topic. > > Thank you. > > -- > > Eystein Stenberg > CFEngine > ______________________________**_________________ > Tech mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-**bin/mailman/listinfo/tech<https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech> > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > -- LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? COOKIE MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
_______________________________________________ Tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
