Koan

• THE COBBLER SERVER
• LISTING AVAILABLE RESOURCES
• MAIN COMMANDS
• VIEWING THE INSTALLATION DATA
• VIRTUALIZED INSTALLS
• REINSTALLATION
• NOTES FOR USERS OF COBBLER TEMPLATING
• POST INSTALLATION MANAGEMENT OF VIRT GUESTS

THE COBBLER SERVER

--server

Indicates the hostname of the Cobbler boot server to be contacted. Successful communication requires that no firewalls are blocking the cobbler XMLRPC port, which is usually 25151, and that ``cobblerd'' is running on the cobbler server.

This argument must be specified for all koan commands.

LISTING AVAILABLE RESOURCES

Lists of the resources that can be installed from a remote server can be obtained by using the following commands:

--list-profiles

Shows a list of profiles that can be remotely installed from the cobbler server.

--list-systems

Shows a list of systems that can be remotely installed from the cobbler server. Systems contain the same information as profiles but may be further customized in terms of parameters or kickstart information. The level of customization varies depending on what has been specified on the cobbler server.

Example: koan --server=cobbler.example.org --list-systems

MAIN COMMANDS

The commands --virt, --replace-self, and --display all take the following arguments:

--profile

Names a profile, known to cobbler, that is to be installed.

--system

Names a system, known to cobbler, that is to be installed. --system cannot be used at the same time as --profile; pick one or the other.

VIEWING THE INSTALLATION DATA

In depth data about what is being installed can be viewed prior to kicking off an installation. Use --display instead of --virt or --replace-self. When using this argument, specify the data to display with --profile or --system.

Example: koan --server=cobbler.example.org --display --profile=fedora7-xen-i386

VIRTUALIZED INSTALLS

When using --virt, koan will create new virtualized guests on a machine in accordance to the orders from cobbler. These can be Xen or QEMU/KVM guests depending on --virt-type. Once created, use ``virsh'' to control the guests. Virsh may need a connection string like ``virsh --connect qemu:///system''.

Example: koan --server=cobbler.example.org --virt --profile=fedora7-xen-i386

If --profile is specified, cobbler will default to naming domains based on their mac addresses; using --system will use the exact name given to the cobbler system object. To install using an alternate descriptive name, specify one with --virtname.

The additional parameters --virt-path, and --virt-type allow overriding certain defaults that are ordinarily defined by the remote cobbler server.

Optional advanced-configuration parameters for --virt:

--virt-name

(optional) Overrides the name of the virtual machine. This name must not conflict with other virtual machines running on the same system. If not specified, cobbler will provide reasonable defaults.

--virt-path

(optional) Specifies the storage for the virtual image. This path must be an absolute path of an existing directory in which to store the image, with an optional filename component.

There is also experimental support for specifying partitions such as ``/dev/sda4''. Volume Groups with available free space can also be used by specifying a group name such as ``VolGroup00''. Partitions should always start with /dev and Volume Groups should be represented by their names.

--virt-type

(optional) Koan can install virtual guests for Xen (paravirtualized), or QEMU/KVM (paravirtualized or fully virtualized based on hardware support). Use --virt-type=``qemu'' or --virt-type=``xenpv'' to override the values already defined in cobbler. Since this parameter can be set in the cobbler profile, it's best to just set it there. See the cobbler manpage for more documentation.

qemu installs will select kvm, kqemu, or qemu, based on available hardware support.

--virt-graphics

(optional) This enables VNC graphics for virtual installs. Currently qemu-based installs ignore this parameter and always enable VNC. With VNC on, it is assumed a firewall is blocking remote access to the server. In the future, qemu installs may respect the presence/absense of this parameter as Xen installs currently do.

Example: koan --server=cobbler.example.org --virt --profile=rhel5-x86_64 --virt-type=``qemu'' --virt-path=``/home/username/qemu/'' --virt-name=``test_setup''

REINSTALLATION

When using '--replace-self', cobbler will reprovision the system, blowing away any current data and replacing it with the results of a network install. Specify a specific item from cobbler with --system or --profile, otherwise cobbler will try to see if there is a cobbler system record that matches a MAC address on the system.

This is useful to reinstall systems in conditions where ordinary PXE is not possible.

After using this feature, run ``/sbin/reboot'' to initiate the fully automatic reinstallation.

Example: koan --server=cobbler.example.org --profile=fedora7-xen-i386 --replace-self

Example: koan --server=cobbler.example.org --replace-self

NOTES FOR USERS OF COBBLER TEMPLATING

Cobbler contains a templating feature that allows a single kickstart file to be customized on a per-system basis. See the cobbler manpage for more details.

If you have system specific customizations in your kickstarts and have cobbler system definitions defined server side for those systems, use --system and not --profile, to request the more specific per-system information from Cobbler.

POST INSTALLATION MANAGEMENT OF VIRT GUESTS

The best tools to use after automatically installing a virt guest with koan are SSH (once installed and running), virsh, or virt-manager. If VNC graphics are available, virt-manager will allow access to the guest as if logged in directly to it. For Xen guests, ``virsh console <name>'' will also allow access to the guests. There is no QEMU console support at this time (use virt-manager with VNC or SSH).

Various additional commands are available through virsh. See the virsh manpage for details. Depending on virt type, start virsh with either just ``virsh'' (for Xen) or ``virsh --connect=qemu:///system'' (for QEMU).