************** cobbler distro ************** This first step towards configuring what you want to install is to add a distribution record to Cobbler's configuration. If there is an rsync mirror, DVD, NFS, or filesystem tree available that you would rather ``import`` instead, skip down to the documentation about the ``import`` command. It's really a lot easier to follow the import workflow -- it only requires waiting for the mirror content to be copied and/or scanned. Imported mirrors also save time during install since they don't have to hit external install sources. If you want to be explicit with distribution definition, however, here's how it works: .. code-block:: shell $ cobbler distro add --name=string --kernel=path --initrd=path [--kernel-options=string] [--kernel-options-post=string] [--autoinstall-meta=string] [--arch=i386|x86_64|ppc|ppc64|ppc64le|arm64] [--breed=redhat|debian|suse] [--template-files=string] +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Name | Description | +=================+=====================================================================================================+ | arch | Sets the architecture for the PXE bootloader and also controls how Koan's ``--replace-self`` option | | | will operate. | | | | | | The default setting (``standard``) will use ``pxelinux``. | | | | | | ``x86`` and ``x86_64`` effectively do the same thing as standard. | | | | | | If you perform a ``cobbler import``, the arch field will be auto-assigned. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | autoinstall- | This is an advanced feature that sets automatic installation template variables to substitute, thus | | meta | enabling those files to be treated as templates. Templates are powered using Cheetah and are | | | described further along in this manpage as well as on the Cobbler Wiki. | | | | | | Example: ``--autoinstall-meta="foo=bar baz=3 asdf"`` | | | | | | See the section on "Kickstart Templating" for further information. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | boot-files | TFTP Boot Files (Files copied into tftpboot beyond the kernel/initrd). | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | boot-loaders | Boot loader space delimited list (Network installation boot loaders). | | | Valid options for list items are <>, `grub`, `pxe`, `ipxe`. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | breed | Controls how various physical and virtual parameters, including kernel arguments for automatic | | | installation, are to be treated. Defaults to ``redhat``, which is a suitable value for Fedora and | | | CentOS as well. It means anything Red Hat based. | | | | | | There is limited experimental support for specifying "debian", "ubuntu", or "suse", which treats the| | | automatic installation template file as a preseed/autoyast file format and changes the kernel | | | arguments appropriately. Support for other types of distributions is possible in the future. See the| | | Wiki for the latest information about support for these distributions. | | | | | | The file used for the answer file, regardless of the breed setting, is the value used for | | | ``--autoinstall`` when creating the profile. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | comment | Simple attach a description (Free form text) to your distro. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | fetchable-files | Fetchable Files (Templates for tftp or wget/curl) | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | **initrd** | An absolute filesystem path to a initrd image. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | **kernel** | An absolute filesystem path to a kernel image. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | kernel-options | Sets kernel command-line arguments that the distro, and profiles/systems depending on it, will use. | | | To remove a kernel argument that may be added by a higher Cobbler object (or in the global | | | settings), you can prefix it with a ``!``. | | | | | | Example: ``--kernel-options="foo=bar baz=3 asdf !gulp"`` | | | | | | This example passes the arguments ``foo=bar baz=3 asdf`` but will make sure ``gulp`` is not passed | | | even if it was requested at a level higher up in the Cobbler configuration. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | kernel-options- | This is just like ``--kernel-options``, though it governs kernel options on the installed OS, as | | post | opposed to kernel options fed to the installer. The syntax is exactly the same. This requires some | | | special snippets to be found in your automatic installation template in order for this to work. | | | Automatic installation templating is described later on in this document. | | | | | | Example: ``noapic`` | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | mgmt-classes | Management Classes (Management classes for external config management). | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | **name** | A string identifying the distribution, this should be something like ``rhel6``. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | os-version | Generally this field can be ignored. It is intended to alter some hardware setup for virtualized | | | instances when provisioning guests with Koan. The valid options for ``--os-version`` vary depending | | | on what is specified for ``--breed``. If you specify an invalid option, the error message will | | | contain a list of valid OS versions that can be used. If you don't know the OS version or it does | | | not appear in the list, omitting this argument or using ``other`` should be perfectly fine. If you | | | don't encounter any problems with virtualized instances, this option can be safely ignored. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | owners | Users with small sites and a limited number of admins can probably ignore this option. All Cobbler | | | objects (distros, profiles, systems, and repos) can take a --owners parameter to specify what | | | Cobbler users can edit particular objects.This only applies to the Cobbler WebUI and XML-RPC | | | interface, not the "cobbler" command line tool run from the shell. Furthermore, this is only | | | respected by the ``authorization.ownership`` module which must be enabled in the settings. | | | The value for ``--owners`` is a space separated list of users and groups as specified in | | | ``/etc/cobbler/users.conf``. For more information see the users.conf file as well as the Cobbler | | | Wiki. In the default Cobbler configuration, this value is completely ignored, as is ``users.conf``. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | redhat- | Management Classes (Management classes for external config management). | | management-key | | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | remote-boot- | A URL pointing to the installation initrd of a distribution. If the bootloader has this support, | | kernel | it will directly download the kernel from this URL, instead of the directory of the TFTP client. | | | Note: The kernel (or initrd below) will still be copied into the image directory of the TFTP server.| | | The above kernel parameter is still needed (e.g. to build iso images, etc.). | | | The advantage of letting the boot loader retrieve the kernel/initrd directly is the support of | | | changing/updated distributions. E.g. openSUSE Tumbleweed is updated on the fly and if Cobbler would | | | copy/cache the kernel/initrd in the TFTP directory, you would get a "kernel does not match | | | distribution" (or similar) error when trying to install. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | remote-boot- | See remote-boot-kernel above. | | initrd | | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | template-files | This feature allows Cobbler to be used as a configuration management system. The argument is a space| | | delimited string of ``key=value`` pairs. Each key is the path to a template file, each value is the | | | path to install the file on the system. This is described in further detail on the Cobbler Wiki and | | | is implemented using special code in the post install. Koan also can retrieve these files from a | | | Cobbler server on demand, effectively allowing Cobbler to function as a lightweight templated | | | configuration management system. | +-----------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+