Automating Linux Installations at CERN G. Cancio, L. Cons, P. Defert, M. Olive, I. Reguero, C. Rossi IT/PDP, CERN presented by G. Cancio

Agenda u Linux at CERN u Automating installations u Kickstart usage: Architecture, configuration, problems u Work to be done

Linux at CERN u Currently, ~ 1000 PC’s running Linux on the site u most of them farm nodes in the Computer Centre u Now: increase of per month u Tomorrow: several thousands PC’s Ô How to manage their installation / reinstallation/ upgrade? u Manual installation takes ~ 20 minutes per node, requiring human interaction

Automating installations u Requirements for an automated installation procedure: u run unattended u allow parallel installations u scalable to new clients, and new OS releases u flexible configuration u customizable to specific needs u Examples: JumpStart, Ignite-UX, Kickstart u Examples:

Kickstart Overview u Automated installation system provided by RedHat u Configuration file describes system setup for a machine u disk partitions, packages to install, mouse and keyboard setup etc… u May contain a post installation procedure u Configurations may be stored on.. u the installation diskette itself u NFS server using BOOTP

Architecture u Register machine in LANDB and BOOTP server u put KS cfg file on NFS server u load installer on target using floppy or ANIS(*) u installer contacts BOOTP server and gets network info and KS config file u mount install server, start main installation MAC address linuxsoft: /ks/asis-w6 NFS mount Installation target (asis-w6) LANDBAFS BOOTP server NFS server mirror update (*)ANIS (=Automated Network Installation System): System for booting over the network an installation client

Configuration Example (I) # network setup network --bootproto static ---ip \ --netmask gateway \ --nameserver # NFS install server to use nfs --server linuxsoft --dir /redhat/cern/6.1 # packages to install CERN recommended setup

Configuration Example(II) post installation after first reboot: %post (...) cat >/etc/rc.d/init.d/ks-post <<EOF #!/bin/sh -x (...) # install AFS via SUE /usr/sue/etc/sue.install afs (...) EOF

Problems u Bugs (RH 6.1): u root password encryption not working u incorrect /etc/hosts generation u X config tool buggy u Other problems: u No low-level configuration for partitions (-> run fdisk in postinstall) u Command syntax changing

Current status & limitations u More than 370 systems installed using Kickstart u RedHat releases available: 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1 Limitations: u Kickstart file writing is complex u Kickstart syntax changes u Chaos: how to manage 1000’s of configurations?

Installation Management System We are developing a system for managing the installations Client side:User-friendly GUI front-end for defining setups u Templates for several Hardware configs and usage types u farm node, workstation, laptop.. u Configuration defaults u site defaults, group defaults, cluster defaults

Installation Management System (II) u Configuration database stored centrally u reuse of configurations u same configuration for multiple installation targets u Flexibility u configuration data stored in intermediate format u reuse stored configurations for new Kickstart releases (.. or other installation systems) u Plugins for extending Kickstart functionality u ie. For site-specific installation options u implemented in the post-install section

GUI prototype

Contacts u CERN IT/PDP: u Linux at CERN: u Automated Network Installation System (ANIS): u Installation Management System: