Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:12:48 -0700 From: John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net> To: Craig Rodrigues <rodrigc@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-current Current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Devops question: unattended installs of FreeBSD? Message-ID: <E5F0283B-56D8-4E48-81AB-1FCD3D49E9B4@jnielsen.net> In-Reply-To: <CAG=rPVfkHND3djpTDZBWzTs5u%2BNd-ijT_3ZvgYK859LHqkv6BQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAG=rPVfkHND3djpTDZBWzTs5u%2BNd-ijT_3ZvgYK859LHqkv6BQ@mail.gmail.com>
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On Jan 12, 2015, at 12:24 PM, Craig Rodrigues <rodrigc@freebsd.org> = wrote: > I had a devops person who is familiar with setting up hundreds of > Linux nodes in cloud environment ask me what is the best way > to do unattended installs in a cloud environment. > Linux has kickstart installs, which are quite useful and popular. >=20 > What is the equivalent in FreeBSD? >=20 > In the sysinstall days, the sysinstall.cfg config file could be = created > which drove large parts of the installer. Now that sysinstall is = gone, > what is the alternative? Searching the web, I found two answers: >=20 > (1) Write your own script > (2) Use pc-sysinstall from the PC-BSD project > = http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/Creating_an_Automated_Installation_with_pc= -sysinstall/10.0/en bsdinstall(8) does support scripted installations, see the man page. = Writing your own script is also viable, or a combination of the two. I = don't have experience with scripting bsdinstall as I tend to script my = own. Vultr.com has a script that does a full installation when you first = bring up a FreeBSD VM. At $work, I maintain a script which creates = FreeBSD template disk images which are then cloned for new VMs. There = are also now make targets in the base system to build VM-suitable disk = images (but I don't recall what they are off the top of my head). > I am trying to work with a devops team who is very experienced > with setting up Linux environments in the cloud. Based on the = available > docs, > it is not clear to non-FreeBSD experts how to accomplish similar = things > with FreeBSD. I'd be happy to provide more specific suggestions if needed. It really = depends on how fully automated you want things to be and how much = customization you want to include, as well as what you have available in = the install environment. If you're installing on live VMs then you first = have to get them booted. A custom ISO or MFS image is probably the = simplest for that, though PXE is also an option. (Actually, serving an = mfsBSD image via PXE is pretty straightforward.) Then: Set up the network if it will be needed for the install and is not = already done. Set up the disk(s), partition(s), filesystem(s), etc Mount Install distribution sets. Here's what I use for that: #!/bin/sh #... DISTS=3D"base kernel lib32 doc games" for dist in ${DISTS}; do fetch -o - "${BASEURL}/${dist}.txz" | tar -xJ --exclude = kernel/\*.symbols -C ${MOUNTPOINT} -f - done #... Run freebsd-update Populate /etc/fstab Set a root password Make sure you can log in to the new system (if SSH is needed then either = create a non-root user or enable root login in sshd_config (not ideal)) Populate /etc/rc.conf Run tzsetup or similar Install 3rd-party packages Configure bootcode > By the way, I would be very interested in hearing from people who have > experience > in installing, configuring, and upgrading hundreds or even thousands = of > FreeBSD > nodes in devops and cloud environments. For people who are not = FreeBSD > experts, > but who are Linux devops experts, is it easy to do, or is there a lot = of > custom scripts which need to be written? A few tools translate over more or less directly, such as Ansible and = SaltStack. Having a uniform and automated installation procedure (like = it sounds like you're going for) and front-loading a lot of your = customization in to that is a good starting point. Building your own = packages to distribute/update configuration files or run scripts where = needed is also helpful. Install that package as part of the initial = system setup then have it update itself (or push out a cron job, or do = mass updates when needed via Salt, etc). Just some ideas. I don't think it's any harder/easier than running lots = of Linux servers, just different in some ways. If you want custom = functionality then you'll probably need some custom scripts. :) JN=
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