importing a distro with --available-as is totally broken in 2.2.3

[jonathanunderwood]

Something has totally clobbered distro importing in 2.2.3 when using --available-as.

The old, correct behaviour

With an earlier cobbler (I think 2.2.2), the following command:

cobbler import --path=/srv/www/repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.2/x86_64/os --breed=redhat --name=SL-6.2-x86_64 --available-as=http://repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.2/x86_64/os

successfully created a distro without creating a local mirror under /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror, as it should.

$ cobbler distro report --name=SL-6.2-x86_64
Name : SL-6.2-x86_64
Architecture : x86_64
TFTP Boot Files : {}
Breed : redhat
Comment :
Fetchable Files : {}
Initrd : /srv/www/repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.2/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
Kernel : /srv/www/repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.2/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
Kernel Options : {}
Kernel Options (Post Install) : {}
Kickstart Metadata : {'tree': 'http://repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.2/x86_64/os'}
Management Classes : []
OS Version : generic26
Owners : ['admin']
Red Hat Management Key : <>
Red Hat Management Server : <>
Template Files : {}

Notice the value of "Kickstart Metadata". [Although, notice that the Initrd and Kernel are set to /srv/... rather than under /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror, which I think is incorrect].

The 2.2.3 behaviour

The following command:

$ cobbler import --path=/srv/www/repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.3/x86_64/os --breed=redhat --name=SL-6.3-x86_64 --available-as="http://repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.3/x86_64/os

now creates an entire mirror of the distro under /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror:

$ ls -l /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror/
total 8
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jun 18 02:04 config
drwxr-xr-x. 8 root root 4096 Aug 22 16:35 SL-6.3-x86_64

$ du -sh /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror/SL-6.3-x86_64/
5.4G /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror/SL-6.3-x86_64/

And:

$ cobbler distro report --name=SL-6.3-x86_64
Name : SL-6.3-x86_64
Architecture : x86_64
TFTP Boot Files : {}
Breed : redhat
Comment :
Fetchable Files : {}
Initrd : /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror/SL-6.3-x86_64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
Kernel : /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror/SL-6.3-x86_64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
Kernel Options : {}
Kernel Options (Post Install) : {}
Kickstart Metadata : {'tree': 'http://repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.3/x86_64/os/var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror/SL-6.3-x86_64'}
Management Classes : []
OS Version : generic26
Owners : ['admin']
Red Hat Management Key : <>
Red Hat Management Server : <>
Template Files : {}

Note the mangled Kickstart Metadata.

[jonathanunderwood]

I think for the use case described above the correct behaviour would be:

1. Copy the initrd and kernel somewhere suitable under /var to be served up by TFTP (this wasn't done correctly in the old case) - the Old behaviour actually used the location from where the distro was imported, which, if it was a mounted DVD say, might not be available later.

2. Set the Kickstart Metadata 'tree' value to be the address passed with the --available-as option.

[jonathanunderwood]

Aha! Today I tried the trunk version as I noticed a patch related to --available-as has been commited, and it now works exactly as I would expect:

$ cobbler distro report --name=SL-6.3-x86_64
Name : SL-6.3-x86_64
Architecture : x86_64
TFTP Boot Files : {}
Breed : redhat
Comment :
Fetchable Files : {}
Initrd : /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror/SL-6.3-x86_64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
Kernel : /var/www/cobbler/ks_mirror/SL-6.3-x86_64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
Kernel Options : {}
Kernel Options (Post Install) : {}
Kickstart Metadata : {'tree': 'http://repos.theory.phys.ucl.ac.uk/mirrors/SL/6.3/x86_64/os/'}
Management Classes : []
OS Version : generic26
Owners : ['admin']
Red Hat Management Key : <>
Red Hat Management Server : <>
Template Files : {}