I maintain a local mirror site for the Linux distributions we use. This is a simple rsync setup using ftpsync and Apache. I recently added Ubuntu to the list, but ran into an issue when I tested an automated install. The installer complained it was “Unable to locate package puppet.” In the preseed file, I tell the installer to also install this package with a pkgsel directive. (Later, using a late_command directive, the service is configured and started.) ...
By default VMware virtual machines only PXE boot on first install. Once an operating system has been installed on the hard drive, it will boot that and never try to network boot again. This is due to the default BIOS boot order. By changing the boot order, they can be configured to try a network boot first and after a short timeout boot from disk. In the vSphere client, find the VM in question, and chose Edit Settings. Under VM Options, expand Boot Options and enable the “Force BIOS setup” option. ...
I have a nice netboot setup where we can PXEboot hosts to an automated installer. The last step ensures the puppet agent is running and pointed at the correct puppetmaster. The .preseed files are generated from an erb template that ends in the following: [...] <% if @distcodename == "jessie" -%> d-i preseed/late_command string \ echo -e 'DAEMON_OPTS="--server <%= @puppetmaster %>"' > /target/etc/default/puppet ; \ rm -f /target/var/lib/puppet/state/agent_disabled.lock <% else -%> d-i preseed/late_command string \ in-target sed -i '/\[main\]/a server = <%= @puppetmaster %>' /etc/puppet/puppet.conf ; \ in-target ln -s /lib/systemd/system/puppet.service /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/puppet.service <% end -%> Older distribution versions allowed us to populate the --server option in /etc/default/puppet. This is addressed in the first part of the if clause. ...