[debian-lan-devel] Getting demohost back to work.

[Andreas Schockenhoff]

Hi Andi,

Am 28.03.2013 12:22, schrieb Andreas B. Mundt:
>
> On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 11:25:33AM +0100, Andreas Schockenhoff wrote:
>> after installing a debian Lan mainserver form the CD.
>> debian-lan_wheezy_2NICs_20130326_amd64.iso<http://das-netzwerkteam.de/%7Eandi.mundt/debian-lan_wheezy_2NICs_20130326_amd64.iso>
>>
>> I would like to have the demohost (form fai) back to work. I  have
>> nameserver problems during booting and after I fix this with a fixed IP
>> I have nameserver problem with apt.
> First, I have to say that I never tested all the FAI-uptream hosts.
> The machines customized and tested for Debian-LAN are 'mainserver',
> 'diskless*' and 'workstation*'.  All the other machines are left over
> from the FAI upstream example -- I kept them for reference (perhaps
> this is confusing), but never tested nor tried to make them working.
That OK because you are focused on the Debian Lan Network and it is a 
great work!
I like it.
>> Any simple solution?
> If you want to install for example the 'demohost', I would add the
> machines MAC to the DHCP server attributing 'demohost' to the machine.
> Then you need to create a corresponding PXE configuration for
> 'demohost' with fai-chboot.
>
> Now it should be possible to PXE boot the 'FAI installer'.  However, I
> guess the machine will be of not much use in the Debian-LAN network,
> as it does not know anything about the mainserver and its services.
That I solved with:
fai-chboot -IFPv -u nfs://10.0.0.1/srv/fai/config -k "hostname=demohost" 
default
> As I looked for this problem I wondered if it would be simple to give
> debian-lan his own config place like: /srv/fai/debian-lan-config? May be
> that is good for a cooperation with other fai installations.
> I do not understand completely what you want to achieve -- the heart
> of Debian-LAN is the 'mainserver'.  It includes all home directories,
> LDAP, KDC and much more.  Clients are configured to use these
> services.
>
> If you already have a FAI installation running, all the authentication
> stuff and centralized home dirs etc. must be already there.  So in
> such a system neither the 'mainserver' nor the Debian-LAN client
> machines will work.
>
> However, you can use, perhaps customized, individual FAI classes from
> the Debian-LAN config space and include them in your FAI
> infrastructure.  But this of course is more involved than rolling out
> a Debian-LAN with the defaults.
>
> Perhaps you can elaborate a bit more on what you want to do?
>
>
I want to use my fai (debian-lan) server as a swiss knife. Sometimes I 
want to install
a host that is not a full member of the debian-lan network. Example a 
simple gateway
or firewall for the Network.....  Or a standalone test computer. Also is 
the debian lan CD
a good replacement for the upstream fai CD. :-)

I understand that this is not your problem!

But I wondered why debian lan clients have no problems with DNS and the 
simple example
have it. I guess something with resolv.conf.

I will find it and also learn more about the debian-lan config space and 
come back with a
solution, may be someone else need it. :)

regards Andreas