NetbootManagement

Revision 1 as of 2005-10-15 12:01:16

Clear message

Summary

Enabling users to easily setup a computer pool (cluster) with ubuntu installations.

Rationale

We already have fully automated installation with d-i using preseeding (and/or kickstart). We plan to have a CentralAuthentication facility. Let's put all parts together so they work out-of-the-box

Use cases

The obvious ones:

  • Internet cafe clusters, where anonymous users can surf
  • Educational clusters at universities and/or schools

The less obvious ones:

  • Offices, when all workstations needs to be able to install in a timely manner, but are still customizable enough for the local admin.

Design

To allow the admin to use both ltsp setups as well as cluster setups, we need some interface to dhcp config. We define therefore netboot modes:

  • computer netboots in ltsp mode. This is what we already have
  • computer netboots in installer mode. This time, the computer gets fully automatically installed using d-i preseeding and/or kickstart
  • The default netboot mode is user/admin definable.

The installed system needs to be integrated into the local CentralAuthentication infrastructure. Furthermore we need facilities for keeping the installations uptodate and install extra software packages.

Implementation

  • Define interface to dhcpd config to define netboot actions
  • Define interface to create/update/edit preseed configs
  • Implement managment facilities using cfengine.

Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

Needs integration with:

BoF agenda and discussion