FAIBASE/10-misc and hostname

[Dirk Geschke]

Hi Thomas,

> > Some of these are FAI tasks, some are not. You can probably argue about
> > whether hostname and /etc/network/interfaces are the responsibility of FAI
> > or of the config space.
> 
> Then the wise master nodded and asked the initiate: What is an 'installation'?
> 
> Sorry, I just had to do it, because this issue felt like it needed a koan. 
> Don't take it personally.

oh, in my case it was just an upgrade von 3.x/squeeze to 4.x/wheezy.

I started with 3.x and the quick installation by using the example
scripts. This worked finde and I started to define my own classes,
scripts etc.

Now I migrated to 4.x and I thought - it is a major release change and
therefore I expected some conceptual changes - it would be a good way
to start the same way as with 3.x: The example scripts.

I did not find an upgrade path - probably it would be impossible to
write one since FAI is extremly flexible and one can not take care for
all possibilities.

Maybe a documentation of the changes in the example files might be
a good idea. Although, this are example files...

But back to me: I did not expect that all will work out-of-the-box.
And I found right quickly the cause for my problem. But I guess that
there are more people out there with similar problems and maybe they
will not find the cause quickly. 

So maybe a collection of possible issues would be a good idea to
start debugging or get hints where to look at. And at this point
I think, one could also start to collect some tips and tricks, too.
Why should everyone reinvent the wheel? 

I just found some solutions here:

  http://wiki.fai-project.org/wiki/Helper_scripts

Maybe on can extend this section...

> > [...] I'm sure there are reasons for what appears to me to be mixing up
> > necessary installation steps and facultative installation steps in a FAIBASE
> > class. I'd just like to understand them :).
> 
> Everything in FAIBASE _is_ optional and depends on your environment:
> - partition layout (chroot / virtual containers)
> - pre-seeding (may not even be possible (RPM?))
> - packages (base image can contain everything)
> - mountpoints (chroot / virtual containers)
> - network interfaces (chroot / virtual containers)
> - config files (handled via some other config management tool)
> 
> (The simple example features 2 hooks, but it wouldn't matter much if they were 
> simply left out.)
> 
> FAI provides a low-level abstraction and the config space is the environment-
> specific implementation. With the exception of installing a bootloader you can 
> install a standalone client with just a bunch of text files (disk_config, 
> packages, ...) and exactly two commands (fcopy /etc/network/interfaces and the 
> one for setting the root password.)
> 
> The bootloader issue is pretty nasty though, because the 'correct' 
> configuration is linked very tightly to the installed distribution, your 
> environment and possibly even the underlying 'hardware'. (Installing a 
> paravirtualised XenServer instance was a nightmare, because Citrix did not 
> actually parse the bootloader, but circumvented grub completely instead read 
> the menu.lst directly and expected to find specifically named boot configuration. 
> Took a while to figure that one out...)

Yes, this would be one further point in a tips & tricks or extended FAQ
section.

Maybe one should start with the FAQ and use sections for installation,
tips/tricks, trouble shooting, etc. One can even put links there to
better places/explanation, but one would have a good starting point
in cases of problems/questions/ideas.

It's just an idea... ;-)

Best regards

Dirk

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