[Un-Attended Ubuntu 22.04] Setting up Cobbler 3.2.2 on RockyLinux-8.9

[NileshChandekar]

Introduction

• Cobbler is a free and open source Linux installation server that can be used to automate the network installation environments from a central location. It allows you to install operating systems automatically on multiple systems simultaneously and also helps you to manage package updates, configuration management, manage DNS, DHCP and much more.

Prerequisites

• A KVM-VM with Rocky Linux release 8.9 (Green Obsidian)
• Static IP as below
  • eth0 for internet access to download and install cobbler.
  • eth1 for PXE-Booting/DNS/DHCP

2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:1e:49:52 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp1s0
    inet 192.168.122.51/24 brd 192.168.122.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft 39073sec preferred_lft 39073sec
    inet6 fe80::5054:ff:fe1e:4952/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: eth1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:86:59:a6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp2s0
    inet 192.168.100.218/24 brd 192.168.100.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth1
       valid_lft 2865sec preferred_lft 2865sec
    inet6 fe80::2d5b:adc6:53d8:f407/64 scope link noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

• Before starting, you will need to disable Selinux on the server. You can do this by editing /etc/selinux/config file:

/etc/selinux/config

• Make the following changes:

SELINUX=disabled

• Save and close the file. Then, restart your server to apply the changes.
• Once you are logged into your VM-instance, run the following command to update your base system with the latest available packages.

yum update -y

Install Cobbler

• By default, Cobbler is not available in the RocklyLinux default repository. So you will need to add EPEL repository to your server. You can add it with the following command:

yum install epel-release -y

• Once the repository has been installed, you can install Cobbler with other required packages by running the following command:

yum install cobbler cobbler-web dnsmasq syslinux pykickstart xinetd fence-agents debmirror dhcp bind

• Once all the packages are installed, start cobblered tftp rsyncd and httpd services and enable them to start on boot time with the following command:

systemctl start cobblerd
systemctl start tftp
systemctl start rsyncd
systemctl start httpd
systemctl enable cobblerd
systemctl enable tftp
systemctl enable rsyncd
systemctl enable httpd

• Check the status of cobblerd service with the following command:

systemctl status cobblerd

• You can also check the status of tftp and dhcpd service with the following command:

systemctl status tftp

systemctl status dhcpd

• You will need to edit tftp configuration file and make some changes. You can do this with the following command:

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/xinetd.d/tftp 
disable = 0
[root@localhost ~]#

• Save and close the file, when you are finished.

Configure Cobbler

• Cobbler default configuration file located at /etc/cobbler/settings.yaml
• Before configuring Cobbler, you will need to generate encrypt password. You can do this with the following command:

openssl passwd -1

Password: 
Verifying - Password: 
$1$sRyNl06P$ekzu/c34/dOlwZhi/vrQu/

vi /etc/cobbler/settings.yaml

default_password_crypted: "$1$sRyNl06P$ekzu/c34/dOlwZhi/vrQu/"
manage_dhcp: true
manage_dns: true
pxe_just_once: true
next_server: 192.168.100.218
server: 192.168.100.218

cat /etc/cobbler/dhcp.template

# ******************************************************************
# 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.
#
# ******************************************************************

#import netaddr

ddns-update-style interim;

allow booting;
allow bootp;

ignore client-updates;
set vendorclass = option vendor-class-identifier;

option system-arch code 93 = unsigned integer 16;

subnet 192.168.100.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
     option routers             192.168.100.1;
     option domain-name-servers 192.168.100.1;
     option subnet-mask         255.255.255.0;
     range dynamic-bootp        192.168.100.100 192.168.100.254;
     default-lease-time         21600;
     max-lease-time             43200;
     next-server                $next_server;
     class "pxeclients" {
          match if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";

          # Legacy
          if option system-arch = 00:00 {
              filename "grub/grub.0";
          }
          # UEFI-32-1
          if option system-arch = 00:06 {
               # Not supported, no 32 bit UEFI grub executable
              filename "unsupported";
          }
          # UEFI-32-2
          if option system-arch = 00:02 {
              # Not supported, no 32 bit UEFI grub executable
              filename "unsupported";
          }
          # UEFI-64-1
          else if option system-arch = 00:07 {
              filename "grub/grubx64.efi";
          }
          # UEFI-64-2
          else if option system-arch = 00:08 {
              filename "grub/grubx64.efi";
          }
          # UEFI-64-3
          else if option system-arch = 00:09 {
              filename "grub/grubx64.efi";
          }
          # armv7   (aka arm 32 bit)
          else if option system-arch = 00:0a {
              filename "grub/armv7.efi";
          }
          # aarch64 (aka arm 64 bit)
          else if option system-arch = 00:0b {
              filename "grub/grubaa64.efi";
          }
          # RiskV 32 bit
          else if option system-arch = 00:25 {
              #ToDo petitboot loader
              filename "unsupported";
          }
          #RiskV 32 bit
          else if option system-arch = 00:27 {
              #ToDo petitboot loader
              filename "unsupported";
          }
          else if option system-arch = 00:0e {
              filename "grub/grub.ppc64le";
          }
          else
          {
              filename "pxelinux.0";
          }
     }
}

/var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.0

• Save and close the file. Then, open /etc/cobbler/dnsmasq.template file:

vi /etc/cobbler/dnsmasq.template

# Cobbler generated configuration file for dnsmasq
# $date 
#

# resolve.conf .. ?
#no-poll
#enable-dbus
read-ethers
addn-hosts = /var/lib/cobbler/cobbler_hosts

dhcp-range=192.168.100.5,192.168.100.200
dhcp-option=66,$next_server
dhcp-lease-max=1000
dhcp-authoritative
dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0
dhcp-boot=net:normalarch,pxelinux.0

$insert_cobbler_system_definitions

vi /etc/debmirror.conf

• Make the following changes:

#@dists="sid";
#@arches="i386";

• Save and close the file. Then, restart Cobblerd and xinetd with the following command:

systemctl restart xinetd
systemctl restart cobblerd
systemctl restart tftp
systemctl restart dhcpd

• Sync all the changes to Cobbler with the following command:

cobbler check
cobbler sync

• You should see TASK COMPLETE in the output.

Import ISO files to Cobbler server ### Here I am testing Ubuntu-22.04

• Next, mount the ISO file to /mnt with the following command:

mount -o loop /tmp/ubuntu-22.04-beta-live-server-amd64.iso  /mnt/

• Import the ISO contents to Cobbler with the following command:

cobbler import --arch=x86_64  --path=/mnt --name=ubu22

Verify Cobbler Distro List

• You can verify the Cobbler distro list with the following command:

cobbler distro list

• You should see your distro in the following output:

ubu22-casper-x86_64

• Edit and update the parameters sync the updated profile to the Cobbler with the following command:

cobbler profile  edit --name=ubu22-casper-x86_64 --autoinstall=user-data

cobbler profile  edit --kernel-options="url=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/ubuntu-22.04-beta-live-server-amd64.iso ip=dhcp autoinstall=/var/lib/cobbler/templates/user-data" --name=ubu22-casper-x86_64

cobbler sync

• You should see "TASK COMPLETE" in the output.
• Check if the configuration is properly populated

[root@localhost ~]# cat /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default 
DEFAULT menu
PROMPT 0
MENU TITLE Cobbler | https://cobbler.github.io
TIMEOUT 200
TOTALTIMEOUT 6000
ONTIMEOUT local

LABEL local
        MENU LABEL (local)
        MENU DEFAULT
        LOCALBOOT -1

LABEL ubu22-casper-x86_64
        kernel /images/ubu22-casper-x86_64/vmlinuz
        MENU LABEL ubu22-casper-x86_64
        append initrd=/images/ubu22-casper-x86_64/initrd url=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/ubuntu-22.04-beta-live-server-amd64.iso ip=dhcp autoinstall hostname=localhost domain=local.lan suite=jammy cloud-config-url=/dev/null  ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/
        ipappend 2

MENU end
[root@localhost ~]#

[root@localhost pub]# ls -lhrt 
total 1.4G
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 Jan 29 13:26 text
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.4G Jan 29 13:26 ubuntu-22.04-beta-live-server-amd64.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 Jan 29 13:46 meta-data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.3K Jan 29 13:56 user-data.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.3K Jan 29 14:35 user-data_ORG
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 Jan 29 15:02 vendor-data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.6K Jan 29 16:17 user-data-working-v1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.7K Jan 30 14:08 user-data
[root@localhost pub]# pwd
/var/www/cobbler/pub
[root@localhost pub]#

[root@localhost pub]# cat user-data
#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  version: 1
  identity:
    hostname: localhost
    password: $6$WqJBy2ccJytgpdLe$CItIJBYgOvr12Wn9.Ntb.qxTRqf/5U1qbZ3EHvr4qajZzYQFMuwKToxgfKdqaCgnnA.YOu39emB3So0J9pjh51
    realname: localhost
    username: nc
  kernel:
    package: linux-generic
  keyboard:
    layout: us
    toggle: null
    variant: ''
  locale: en_US.UTF-8
  network:
    ethernets: 
      ens3:
        dhcp4: true
    version: 2
  ssh:
    allow-pw: true
    authorized-keys: 
    - ssh-rsa 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 nilesh@ct-itpl0415
    install-server: true

  storage:
    layout:
      name: lvm
      sizing-policy: all

  package_update: false
  package_upgrade: false

  late-commands:
    - rm /target/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99needrestart # This prompt will prevent the apt command from completing
[root@localhost pub]#

• I am able to boot the Ubuntu-Server-22.04 LTS

[btravouillon]

Thank you for sharing this howto.

After reading it, it's unclear to me how Cobbler generates the line below in /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default:

append initrd=/images/ubu22-casper-x86_64/initrd url=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/ubuntu-22.04-beta-live-server-amd64.iso ip=dhcp autoinstall hostname=localhost domain=local.lan suite=jammy cloud-config-url=/dev/null  ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/

Especially the cloud-config-url=/dev/null ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/. Could you elaborate?

[NileshChandekar]

@btravouillon cloud-config-url=/dev/null ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/ this is added manually.

You can extend this below command to incorporate above line :-

cobbler profile  edit \
--kernel-options="url=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/ubuntu-22.04-beta-live-server-amd64.iso \
ip=dhcp autoinstall=/var/lib/cobbler/templates/user-data \
cloud-config-url=/dev/null \
ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.100.218/cblr/pub/" \
--name=ubu22-casper-x86_64

^^ Something like this, but I had added this manually to move fast.

[Alex-Gal]

Thanks for the instructions. The installation of Ubuntu 22 was successful. But how to set up the config for RAID 1 partitioning when installing Ubuntu 22. Maybe you have an example of the settings?

[NileshChandekar]

Sorry, I am also in search for the same,

[NileshChandekar]

You can follow this,

#3663