Deployment Example¶

Client Deployment Example¶

Configure a node group (this example creates a nodes group for compute nodes):
```
metal configure group nodes
```
Start the controller VM listening for PXE requests:
```
metal hunter -i eth0
```
Boot up the client node
The controller VM will print a line when the node has connected, when this happens enter the hostname for the system (this should be a hostname that exists in the group configured earlier)
Once the hostname has been added the previous metal command can be cancelled (with ctrl-c)
Generate DHCP entry for the node:
```
metal dhcp -t default
```
Start the controller VM serving installation files to the node (replace slave01 with the hostname of the client node):
```
metal build slave01
```

Note

If building multiple systems the genders group can be specified instead of the node hostname. For example, all compute nodes can be built with metal build -g nodes.

The client node can be rebooted and it will begin an automatic installation of CentOS 7
The metal build will automatically exit when the client installation has completed
Passwordless SSH should now work to the client node

Configuring Alternative Kickstart Profile¶

In this example, a CentOS 6 kickstart profile is configured. This method should be transferrable to other operating systems with little modification to the general practice.

Download the boot files to the PXE_BOOT directory:

PXE_BOOT=/var/lib/tftpboot/boot/
curl http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/mirror.centos.org/6/os/x86_64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img > “$PXE_BOOT/centos6-initrd.img”
curl http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/mirror.centos.org/6/os/x86_64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz > “$PXE_BOOT/centos6-kernel”

Create /var/lib/metalware/repo/pxelinux/centos6 template PXE boot file for the OS:

DEFAULT menu
 PROMPT 0
 MENU TITLE PXE Menu
 TIMEOUT 5
 TOTALTIMEOUT 5
 <%= alces.firstboot ? "ONTIMEOUT INSTALL" : "ONTIMEOUT local"%>

 LABEL INSTALL
      KERNEL boot/centos6-kernel
         APPEND initrd=boot/centos6-initrd.img ksdevice=<%= networks.pri.interface %> ks=<%= alces.kickstart_url %> network ks.sendmac _ALCES_BASE_HOSTNAME=<%= alces.nodename %> <%= kernelappendoptions %>
         IPAPPEND 2

 LABEL local
      MENU LABEL (local)
      MENU DEFAULT
      LOCALBOOT 0

Create /var/lib/metalware/repo/kickstart/centos6 template file for kickstart installations of the OS:

#!/bin/bash
##(c)2017 Alces Software Ltd. HPC Consulting Build Suite
## vim: set filetype=kickstart :

network --onboot yes --device <%= networks.pri.interface %> --bootproto dhcp --noipv6

#MISC
text
reboot
skipx
install

#SECURITY
firewall --enabled
firstboot --disable
selinux --disabled

#AUTH
auth  --useshadow  --enablemd5
rootpw --iscrypted <%= encrypted_root_password %>

#LOCALIZATION
keyboard uk
lang en_GB
timezone  Europe/London

#REPOS
url --url=http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/mirror.centos.org/6/os/x86_64/

#DISK
%include /tmp/disk.part

#PRESCRIPT
%pre
set -x -v
exec 1>/tmp/ks-pre.log 2>&1

DISKFILE=/tmp/disk.part
bootloaderappend="console=tty0 console=ttyS1,115200n8"
cat > $DISKFILE << EOF
<%= disksetup %>
EOF

#PACKAGES
%packages --ignoremissing

vim
emacs
xauth
xhost
xdpyinfo
xterm
xclock
tigervnc-server
ntpdate
vconfig
bridge-utils
patch
tcl-devel
gettext

#POSTSCRIPTS
%post --nochroot
set -x -v
exec 1>/mnt/sysimage/root/ks-post-nochroot.log 2>&1

ntpdate 0.centos.pool.ntp.org

%post
set -x -v
exec 1>/root/ks-post.log 2>&1

# Example of using rendered Metalware file; this file itself also uses other
# rendered files.
curl <%= alces.files.main.first.url %> | /bin/bash | tee /tmp/metalware-default-output

curl <%= alces.build_complete_url %>

When building nodes, use the new template files by specifying them as arguments to the metal build command:
```
metal build -k centos6 -p centos6 slave01
```

Configuring UEFI Boot¶

UEFI network booting is an alternative to PXE booting and is usually the standard on newer hardware, support for building nodes with UEFI booting can be configured as follows.

Create additional TFTP directory and download EFI boot loader:

mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/efi/
cd /var/lib/tftpboot/efi/
wget https://github.com/alces-software/knowledgebase/raw/master/epel/7/grub-efi/grubx64.efi
chmod +x grubx64.efi

For UEFI clients, add the following line to the client config file:
```
build_method: uefi
```

Additionally, a /boot/efi partition will be required for UEFI clients, an example of this partition as part of the disk setup (in the client config) is below:

disksetup: |
  zerombr
  bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=sda --append="$bootloaderappend"
  clearpart --all --initlabel

  #Disk partitioning information
  part /boot --fstype ext4 --size=4096 --asprimary --ondisk sda
  part /boot/efi --fstype=efi --size=200 --asprimary --ondisk sda
  part pv.01 --size=1 --grow --asprimary --ondisk sda
  volgroup system pv.01
  logvol  /  --fstype ext4 --vgname=system  --size=16384 --name=root
  logvol  /var --fstype ext4 --vgname=system --size=16384 --name=var
  logvol  /tmp --fstype ext4 --vgname=system --size=1 --grow --name=tmp
  logvol  swap  --fstype swap --vgname=system  --size=8096  --name=swap1