Deploy Linux Servers at scale

Who Am I ?

● Systems Engineer @ ● DevOps● Infrastructure as a code “Puppet, Ansible”● Cloud Computing “OpenStack, CloudStack”● ….● @EslamElHusseiny

Problem!

Step #1

Separation of bootable media && installation media.

Installation media

● CD / DVD “/dev/cdrom”dd if=/path/to/iso.iso of=/dev/cdrom

● USB stick “/dev/sdb1”dd if=/path/to/iso.iso of=/dev/sdb1

Still not at scale ?!

PXE

The Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) specification describes a standardized client-server environment that boots a software assembly, retrieved from a network, on PXE-enabled clients. (Wikipedia)

PXE

● TFTP● DHCP● HTTP● DNS (Optional)

Kickstart

The Red Hat Kickstart installation method is used primarily (but not exclusively) by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system to automatically perform unattended operating system installation and configuration.

Kickstart

https://access.redhat.com/labs/kickstartconfig/

Kickstart

Get your hands dirty :)

Cobbler

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

Cobbler can help with provisioning, managing DNS and DHCP, package updates, power management, configuration management orchestration, and much more.

Get your hands dirty :)

Let’s have more fun ;)

Foreman is a complete lifecycle management tool for physical and virtual servers.

Puppetlabs Razor

● Razor is an advanced provisioning application used to discover and deploy both bare-metal machines and virtual systems.

● With Razor, you can automate going from a newly racked machine with no operating system to one that's fully installed and managed by Puppet, without any human intervention.

How Razor Works

Razor identifies a new node

How Razor Works

The node is tagged

How Razor Works

The node tags match a Razor policy

How Razor Works

Policies pull together all the provisioning elements

How Razor Works

The node is provisioned with the designated OS and managed with PE