AW: Install Fedora CoreOS using FAI

[Andrew Ruthven]

On Mon, 2020-04-20 at 22:40 +0200, Rémy Dernat wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I have a couple of questions. 
> 
> - Do you deploy this system to operate a k8s cluster ?

No, I was requested to build this system, which will be a pet, to run
some docker containers for Gitlab & Prometheus.

I have just raised some concerns this morning that it might not be the
best operating system for the use case I've installed it for... I'll
see how that discussion goes.

For our managed k8s platform (using Magnum with OpenStack) we just spin
up instances running Fedora CoreOS in our public cloud.

> - If so, I imagine you disable the swap (?). But why are you
> deploying this stack over bare-metal, with no VM ?

For our k8s clusters we aren't using my FAI process. I believe that
swap is disabled in the k8s clusters.

I should note that I'm just preparing the base server with filesystems
built. I would then expect someone else to use configuration management
tools to then customise the server.

> - Why not using kickstart, which is the redhat standard tftp system ?
> (I mean, I am a big of FAI and its powerful class system, but anyway
> that choice seems a bit odd to me),

We aren't a RedHat shop, we're a mostly Ubuntu shop with a bit of
Debian. Because of that I don't have a Kickstart environment kicking
(sorry) around, but I do have a FAI one. ;)

I also started with the PXE install process that is documented in the
Fedora CoreOS docs and which makes no mention of Kickstart [0].

> - btw, why not using k3s, rancherOS or whatever other k8s ready
> distro ?

Different use case.

Also a colleague was very keen on us using (or at least trying) Fedora
CoreOS for this server.

> I have my opinion about these last questions, but I would also like
> to hear yours.

To honest I haven't looked into the various other options out there, my
colleague has been.

> Finally, I also had to deal with httpd/tftp issues. It depends on
> your booting system (I am using syslinux 6.0.4 + lighttpd for UEFI
> booting systems while I am using basic tftp for legacy boot clients).

Well...  I'm still using legacy boot for these machines. I've been
meaning to get UEFI network booting set up, but I just haven't had the
time. I thought I'd try and do that this month while we're in lockdown,
but I've been busy!

Cheers,
Andrew

[0] https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora-coreos/bare-metal/

-- 
Andrew Ruthven, Wellington, New Zealand
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