Lohit -
So, a couple things that may help you. First, I don't know if it is of use
to you, but the osimage pkgdir attribute can contain a list of
comma-separated paths, so if you need more than one for your OS pkgs listed
in your pkglist file, that might work for you (i.e. if you need to install
packages during the base OS install that are not part of the base distro
instead of installing them through otherpkgs after reboot). Second, xCAT
should be putting the correct URL using the osimage pkgdir attr into your
generated autoinst file, so hopefully you don't need to do anything special
there. If you need this URL set somewhere else in your template, xCAT
substitutes the #INSTALL_SOURCES# directive with the generated URL value.
As for your Centos Base repo not getting replaced, I'm not sure what is
going on there. I don't have a Centos system to try it on. But as far as
I can tell, all of that code is common with our RH code, which does set up
the OS repo to point to the xCAT MN (or SN) local /install correctly. At
what point were you trying to use this repo and it was not updated yet?
Linda
From: Lohit Valleru <[email protected]>
To: xCAT Users Mailing list <[email protected]>
Date: 06/18/2014 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: [xcat-user] xCAT variables during OS install
Thank you Linda,
That helps me a lot.
For now, i can make use of your tip to setup my custom URL,if needed. I
will take a look at the code, if i need more customization later.
For now, i have used pkgdir and otherpkgdir from osimage definition table
to deploy the node.
On xCAT 2.8.4.1
Everything works good, except one piece :
Centos Base repo doesnt get replaced to the local repository in the xCAT
server.
According to ospkgs postscript - i suppose the expected behavior is that,
it replaces the default Centos Base repo's ( which point to the centos
repos on the web), to the local repository on xCAT ( or pkgdir path).
This expected behavior happens with the otherpkgs postscript, that runs
after boot.
I had to use sync files, to sync the Centos Base repo after boot. But this
defeats the purpose of OS image definition, or tables.
I expected that xCAT should have replaced the base repo's, but i am not
sure if something has changed.
I have not explicitly mentioned any postscripts as of now, and i suppose i
do not need to.
Please advice.
Thank you,
Lohit
On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 5:24 PM, Linda Mellor <[email protected]> wrote:
Lohit,
Good to hear that you have upgraded to xCAT 2.8.4. As you have probably
noticed, xCAT has made MANY changes since 2.3, including the use of
osimage definitions to help better customize your os images and manage
your node provisioning.
There are details in this doc that may be of use to you in this regard:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=Convert_Non-osimage_Based_System_To_Osimage_Based_System
And, since we have also changed our template files over time, you may
want to start fresh with a new copy of one of our shipped templates and
reapply updates (or at least diff and look at some of the changes that
may have been made over the years).
To answer your original question, xCAT does some limited substitution to
the entire template file and its includes when you run nodeset for your
node. (if you enjoy reading our code, it is handled
by /opt/xcat/lib/perl/xCAT/Template.pm subvars). We do NOT have generic
variable substitution handling in these files. It is limited to table
substitutions and a few other key data values for xCAT's use.
Are you now getting the URL value you need? If not, can you tell me what
you would like your final URL value to be?
Just FYI, the table substitution does not handle nesting, so you are
limited to direct table references. The code explicitly searches for the
string '$NODE' as a table key, so even though it may look like variable
substitution, that is the only "variable" we substitute. HOWEVER (and I
probably shouldn't say this because it is a real hack, is not supported,
and will break if we ever change how we do this code), you might be able
to exploit the current perl string processing in subvars to get one level
of nesting by using #TABLEBLANKOKAY:xx# for the outer table reference and
#TABLE:yy# for the inner reference, something like this:
url --url
http://#TABLE:noderes:$NODE:nfsserver#/#TABLEBLANKOKAY:linuximage:imagename=#TABLE:nodetype:$NODE:provmethod#:pkgdir#
Linda
Inactive hide details for Lohit Valleru ---06/17/2014 01:43:55 PM---Thank
you Lissa, The templates that we were using were carrLohit Valleru
---06/17/2014 01:43:55 PM---Thank you Lissa, The templates that we were
using were carried on from 2.3 to 2.8 and
From: Lohit Valleru <[email protected]>
To: xCAT Users Mailing list <[email protected]>
Date: 06/17/2014 01:43 PM
Subject: Re: [xcat-user] xCAT variables during OS install
Thank you Lissa,
The templates that we were using were carried on from 2.3 to 2.8 and
2.8.4.1.
I understand that i can modify the mypostscript template, to use the
variables for postscript or post-kickstart installation. ( after initial
kickstart installation, and not postboot installation)
Are you trying to say, that the mypostscript variables can be used even
before the post-kickstart session? ( that is during the period where :
--url is read by the anaconda installer)
Please advice.
Thank you,
Lohit
On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 7:14 AM, Lissa Valletta <[email protected]>
wrote:
Did you mean you were running 2.3 or 2.8.3 xCAT release previously.
In any case, you can customize your postscript template. Please
read this documentation.
https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xcat/index.php?title=Postscripts_and_Prescripts
But for a non-node key'd table, I think your only option is
tabdump(linuximage)
Lissa K. Valletta
8-3/B10
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
(tie 293) 433-3102
Inactive hide details for Lohit Valleru ---06/16/2014 06:31:53
PM---I found a solution to the above issue. We had been updating
Lohit Valleru ---06/16/2014 06:31:53 PM---I found a solution to the
above issue. We had been updating xCAT from 2.3 version, and
copying the t
From: Lohit Valleru <[email protected]>
To: xCAT Users Mailing list <[email protected]>,
Date: 06/16/2014 06:31 PM
Subject: Re: [xcat-user] xCAT variables during OS install
I found a solution to the above issue.
We had been updating xCAT from 2.3 version, and copying the
templates from one version to other.
After I removed the URL from the template, i observed that xCAT
automatically populated the same from OSimage table.
However, it would be good to know, how do we export xCAT variables
before the postscript section.
On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 4:57 PM, Lohit Valleru <
[email protected]> wrote:
Hi all,
I am currently using xCAT 2.8.4.1.
I understand that xCAT variables could be used during post
script installation, by editing the postscript template that
xCAT has provided.
However, i would like to use few variables before postscript
installation :
For example, the following table variable, helps receive the
nfs server information:
#TABLE:noderes:$NODE:nfsserver#
Is there anyway i could receive the linux image table
information in the same way?
I am trying to customize and automate the osimage directories
to custom directories instead of xCAT default.
Since linux image table does not have $NODE vause
I have tried to use
url --url
http://#TABLE:noderes:$NODE:nfsserver#/#TABLE:linuximage:\#TABLE:nodetype:$NODE:provmethod#\:pkgdir#
or
PROVMETHOD=#TABLE:nodetype:$NODE:provmethod#
PKGDIR=#TABLE:linuximage:$PROVMETHOD:pkgdir#
url --url http://#TABLE:noderes:$NODE:nfsserver#/$PKGDIR
I need to find a way to nest the table variables or assign
the table value to a variable and use them later.
Else, i would be happy to know - how does xCAT populate
$NODE, and if i could populate other variables in a similar
way.
Please do let me know, if anyone has tried doing the above.
Thank you,
Lohit
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Find What Matters Most in Your Big Data with HPCC Systems
Open Source. Fast. Scalable. Simple. Ideal for Dirty Data.
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Open Source. Fast. Scalable. Simple. Ideal for Dirty Data.
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Open Source. Fast. Scalable. Simple. Ideal for Dirty Data.
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