Cobbler

Cobbler is a Linux installation server that allows for fast setup of network installation environments. It glues together and automates many associated Linux tasks so you do not have to hop between lots of various commands and applications when rolling out new systems, and, in some cases, changing existing ones.

It manages provisioning using a tiered concept of Distributions, Profiles, Systems, and Repositories.

Cobbler can be configured for PXE, reinstallations, and virtualized guests using Xen, KVM or VMware. Cobbler interacts with a program called Koan for reinstallation and virtualization support. Koan and Cobbler use libvirt to integrate with different virtualization software.

 
License GNU GPL v2

Features include:

• Small and lightweight application
• Can install OS in a fully-automated way
• Simplify configuration of DHCP, TFTP, and DNS to perform network-based operating system installs
• Supports provisioning via PXE (network booting), reinstallations, and virtualized guests including VMware, Xen, and KVM
• Command line interface
• Django-based web interface
• Help with managing DHCP, DNS, and yum package mirroring infrastructure

$ sudo rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-X-Y.noarch.rpm

Be sure to use the most recent X.Y version of the epel-release package.

Once that is complete, simply use the yum command to install the cobbler package:

$ sudo yum install cobbler

Once cobbler is installed, start and enable the service:

$ service cobblerd start
$ chkconfig cobblerd on

And (re)start/enable Apache:

$ service httpd start
$ service cobblerd on

NEWS CONTENTS

• 20150930 : Cobbler 2.6.10 Released by Jörgen ( Cobbler 2.6.10 Released, Sep 30, 2015 )
• 20110805 : CobblerTriggers – cobbler ( CobblerTriggers – cobbler, Aug 05, 2011 )

Old News ;-)

[Sep 30, 2015] Cobbler 2.6.10 Released by Jörgen

[Aug 05, 2011] CobblerTriggers – cobbler

Last modified 4 years ago Last modified on 08/05/11 15:09:45

Cobbler triggers provide a way to tie user-defined actions to certain cobbler commands -- for instance, to provide additional logging, integration with apps like Puppet or cfengine, set up SSH keys, tieing in with a DNS server configuration script, or for some other purpose.

Cobbler Triggers can be scripts written in the CobblerApi but do not have to be. They can either be executable programs that live in /var/lib/cobbler/triggers (and subdirectories thereof) or Python scripts in /usr/lib/python2.X/site-packages/cobbler/modules. The modules are preferred because they are faster and have access to Cobbler's native Python API handle, while the script triggers have to open up a new Python API handle and can therefore be exceedingly slow.

As a general rule, if you need access to Cobbler's object data from a trigger, you need to write the trigger as a module. Also never invoke cobbler from a trigger, or use Cobbler XMLRPC from a trigger. Essentially, cobbler triggers can be thought of as plugins into cobbler, though they are not essentially plugins per se.

Trigger Names (for Old-Style Triggers)

Cobbler script-based triggers are scripts installed in the following locations, and must be made chmod +x.

/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/system/pre/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/system/post/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/profile/pre/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/profile/post/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/distro/pre/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/distro/post/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/repo/pre/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/repo/post/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/sync/pre/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/sync/post/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/install/pre/*
/var/lib/cobbler/triggers/install/post/*

And the same as the above replacing "add" with "remove".

Pre-triggers are capable of failing an operation if they return anything other than 0. They are to be thought of as "validation" filters. Post-triggers cannot fail an operation and are to be thought of notifications.

We may add additional types as time goes on.

Pure Python Triggers ¶

As mentioned earlier, triggers can be written in pure python, and many of these kinds of triggers ship with cobbler as stock. Look in your site-packages/cobbler/modules directory and cat "install_post_report.py" for an example trigger that sends email when a system gets done installing.

Notice how the trigger has a register method with a path that matches with the shell patterns above. That's how we know what type each trigger is.

You will see the path used in the trigger corresponds with the path where it would exist if it was a script -- this is how we know what type of trigger the module is providing.

The Simplest Trigger Possible ¶

create /var/lib/cobbler/triggers/add/system/post/test.sh chmod +x the file

#!/bin/bash
echo "Hi, my name is $1 and I'm a newly added system"

However that's not very interesting as all you get are the names passed across. For triggers to be the most powerful, they should take advantage of the Cobbler API -- which means writing them as a Python module.

... ... ...

See Also ¶

CobblerApi

And this post by Ithiriel: ​Writing Install Triggers

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Last modified: March, 12, 2019