Re: [xcat-user] [External] nodeset and UEFI boot xnba files

[Thomas H. <tho...@pa...>]

On 3/1/21 6:27 PM, Christian Caruthers wrote:
> If it changes to something like:
> 
> #!gpxe
> #boot
> Exit


Yes it is

> Of course, you should not configure a stateless node as "boot" 

I know that, I just tested the behavior relative to file content for 
both cases (stateless and stateful)


> Stateful nodes shouldn't get anything from a PXE request unless they're being (re)discovered or (re)installed.
> If they're "full UEFI," they shouldn't be sending a PXE request after they're installed as the OS would have inserted its own entry at the top of the boot order during install.

Correct.

However I'd say that for consistency sake all files (.elilo and .uefi) 
should be changed as well don't you think ?

Imagine a stateful node in production which for some reason gets its 
UEFI manually changed back to PXE first : it would get reinstalled 
instead of just booting as one could have expected having previously run 
nodeset <node> boot. This seems counter intuitive and dangerous to me.

The second point (unrelated to my original post) is that by changing 
UEFI boot order to disk first, a stateful install kind of detach itself 
from being xCAT handled. I mean, to reinstall them, you'd have to 
manually (or via ipmitool or some local action) set the order to PXE 
fist beforehand, which could be annoying if you have many of them while 
having a script issuing just an Exit (nodeset boot) would provide both 
possibilities (boot from disk or reinstall).

So basically I think that it could be positive to

- change .elilo and .uefi content as well when running nodeset
- have a stateful install leave PXE first

but I might not take into account some scenarii

What do you think ?

Thanks for you help

--
Thomas HUMMEL