From owner-freebsd-current Fri Mar 1 16: 8:40 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from apollo.backplane.com (apollo.backplane.com [216.240.41.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5045D37B405; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 16:08:30 -0800 (PST) Received: (from dillon@localhost) by apollo.backplane.com (8.11.6/8.9.1) id g2208TH47729; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 16:08:29 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dillon) Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 16:08:29 -0800 (PST) From: Matthew Dillon Message-Id: <200203020008.g2208TH47729@apollo.backplane.com> To: Robert Watson , Glenn Gombert , Cliff Sarginson , current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: more -current testers References: Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG There is a 'diskless' manual page, /usr/src/share/man/man8/diskless.8. It is somewhat out of date and it would be nice if it had a dhcpd.conf example. It would be great if someone did a major rewrite of it. -Matt Matthew Dillon :On Fri, 1 Mar 2002, Glenn Gombert wrote: : :> I have spent several months figuring how to do diskless mounts for :> test kernels, run debuggers from serial terminals and do remote kernel :> debugging with gdb, and spent lots and lots of time doing is as well. :> Some 'up to date' "How To's" are really needed to support this kind of :> debugging and testing efforts, the material in the FreeBSD manual is :> helpful to a point, but much 'key' information on such subjects is just :> not there and has to be dug out of mailing list archives and just :> sending e-mails to various people who have done such things in the past :> and ask for help, taking up their time...which could be saved with some :> up-to-date documentation :)) : :If you want to start writing that stuff up for inclusion in the FreeBSD :Handbook or some related location, I'd be happy to review it for content, :since I use what sounds like a very similar development environment. : :In my environment, I have a central build and file server, and then a :series of network booted crash machines. The central server has two :ethernet cards, one going to the "outside world" for some definition of :outside, and the other a dedicated development network. The server runs a :DHCP server for the development network, a TFTP server to server copies of :pxeboot(8) for the development network, and NFS exports of a /usr/netboot :tree where I store the diskless roots, kernels, et al for the crash boxes. :Typically, I'll use : : /usr/netboot/crash1.decoverly.watson.org : /usr/netboot/crash2.decoverly.watson.org : :as the roots for each environment, point tftpd(8) at /usr/netboot as its :root, and appropriately configure the DHCP server to point each host at :the right root directory to pull down pxeboot, and for its later NFS root. :I also hook up serial consoles for each box; currently working on remote :power. : :Depending on what I'm working on, I may use the crash boxes in different :ways. Frequently, I'll boot them entirely from the network, with a :complete installkernel and installworld into their roots under :/usr/netboot. However, if I'm doing filesystem related work, I may do :more disk-centric installation mechanisms. I haven't tried the modified :install floppy trick. : :Some cute tricks.. : :newfs is faster than fsck. If you need to use local filesystems on the :box, and don't care about persistent data, it's a lot faster to newfs the :file systems than do the file system check :-). If that's true for even :one file system, it's an improvement. Sometimes I wonder if that wouldn't :be a good change for all installs :-). : :Some boxes appear to have broken serial break support. There's a kernel :option for an alternative break key that can be quite useful. I have this :problem with two SGI boxes I'm using for various TrustedBSD-related :things. : :I can configure the hard disks as dump devices, and by swapping back and :forth between kernels, I can pull the dump over to the development server. :It may be you can dump over the network, but perhaps not :-). : :It's possible to replace the kernel out from under a machine while still :crashing/dumping/rebooting. This can dramatically reduce the :develop/compile/install/test/crash/repeat cycle by coallescing the test :and crash bits with the other bits, since you can compile while still :testing or crashing. : :If you have multiple machines, you can easily allocate them to various :projects, etc, etc. I have a couple of scripts that help populate a :system the first time, by chrooting and running cap_mkdb, pwd_mkdb, etc, :etc. I generally also tweak the rc.diskless[12] scripts a bit based on :what I need. I also tend to enable remote root login and empty passwords :for the crash box in sshd_config so that I can login into the machines :once they come up very easily. : :Occasional PXE bugs can be very frustrating. Some machines I've used have :no problem loading pxeboot from a different machine than the DHCP server. :A couple of others ignore the server specification in the DHCP response :and insist on trying to tftp pxeboot from the DHCP server. : :Robert N M Watson FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Project :robert@fledge.watson.org NAI Labs, Safeport Network Services To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message