Automated O & M tool cobbler for system installation

Cobbler is an open-source O & M tool for automated operating system installation. With cobbler, you can install the operating system without manual intervention, making the installation of the operating system very simple.

Cobbler supports multiple releases: Red Hat, fedora, centos, Debian, Ubuntu, and Suse.

Cobbler can use the Kickstart template. Red Hat or fedora-based systems use the Kickstart file to automate the installation process. The following experiment uses the Kickstart file to automate the installation of the centos 6.5 system.

1. Cobbler installation:

Cobbler installation depends on the epel source. Therefore, you must configure the epel source during installation and use the Host IP address 172.16.103.1.

# yum -y install cobbler

Start the service

# service cobblerd start

2. Configure cobbler:

# vim /etc/cobbler/settings

1. SERVER: 127.0.0.1 # This default setting needs to be adjusted. Change 127.0.0.1 to the address that the local machine provides the listening service externally. For example, 172.16.103.12, next_server: 127.0.0.1 # This option is used to specify the IP address of the host where the TFTP service is located. It is used to provide the server address of the system boot file during network boot. This is also the server node here, you can also change it to 172.16.103.1. 3. default_password_crypted # modify the original default password of cobbler: run the following command to generate the password and save it in the password string following the default_password_crypted command. # OpenSSL passwd-1-salt 'openssl rand-hex 4' will prompt you to enter the password. Enter the password twice and generate the password string, for example, $1 $ e06065be $ b2ibwcabfubmj8n2ju2ud1.

3. Configure rsync, TFTP, and httpd services so that these services can be started upon startup, because cobbler depends on these services and also relies on DHCP services, however, some configurations are required for the DHCP service. These services can be directly started after installation.

# yum -y install rsync# chkconfig rsync on  # yum -y install tftp-server# chkconfig tftpd on# service xinetd start# yum -y install httpd # service httpd start

4. install and configure the DHCP service so that the client host that needs to install the operating system can automatically assign an IP address through the host.

# Yum-y install DHCP # cp/usr/share/doc/DHCP # cd/usr/share/doc/dhcp-4.1.1/# cp DHCPD. conf. sample/etc/DHCP/DHCPD. conf # provide configuration files for the DHCP service

# Vim/etc/DHCP/DHCPD. conf option domain-name-servers 172.16.103.1; # In the global configuration section of the DHCP configuration file, specify the domain-name-servers set after the option command to a specific Intranet available server address. The default address cannot be used. You can directly specify the local machine without configuring the DNS service. Subnet 172.16.103.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {range 172.16.103.100 172.16.103.200; next-server 172.16.103.1; # This specifies the Server IP address of the TFTP service, and the TFTP service also runs on the local machine, therefore, the specified IP address is also the IP address of the local machine. Filename = "pxelinux.0"; # specifies the file that the TFTP service provides to the client for booting the system}

# service dhcpd start

5. Copy the pxelinux.0 and menu. c32 files required when the client boot system is started to the/var/lib/cobbler/loaders directory or in the network state, and execute:

# cobbler get-loaders

6. Now you can officially configure the configurations required for system installation provided by cobbler:

Provides the system installation source, which can be provided using a CD image and imported to cobbler:

# Mount-r/dev/CDROM/Media/CDROM # cobbler import -- Path =/Media/CDROM -- name = centos-6.5-x86_64 # cobbler distro list # Use this command to view the import after the import is complete rear system centos-6.5-x86_64

To add a system-installed profile, you must use system-config-Kickstart to generate a kickstart file. You can create a kickstart file in the graphic interface:

# cobbler profile add --name=centos-6.5-x86_64-basic --distro=centos-6.5-x86_64 --kickstart=/tmp/centos6.x86_64.cfg# cobbler sync# cobbler profile list

After cobbler is configured, start the client to test and install the system by starting the network (the client and the cobbler server must be in the same network, we recommend that you use vmnet # to set up a separate network for testing in a virtual machine)

In addition, we can also install cobbler web management to configure cobbler in the graphic interface. to configure cobbler in the Web GUI, you need to create a user account for cobbler:

# Yum-y install cobbler_web # useradd cblradmin # passwd cblradmin # create a password for this user

# Vim/etc/cobbler/modules. conf # modify the Authentication Mode to PAM Authentication Mode [authentication] module = authn_pam

Add the created user to the cobbler Management User List configuration file:

# Vim/etc/cobbler/users. conf [admins] admin = "cblradmin" # Add the user account to the account location specified by the admin command.

# service cobblerd restart# service httpd restart

Enter the IP address of the corresponding cobbler server host + cobbler_web in the browser, for example, 172.16.103.1/cobbler_web to access the cobbler web page, which makes cobbler management easier on the Web interface.

Automated O & M tool cobbler for system installation