Cobbler installation on CentOS/RHEL

Pre-Requisits

For this installation, we will need to have the following services installed: dhcp, bind & apache.

Install with the following yum command:

yum install httpd dhcp bind

If necessary, the dhcpd service can be restricted to servicing dhcp requests on just one port. To do this, edit the /etc/sysconfig/dhcpd file and set the following line:

DHCPDARGS=eth1

Adding the EPEL Repo to get cobbler

Download http://mirrors.coreix.net/fedora-epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm (or whatever is suitable for the installed OS):

wget http://mirrors.coreix.net/fedora-epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

And install:

rpm -ivh epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

Install cobbler

Install using yum:

yum install cobbler cobbler-web

Check apache is working

Restart httpd:

service httpd restart

The following error might occur:

Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 10 of /etc/httpd/conf.d/cobbler.conf:
Invalid command 'WSGIScriptAliasMatch', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
[FAILED]

If this error occurs, firstly remove mod_python:

rpm -e mod_python

Then, create a mod_wsgi config file:

cat > /etc/httpd/conf.d/05-load-wsgi.conf
LoadModule wsgi_module modules/mod_wsgi.so

And finally restart apache:

service httpd restart

Add a few more packages to satisfy some cobbler requirements

Install debmirror with yum (needed to manage debian deployments):

yum install debmirror

Install pykickstart with yum (A python library for manipulating kickstart files):

yum install pykickstart

Edit xinet.d/rsync file

Edit /etc/xinetd.d/rsync and change disable to no:

service rsync
{
        disable = no
        socket_type     = stream
        wait            = no
        user            = root
        server          = /usr/bin/rsync
        server_args     = --daemon
        log_on_failure  += USERID
}

Edit /etc/debmirror.conf for proper Debian support

Edit /etc/debmirror.conf and comment dists and arches lines:

# Download options
$host="ftp.debian.org";
$user="anonymous";
$passwd="anonymous@";
$remoteroot="/debian";
$download_method="ftp";
# @dists="sid";
@sections="main,main/debian-installer,contrib,non-free";
# @arches="i386";
# @extra_dirs="";
# @ignores="";
. . . . .

Configure cobbler

Get cobbler to manage dhcp and dns by setting the following in /etc/cobbler/settings:

manage_dhcp: 1
manage_dns: 1

Set server ip addresses in /etc/cobbler/settings:

next_server: 172.28.0.100
server: 172.28.0.100

Confirm the following are set in /etc/cobbler/modules.conf:

[dns]
module = manage_bind

[dhcp]
module = manage_isc

Edit /etc/cobbler/dhcp.template with relevant network information (for example):

# ******************************************************************
# Cobbler managed dhcpd.conf file
#
# generated from cobbler dhcp.conf template ($date)
# Do NOT make changes to /etc/dhcpd.conf. Instead, make your changes
# in /etc/cobbler/dhcp.template, as /etc/dhcpd.conf will be
# overwritten.
#
# ******************************************************************
	
ddns-update-style interim;
	
allow booting;
allow bootp;
	
ignore client-updates;
set vendorclass = option vendor-class-identifier;
	
subnet 172.28.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 {
     option routers             172.28.0.100;
     option domain-name-servers 10.0.0.1;
     option subnet-mask         255.255.0.0;
     range dynamic-bootp        172.28.0.101 172.28.0.200;
     filename                   "/pxelinux.0";
     default-lease-time         604800;
     max-lease-time             604800;
     next-server                172.28.0.100;
}
. . . . .

Attempt to start dhcpd:

service dhcpd restart

NB: if the dhcpd service isn't running and it fails to start, it may be because the default /etc/dhcpd.conf file is blank. Enter the above information and start the dhcpd service (it needs to be running for cobbler sync (below) to complete fully). The content of /etc/dhcpd.conf will be overwritten with the contents of /etc/cobbler/dhcp.template once cobbler sync has been performed.

Run cobbler check:

cobbler check

Run cobbler sync:

cobbler sync

Import a CentOS ISO for deployment

Mount a the CentOS ISO file to a local folder, for example:

mount -o loop ./CentOS-5.7-x86_64-bin-DVD-1of2.iso /mnt

Import the ISO into cobbler:

cobbler import --name=CentOS_5.7_X86_64 --path=/mnt/ --breed=redhat --arch=x86_64

Finish with a cobbler sync:

cobbler sync

Display available profiles

Display the available profiles used for installations. This is basically the same as seen on the PXE boot menu

root@ubuntu1204-cobbler:~# cobbler profile list
   CentOS_6.3_X86_64-x86_64
   centos57-x86_64
   centos57-xen-x86_64
   centos62-x86_64
   centos63-x86_64
   fedora17-armhf
   rhel62-x86_64
   rhel62-x86_64_PCM
   ubuntu1204-armhf
   ubuntu1204-server-x86_64
   ubuntu1210-armhf

Change the installation settings

View the profile (which will include kickstart files)

root@ubuntu1204-cobbler:~$ cobbler profile report --name=centos62-x86_64
<snip>
Kickstart                      : /var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts/sample.ks
</snip>

Change the kickstart file

cobbler profile edit --name=centos62-x86_64 --kickstart=/var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts/kickstart-sdaonly.ks

Add unmanaged DNS entry

Edit the file: /etc/cobbler/zone.template

puppet IN A 172.28.0.2

$host_record

Cobbler sync once the changes have been made