NOTE

This documentation is outdated and has been moved to an updated version on https://linuxops.web.cern.ch/aims2/aims2legacyworkaround/. After https://cern.service-now.com/service-portal?id=outage&n=OTG0069753, legacy workaround does no longer exist but internal docs explain how to do it under exceptional circumstances .

Whatever you may find here is kept for historical purposes, but these docs are no longer relevant for many reasons after the service evolution and improvements .

Use this workaround ONLY for systems which cannot boot using standard configuration, as of Feb 2016 this concerns following types of network cards: Mellanox Connect X-2, Chelsio T520-LL-CR, QLogic cLOM8215

and qemu-kvm on RHEL6/SLC6 systems

Enable PXE workaround

Make sure your aims2 client version is at least 2.11.

Add affected system to AIMS2:

# aims2 addhost HOSTNAME

Enable PXE workaround:

# aims2 pxelgcyon HOSTNAME

Optional: Set PXE boot target:

# aims2 pxeon HOSTNAME TARGET

Wait until AIMS2 synchronizes configuration (PXE legacy synced: Y (optionally: PXE boot synced: Y), this takes ~1 minute.

# aims2 showhost HOSTNAME -all

Hostname:           HOSTNAME

Interface HWADDR:   XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

PXE status:         OFF

PXE boot options:   none

PXE boot type:      BIOS

PXE boot target:    none

PXE noexpiry:       N

PXE boot synced:    N

PXE boot legacy:    Y

PXE legacy synced:  *Y*

Registered by:      jpolok

Registered at:      2016/02/29 07:48:28

Enabled at:         ????/??/?? ??:??:??

Booted at:          ????/??/?? ??:??:??

Disabled at:        ????/??/?? ??:??:??

Enable PXE workaround - alternative syntax

Requires aims2 client version 2.13 (at least).

# aims2 addhost --bios --lgcy --hostname HOSTNAME --name TARGET --kickstart=KSFILE [ --kopts=KSOPTS ]

Enable PXE workaround - ai-installhost

For systems installed using ai-installhost please add --mode bioslgcy flag to the command (this is temporary until ai-installhost will be able to autodetect affected hardware):

# ai-installhost --mode bioslgcy HOSTNAME.cern.ch ...

Disable PXE workaround

The PXE workaround stays active until one of the following commands is issued:

# aims2 pxelgcyoff HOSTNAME

# aims2 pxeon HOSTNAME TARGET uefi

# aims2 delhost HOSTNAME

# aims2 addhost HOSTNAME

Installing the system or using # aims2 pxeoff HOSTNAME does NOT disable the workaround.

RHEL6/SLC6: qemu-kvm

Instead of workaround described above qemu-kvm can be booted using ipxe boot cd (http://cern.ch/linux/scientific6/docs/ipxe.iso)

(this boot cd implements a PXE network boot stack independent of qemu-kvm network boot firmware)

RHEL6/SLC6: qemu-kvm / CERN NICE (Windows) installation

In addition to the workaround above, please start installation using Diane WinPE 5 menu entry, since the standard one crashes Windows on qemu-kvm at present.

From interactive network installation menu choose:

Expert Operating System Install Menu

then:

CERN (NICE) Windows Install Menu

and boot using:

Diane WinPE 5

JaroslawPolok - 2016-03-04