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

Check the profile settings

root@ubuntu1204-cobbler:~# cobbler profile report --name=centos62-x86_64
Name                           : centos62-x86_64
TFTP Boot Files                : {}
Comment                        : 
DHCP Tag                       : default
Distribution                   : centos62-x86_64
Enable PXE Menu?               : 1
Fetchable Files                : {}
Kernel Options                 : {}
Kernel Options (Post Install)  : {}
Kickstart                      : /var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts/sample.ks
Kickstart Metadata             : {}
Management Classes             : []
Management Parameters          : <<inherit>>
Name Servers                   : []
Name Servers Search Path       : []
Owners                         : ['admin']
Parent Profile                 : 
Proxy                          : 
Red Hat Management Key         : <<inherit>>
Red Hat Management Server      : <<inherit>>
Repos                          : []
Server Override                : <<inherit>>
Template Files                 : {}
Virt Auto Boot                 : 1
Virt Bridge                    : virbr0
Virt CPUs                      : 1
Virt Disk Driver Type          : raw
Virt File Size(GB)             : 5
Virt Path                      : 
Virt RAM (MB)                  : 512
Virt Type                      : qemu