HP Insight Cluster Management Utility manual Autoinstall requirements, Autoinstall templates

4.2 Autoinstall

The HP Insight CMU kickstart functionality is renamed autoinstall. HP Insight CMU autoinstall provides the following improvements:

•Adds support for SLES and Debian

•Enables automated compute node installations from software distribution repositories available on the HP Insight CMU administration node

4.2.1Autoinstall requirements

•Autoinstall repository—The operating system distribution repository must be copied to the HP Insight CMU management node and NFS exported. When you create an HP Insight CMU autoinstall logical group, you are prompted for the path of this autoinstall repository.

•Autoinstall template file—The HP Insight CMU autoinstall utility requires an HP Insight CMU autoinstall template file. The layout of the autoinstall template file depends on the software being installed.

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Red Hat—A classic Red Hat kickstart file

SLES—An autoyast xml file

Debian—A preseed file

•Autoinstall logical group—After the autoinstall repository and the autoinstall template file are available, you must create an autoinstall logical group before autoinstalling a compute node.

4.2.2Autoinstall templates

Autoinstall templates must be configured as a normal automated install outside the HP Insight CMU environment. This depends on the software distribution being installed. However, HP Insight CMU provides features to facilitate installation. For example, the Red Hat kickstart file includes a line to specify the autoinstall NFS server and the autoinstall repository:

nfs --server=16.16.184.115 --dir=/data/repositories/rh5u4_x86_64

HP Insight CMU provides variables to use for host addresses, directory paths, and so forth. The line above can be replaced by the following:

nfs --server=CMU_MGT_IP --dir=CMU_REPOSITORY_PATH

HP Insight CMU locates the correct values for these variables and makes the substitutions. In the above example, HP Insight CMU retrieves the IP address of the management node to substitute for CMU_MGT_IP. CMU_REPOSITORY_PATH is replaced with the value provided when the autoinstall logical group is created. For more information about creating an autoinstall logical group, see “Creating an autoinstall logical group” (page 44).

For a full list of variables HP Insight CMU can substitute, edit /opt/cmu/etc/cmuserver.conf and search for the autoinstall section.

4.2.3 Autoinstall calling methods

Autoinstall commands for creating an autoinstall logical group and autoinstalling a compute node are available from the GUI window and from the CLI interface. You can choose to autoinstall any number of nodes registered in HP Insight CMU. There is no limit to the number of nodes that can be autoinstalled simultaneously.

4.2 Autoinstall 43