Re: [Drbl-user] host more DRBL Linux distribution on one DRBL (physical) server HOWTO?

[Steven S. <st...@nc...>]

Hi Csaba,

Csaba Ragany wrote:
> Hi everybody!
>
> I'm new in DRBL and in Linux and here in the list (and sorry for my 
> not good English...).
>
> My question is that it is possible to have (store, manage...) only one 
> DRBL physical server, but on it, host more DRBL Linux distribution?
Not really. If you mean the NFS-based client, no. The drbl client only 
runs the same GNU/Linux as that on your server. This is the function now 
DRBL supports. Of course, you can manually make it by use the same idea 
which DRBL uses.
BTW, there is an AoE booting function on DRBL, maybe you can check it:
http://drbl.sourceforge.net/one4all/drbl-sanboot.php

Regards,
Steven.
>
> My idea is install for example a CentOS, an OpenSUSE and a Xubuntu on 
> separate machines (or maybe on the same machine but in different times 
> seperating them totally from each other to have only one Linux 
> distribution on the machine on one time), and on each machine, install 
> DRBL and run drblsrv -i and drblpush -i, using of course the same 
> configurations like dns domain name, ethernet interface names (eth<x>) 
> and (DRBL machine) MAC addresses, the same clients and so on. Doing 
> os, on every machine has created the appropriate folders under 
> '/tftpboot/' ('/nbi_img', '/node_root' and '/nodes').
>
> 1) Then copy the Xubuntu and OpenSUSE '/node_root' folders to the 
> primary (and in the future, the only) DRBL server (let it be the 
> CentOS), of coure naming them as '/node_root_opensuse' and 
> '/node_root_xubuntu'.
>
> 2) From the OpenSUSE and Xubuntu '/nbi_img' folders, copy only the 
> used kernels to CentOS '/nbi_img' folder (so not the hole folder) and 
> in CentOS, create the appropriate symbolic links to this kernels named 
> the symbolic link as 'vmlinuz-pxe-xubuntu' (and opensuse) and the 
> kernel as 'vmlinuz-<a.b.c..>-xubuntu (and opensuse) and do so with the 
> other kernel where the symbolic link is 'initrd-pxe-xubuntu.img' 
> (opensuse) and the kernel is 'initrd-pxe-<a.b.c...>-xubuntu.img' 
> (opensuse). So, on CentOS, there is one '/nbi_img' folder with the 
> several kernels and symbolic links, one '/nodes' folder with the 
> clients IP-named subfolders which were created by DRBL running on 
> CentOS (so the Xubuntu and OpenSUSE '/nodes' folders are not copied to 
> CentOS), and several '/node_root_<distribution name>' folders.
>
> 3) Then I configure the '/tftpboot/nbi_img/pxelinux.cfg/default' file 
> to let the DRBL clients "DRBL-boot-pane" having not only the default 
> options (like Memory test using Memtest86+, Local operating system if 
> available and the default, in my case the CentOS DRBL Linux), but the 
> Xubuntu DRBL Linux and the OpenSUSE DRBL Linux too.
>
> So in the test environment, there is only one DRBL server, with one 
> (DRBL) DHCP.
>
> Doing so, my DRBL clients get theirs IP addresses from the CentOS 
> (DRBL) DHCP (DRBL offers the same IP to same MAC addresses every 
> time), and then the DRBL-boot-pane appears with my new DRBL Linux 
> distributions. Choosing the default options, like CentOS DRBL Linux, 
> everything goes well. But choosing for example Xubuntu DRBL Linux, the 
> client loads the two good, Xubuntu specific kernel (that I copied from 
> Xubuntu '/nbi_img' to CentOS '/nbi_img'), but - of course -, the 
> CentOS (default) DRBL Linux is loaded to the clients.
>
> In '/opt/drbl/conf/drbl.conf' file, there is a setting about the 
> 'drbl_common_root' (="/tftpboot/node_root"). I think, the problem is, 
> that it is static, and I can not set the appropriate 
> '/node_root_<distribution name>' anywhere. I did a test setting this 
> to 'drbl_common_root="/tftpboot/node_root_xubuntu"', but nothing 
> happened, the CentOS DRBL Linux loaded in the client (even when I 
> restarted all DRBL services). But if I rename the 
> '/tftpboot/nbi_img/pxelinux.cfg/default' file, of course problem occures.
>
> So that's it all :) I want only one DRBL server (better to say a 
> cluster in the future) to host more, different DRBL Linux 
> distributions. Is it possbile? And if, how? I would be very glad to 
> get a very detailed howto :)
>
> Very-very thanks for reply!
>
>
> Regards: Csaba
>
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Steven Shiau <steven _at_ nchc org tw> <steven _at_ stevenshiau org>
National Center for High-performance Computing, Taiwan.
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