[Fai-commit] r4549 - trunk/doc
lange at alioth.debian.org
lange at alioth.debian.org
Sun Sep 2 16:39:08 UTC 2007
Author: lange
Date: 2007-09-02 16:39:08 +0000 (Sun, 02 Sep 2007)
New Revision: 4549
Modified:
trunk/doc/fai-guide.sgml
Log:
apply minor patches from Michael
Modified: trunk/doc/fai-guide.sgml
===================================================================
--- trunk/doc/fai-guide.sgml 2007-08-30 17:58:44 UTC (rev 4548)
+++ trunk/doc/fai-guide.sgml 2007-09-02 16:39:08 UTC (rev 4549)
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@
<!entity faiver "3.2">
<!entity faiverdate "21 Aug 2007">
-<!entity version "2.6.2">
-<!entity date "30 august 2007">
+<!entity version "2.6.3">
+<!entity date "2 September 2007">
<!entity faisetup system "entities/faisetup.sgml">
<!entity bootexample system "entities/bootexample.sgml">
@@ -28,9 +28,10 @@
<abstract>
This manual describes the fully automatic installation package for
-&dgl;. This includes the installation of the package, the planning and
+&dgl;. This includes the installation of the package, planning and
creating of the configuration and how to deal with errors.
-
+<!--MT: say what FAI is-->
+
<copyright>
<copyrightsummary>
Copyright © 2000-2007 Thomas Lange
@@ -54,7 +55,14 @@
<toc detail="sect2">
<chapt id="intro">Introduction<p>
+<!--MT: general comments:
+ - dirinstall is only mentioned at the end
+ - mailinglists, IRC channel should be mentioned
+ - ULRs should be http://www. ... or only www. ..., but please be consistent
+ - Variables $VARNAME or VARNAME only? Be consistent.
+-->
<sect id="availability">Availability<p>
+<!--MT: put Motivation before Availability-->
The homepage of FAI is <url id="&faiwww;">.
There you will find information about FAI, for example the mailing
list archives. The FAI package is also available as a Debian package from
@@ -68,12 +76,13 @@
<email>fai at informatik.uni-koeln.de</email>. You can also use the
Debian bug tracking system (BTS)
<url id="http://&www-debian-org;/Bugs/"> for reporting errors.
+<!--MT: is personal mail still the preferred way?-->
<p>
You can access the subversion repository containing the newest developer
-version of FAI from a Bourne shell using the
+version of FAI from a Unix shell using the
following commands.
<example>
-> svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/fai/trunk fai
+# svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/fai/trunk fai
</example>
You can also use the web interface for the subversion repository at:
@@ -89,15 +98,15 @@
handedly?
<p>
-Repeating the same task time and again is boring -- and will surely
-lead to mistakes. Also a whole lot of time could be saved if the
+Repeating the same task again and again is boring -- and will surely
+lead to errors. Also a whole lot of time could be saved if the
installations were done automatically. An installation process with
manual interaction does not scale. But clusters have the habit of
growing over the years. Think long-term rather than planning just a
few months into the future.
<p>
-In 1999, I had to organize an installation of a Linux cluster with one
+In 1999, I had to perform an installation of a Linux cluster with one
server and 16 clients. Since I had much experience doing automatic
installations of Solaris operating systems on SUN SPARC hardware, the
idea to build an automatic installation for Debian was born. Solaris
@@ -127,7 +136,7 @@
<sect id="overview">Overview and concepts<p>
<p>
FAI is a non-interactive system to install a &dgl; operating system
-unattended on
+on
a single computer or a whole cluster. You can take one or more virgin
PCs, turn on the power and after a few minutes Linux is installed,
configured and running on the whole cluster, without any interaction
@@ -155,22 +164,22 @@
host is called <tt>faiserver</tt>.
<tag>install client : <item> A host which will be installed using
- FAI and a configuration from the install server. Also called
+ FAI and a configuration provided by the install server. Also called
client for short. In this manual, the example hosts are
called <tt>demohost, nucleus, atom01, atom02,...</tt></p> </item>
<tag> configuration : <item> The details of how the installation
of the clients should be performed. This includes information about:
<list>
<item> <p>Hard disk layout</p> </item>
- <item> <p>Local filesystems, their types, mount points
+ <item> <p>Local file systems, their types, mount points
and mount options</p> </item>
<item> <p>Software packages</p> </item>
<item> <p>Keyboard layout, time zone, NIS,
- Xorg configuration, remote filesystems, user accounts,
+ Xorg configuration, remote file systems, user accounts,
printers ...</p> </item>
</list>
- <tag> nfsroot : <item> A (chroot) filesystem located on the install
- server. It's the complete filesystem for the install
+ <tag> nfsroot : <item> A file system located on the install
+ server. It's the complete file system for the install
clients during the installation process. All clients share the
same nfsroot, which they mount read only.</item>
</taglist>
@@ -179,10 +188,10 @@
The install client which will be installed using FAI, is
booted from floppy disk or via network card. It gets an IP address and
-boots a Linux kernel which mounts its root filesystem via NFS from the install
-server. After the operating system is running, the FAI startup script
+boots a Linux kernel which mounts its root file system via NFS from the install
+server. After the kernel is loaded, the FAI startup script
performs the automatic installation which doesn't need any
-interaction. First, the hard disks will be partitioned, filesystems are
+interaction. First, the hard disks will be partitioned, file systems are
created and then software packages are installed. After that, the new
installed operating system is configured to your local needs using
some scripts. Finally the new operating system will be booted from the local
@@ -199,19 +208,23 @@
FAI can also be used as a network rescue system. You can boot your
computer, but it will not perform an installation. Instead it will run a
fully functional &dgl; without using the local hard disks. Then you can
-do a remote login and backup or restore a disk partition, check a filesystem,
+do a remote login and backup or restore a disk partition, check a file system,
inspect the hardware or do any other task.
+<!--MT: here the class concept should be described, move the entire section
+here.-->
+
<sect id="features">Features<p>
+<!--MT: Full stop after each item or not? Be consistent.-->
<list>
<item> <p>A fully automated installation can be performed.</p> </item>
<item> <p>Very quick unattended installation</p> </item>
- <item> <p>Update of running systems without reinstallation</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>Update of running systems without re-installation</p> </item>
<item> <p>Hosts can boot from network card, CD, USB stick or floppy.</p> </item>
<item> <p>Easy creation of the CD, USB stick or floppy boot media</p> </item>
<item> <p>PXE with DHCP and BOOTP boot methods are supported.</p> </item>
<item> <p>Lilo and grub support</p> </item>
- <item> <p>ReiserFS, ext3 and XFS filesystem support</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>ReiserFS, ext3 and XFS file system support</p> </item>
<item> <p>Automatic hardware detection</p> </item>
<item> <p>Remote login via ssh during installation process
possible.</p> </item>
@@ -231,6 +244,7 @@
<item> <p>Diskless client support</p> </item>
<item> <p>Easily add your own functions via hooks.</p> </item>
<item> <p>Easily change the default behavior via hooks.</p> </item>
+ <!--MT: SVN/CVS config management, softupdates, dirinstall-->
</list>
<chapt id=impatient>Quickstart - For the impatient user<p>
@@ -242,7 +256,7 @@
<list>
<item><p>Install the package <tt>fai-server</tt> and all recommended packages (see
<ref id="faisetup"> on your install server).</p></item>
- <item><p>Edit /etc/fai.conf, run fai-setup -v and read its output.</p></item>
+ <item><p>Edit &fc;, run fai-setup -v and read its output.</p></item>
<item><p>
Install the simple examples into the configuration space:
@@ -255,19 +269,25 @@
<item><p>When using PXE, tell the install client to boot the install
kernel and perform an installation during the next boot <example>fai-chboot -IFv demohost</example>
</p></item>
-<item><p>If you want to try FAI without setting up a PXE+DNS+DHCP-Environment:
-put the hostnames into <file>/etc/hosts</file> inside the nfsroot and use
+<item><p>If you want to try FAI without setting up a PXE+DNS+DHCP-environment:
+put the host names into <file>/etc/hosts</file> inside the nfsroot at
+<file>/srv/fai/nfsroot</file> and use
a bootfloppy/CD/DVD to boot the client.
-See <manref name="make-fai-bootfloppy" section="8">
+See <manref name="make-fai-bootfloppy" section="8">.
<item><p>Boot your demo host and enjoy the fully automatic installation.</p></item>
<item><p>If the installation has finished successfully, the computer should boot a
small Debian system. You can login as user <tt>demo</tt> or <tt>root</tt> with password <tt>fai</tt>.</p></item>
</list>
-But now don't forget to read chapters <ref id="plan">, <ref id="instprocess"> and <ref id="config"> !
+But now don't forget to read chapters <ref id="plan">, <ref id="instprocess"> and <ref id="config">!
<chapt id="inst">Installing FAI
<sect id="requirements">Requirements<p>
+<!--MT: split this section to mark the specific requirments:
+ - boot media
+ - source of the root file system
+ - config source
+-->
The following items are required for an installation via FAI.
@@ -277,7 +297,7 @@
stick or CD you do not need a network
card</footnote>. Unless a diskless installation
should be performed a local hard disk is also needed. No floppy disk,
- CD-ROM, keyboard or graphic card is needed.</item>
+ CD-ROM, keyboard or graphics adapter is needed.</item>
<tag>DHCP or BOOTP server: </tag><item> <p>
The clients need one of these daemons to obtain boot information. But
@@ -287,7 +307,7 @@
transferring the kernel to the clients. It's only needed when
booting from network card with a boot PROM.</item>
<tag>NFS-Root:<item> It is a mountable directory which contains the whole
- filesystem for the install clients during installation. It will
+ file system for the install clients during installation. It will
be created during the setup of the FAI package and is also
called <strong>nfsroot</strong>.</item>
<tag>Debian mirror:<item> Access to a Debian
@@ -295,20 +315,21 @@
an <manref name="apt-proxy" section="8"> is recommended if
you install several computers.</item>
<tag>Install kernel: <item> The kernel image and the initial
- randisk that is used
- for booting the install clients. It mounts its root filesystem via NFS. </item>
- <tag>Configuration space:<item> This directory tree which
- contains the configuration data is mounted via NFS by
+ RAM disk that is used
+ for booting the install clients. It mounts its root file system via NFS. </item>
+ <tag>Configuration space:<item> This directory tree, which
+ contains the configuration data, is mounted via NFS by
default. But you can also get this directory from a revision
control system like CVS or subversion.
</taglist>
<p>
The TFTP daemon and an NFS server will be enabled automatically when
-installing the FAI package.
+installing the <tt>fai-server</tt> package.
<p>
<sect id="debian-mirror">How to create a local Debian mirror<p>
+<!--MT: move this section near the end of the chapter, it's not as important-->
The script <prgn>mkdebmirror</prgn> <footnote> You can find the script in
<p><file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/utils/</file>.</p> </footnote> can be used
@@ -322,9 +343,9 @@
necessary to create and maintain the Debian mirror.
<p>
You can use the command <manref name="fai-mirror" section="1"> for
-creating a partial mirror, that only contains the software
+creating a partial mirror that only contains the software
packages that are used in the classes in your configuration
-space. A partitial mirror containing all package for the simplex
+space. A partial mirror containing all package for the simple
examples from the package fai-doc will only need about 300MB of disk
space.
@@ -342,17 +363,18 @@
<file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/etc</file>. Also add the IP-address
of the HTTP server to the variable <var>NFSROOT_ETC_HOSTS</var> in
&mfnc; when the install clients have no DNS access.
+<!--MT: some link to a signing howto would be nice-->
<sect id=faisetup> Setting up FAI<p>
To setup a FAI install server you need at least the packages
-<tt>fai-server, fai-doc</tt>. The package
+<tt>fai-server</tt> and <tt>fai-doc</tt>. The package
<tt>fai-quickstart</tt> contains dependencies on all required packages
for an install server. Do not install the package <tt>fai-nfsroot</tt>
-on a normals system. This package can only be installed inside the nfsroot.
+on a normal system. This package can only be installed inside the nfsroot.
If you would like to install all packages that are useful
-for a fai install server, use the following command
+for a FAI install server, use the following command
<p><example>
# aptitude install fai-quickstart
@@ -364,17 +386,16 @@
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
dhcp3-common dhcp3-server fai-client fai-doc fai-server
tftp-hpa tftpd-hpa
-The following packages have been kept back:
- kernel-headers-2.6-686
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dhcp3-common dhcp3-server fai-client fai-doc fai-quickstart
fai-server tftp-hpa tftpd-hpa
-0 packages upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
+0 packages upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 13.0MB of archives. After unpacking 17.9MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
</example><p>
The suggested packages for FAI are: <tt>debmirror, mknbi, apt-move, mkisofs, grub, aptitude</tt>.<p>
+<!--MT: is this up to date?-->
<p>The configuration for the FAI package (not the configuration data
for the install clients) is defined in &fc;. Definitions that are only
@@ -400,7 +421,8 @@
needed when the clients have access to a DNS server.</p>
</item>
- <tag><var>FAI_SOURCES_LIST</var></tag> <item> <p>Now
+ <!--MT: don't keep obsolete information
+ <tag><var>FAI_SOURCES_LIST</var></tag> <item> <p>Now
OBSOLETE and unsupported. Use the file
<file>/etc/fai/apt/sources.list</file> instead.<p>
</p> </item>
@@ -412,6 +434,7 @@
<item>
<p> THE USE OF THIS VARIABLE IS NOW OBSOLETE. Use
<file>/etc/fai/NFSROOT</file> instead.</p></item>
+ -->
<tag><var>FAI_BOOT</var></tag>
<item><p>
@@ -425,17 +448,19 @@
These are important variables in &fc;:
<taglist>
+ <!--MT: don't keep obsolete information
<tag><var>FAI_LOCATION</var></tag>
<item> <p> THE USE OF THIS VARIABLE IS NOW OBSOLETE. Use
the variable <var>FAI_CONFIG_SRC</var> instead.</p></item>
+ -->
<tag><var>FAI_CONFIG_SRC</var></tag>
<item> <p>This variables described how to access the
configuration space on the install clients. It's an Universal Resource
Identifier (URI) even it may not always comply to the
- official schemes. See
+ official schemes. <!--MT: not so important... See
<httpsite>en.wikipedia.org</httpsite><httppath>/wiki/URI_scheme</httppath>
- for details. <p>
+ for details.--> <p>
Currently supported methods are:
<taglist>
@@ -449,14 +474,14 @@
<tag><var>svn://user@host/svnpath</var></tag>
<item> <p>The config space checked out from a
subversion repository. Also supported are svn+file,
- svn+http, svn+ssh, svn+https and checkouts without an user
+ svn+http, svn+ssh, svn+https and checkouts without a user
name.</p></item>
</taglist>
If <var>FAI_CONFIG_SRC</var> is undefined in &fc, then the
default is to use an NFS mount from the fai install server
onto the install client. It's the same as
- <tt>nfs://`hostname`/$FAI_CONFIGDIR</tt> with the hostname
+ <tt>nfs://`hostname`/$FAI_CONFIGDIR</tt> with the host name
determined on the install server. Remember that this directory
must be exported to all install clients, so that all files
can be read by root. </p></item>
@@ -465,7 +490,7 @@
<tag><var>FAI_DEBMIRROR</var></tag>
<item>
<p> If you have NFS access to your local Debian mirror,
- specify the remote filesystem. It will be mounted to
+ specify the remote file system. It will be mounted to
<var>$MNTPOINT</var>, which must also be defined. It's
not needed if you use access via FTP or HTTP.</p>
</item>
@@ -474,23 +499,26 @@
The content of <file>/etc/fai/apt/sources.list</file> and <var>FAI_DEBMIRROR</var>
are used by the install server and also by the clients. If your
-install server has multiple network cards and different hostnames for
+install server has multiple network cards and different host names for
each card (as for a Beowulf server), use the install
server name which is known by the install clients.<p>
+<!--MT: FAI uses debootstrap and apt-get-->
FAI uses <manref name="apt-get" section="8"> to create the nfsroot
-filesystem in <file>/srv/fai/nfsroot</file>. It needs about
+file system in <file>/srv/fai/nfsroot</file>. It needs about
&nfsrootsize; of free disk space. After editing &fc; and &mfnc; call
<prgn>fai-setup</prgn>.
+<!--MT: smaller font, if possible-->
&faisetup;
<p>
-A complete log of fai-setup is available on the fai web page.
-It's important that you will see both lines that are marked with an
-asterisk. Otherwise something went wrong. If you'll get a lot of blank
+A complete log of fai-setup is available on the FAI web page.
+It's important that you find both lines that are marked with an
+asterisk in your output. Otherwise something went wrong. If you'll get a lot of blank
lines, it's likely that you are using <tt>konsole</tt>, the X terminal
emulation for KDE which has a bug. Try again using <tt>xterm</tt>.
+<!--MT: this problem should be debugged-->
<p>
The warning messages from dpkg about dependency problems can be ignored.
If you have problems running fai-setup, they usually stem from
@@ -526,6 +554,7 @@
faiserver# /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server reload
faiserver# /etc/init.d/nfs-user-server reload
</example>
+<!--MT: do we still support the nfs-user-server?-->
<p>
The setup also creates the account <tt>fai</tt> (defined by <var>$LOGUSER</var>)
@@ -538,6 +567,7 @@
group of this account, so this account has write permissions to
<file>/srv/tftp/fai</file> in order to change the symbolic links to the kernel
image which is booted by a client.
+<!--MT: the log files - which ones? Give a little explanation here-->
<p>
@@ -553,11 +583,11 @@
the nfsroot add the flags <tt>-k</tt> or <tt>-K</tt> to
<tt>make-fai-nfsroot</tt>. This will not recreate your nfsroot, but
only updates your kernel and kernel modules inside the nfsroot or add
-additional poackages into the nfsroot.
+additional packages into the nfsroot.
<sect1 id=troublefaisetup> Troubleshooting the setup<p>
-The setup of FAI adds the FAI account, exports filesystems and calls
+The setup of FAI adds the <tt>fai</tt> account, exports file systems and calls
<manref name="make-fai-nfsroot" section="8">. If you call
<tt>make-fai-nfsroot -v</tt> you
will see more messages. When using a local Debian mirror, it's
@@ -567,11 +597,11 @@
<chapt id="booting">Preparing booting <p>
-Before booting for the first time, you have to choose which medium you
+Before booting the client for the first time, you have to choose which medium you
use for booting. You can use the boot floppy or configure the computer
-to boot via network card using a boot PROM, which is much smarter.
+to boot via network card using a boot PROM.
Also booting from CD-ROM or from an USB stick is easy to set up. The
-prefered method for booting is using PXE. PXE is the Preboot Execution
+preferred method for booting is using PXE. PXE is the Preboot Execution
Environment which most modern network cards support.
@@ -584,6 +614,7 @@
can enter the MBA setup by typing <tt>Ctrl+Alt+B</tt> during boot. The
setup should look like this:
+<!--MT: smaller font, if possible-->
<example>
Managed PC Boot Agent (MBA) v4.00
(C) Copyright 1999 Lanworks Technologies Co. a subsidiary of 3Com Corporation
@@ -611,7 +642,7 @@
choose <tt>TCP/IP</tt> and set the protocol to <tt>BOOTP</tt>.
When using BOOTP, you have to make a
-symbolic link from the hostname of your client to the appropriate
+symbolic link from the host name of your client to the appropriate
kernel image in <file>/srv/tftp/fai</file>. You can also use the utility
<prgn>tlink</prgn> (<file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/utils/tlink</file>) to create
this link. The file
@@ -624,6 +655,7 @@
Image Creator for MBA ROMs v1.01, Date: Nov 26, 2001 but only on an
Athlon computer.
</p></footnote>
+<!--MT: imggen: which package, what is it good for?-->
<sect id="pxeboot">Booting from network card with a PXE conforming boot ROM<p>
Most modern bootable network cards support the PXE boot environment.
@@ -655,12 +687,15 @@
define which kernel will be loaded by the PXE Linux loader and
which additional parameters are passed to this kernel. You should
read the manual pages, which give you some good examples.
+<!--MT: $TFTPROOT only tells FAI where the tftpd directory is found, but what
+you are saying here rather refers to the entry in inetd.conf-->
See <file>/usr/share/doc/syslinux/pxelinux.doc</file> for more
information about how to boot such an environment. The PXE
environment uses the original kernel image (not the netboot image made
by mknbi-linux) which is copied to
<file>/srv/tftp/fai/vmlinuz-install</file>.
+<!--MT: mknbi-linux has not been mentioned before, what does it do?-->
<sect id="bootfloppy">Creating a boot floppy
@@ -672,10 +707,11 @@
use DHCP and TFTP to get the install kernel that was created with
<manref name="mknbi-linux" section="8">. A lot of ethernet cards
support booting via ethernet if a special boot EPROM is inserted or
-booted from floppy <httpsite>rom-o-matic.net/</httpsite>. In
+booted from floppy provided by <httpsite>rom-o-matic.net/</httpsite>. In
depth documentation about booting via ethernet may be found at
<httpsite>www.etherboot.org</httpsite>.
+<!--MT: not all install clients, but only those of a single architecture-->
The second option is to boot via floppy disk that is created with the
command <manref name="make-fai-bootfloppy" section="8">. Since there's
no client specific
@@ -688,7 +724,7 @@
no BOOTP or DHCP server, supply the network configuration as kernel
parameters. The format is
<p>
-<tt>ip=<client-ip>:<server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<device>:<autoconf>
+<tt>ip=<client-ip>:<server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>:<host-name>:<device>:<autoconf>
</tt>
for setting up the network and
<tt>nfsroot=[<server-ip>:]<root-dir>[,<nfs-options>]</tt>
@@ -705,7 +741,7 @@
an install server. The CD-ROM contains all data needed for the
installation. The command <manref name="fai-cd" section="8"> puts the
nfsroot, the configuration space and a subset of the Debian mirror
-onto a CD-ROM. The partitial mirror is created using the command
+onto a CD-ROM. The partial mirror is created using the command
<manref name="fai-mirror" section="1"> which contains all packages
that are used by the classes used in your configuration space.
@@ -734,7 +770,7 @@
<p>
You have to collect all Ethernet (MAC) addresses of the install clients
-and assign a hostname and IP address to each client. To collect
+and assign a host name and IP address to each client. To collect
all MAC addresses, now boot all your install clients. While the
install clients are booting, they send broadcast packets to the LAN. You
can log the MAC addresses of these hosts by running the following
@@ -750,13 +786,13 @@
<example># perl -ane 'print "\U$F[0]\n"' /tmp/mac.lis|sort|uniq</example>
-After that, you only have to assign these MAC addresses to hostnames
+After that, you only have to assign these MAC addresses to host names
and IP addresses (<file>/etc/ethers</file> and <file>/etc/hosts</file>
or corresponding NIS maps). With this information you can configure
your <prgn>BOOTP</prgn> or <prgn>DHCP</prgn> daemon (see the section
<ref id="bootptab">). I recommend to write the MAC addresses (last
three bytes will suffice if you have network cards from the same
-vendor) and the hostname in the front of each chassis.
+vendor) and the host name in the front of each chassis.
<sect id=bootptab>Configuration of the BOOTP daemon<p>
@@ -789,8 +825,9 @@
demohost:ha=0x00105A240012:bf=demohost:tc=.failocal:T172="verbose sshd createvt debug":
ant01:ha=0x00105A000000:bf=ant01:tc=.failocal:T172="sshd":
</example>
+<!--MT: break the lines of the host entries as well-->
-Insert one line for each install client at the end of this file as
+Insert one entry for each install client at the end of this file as
done for the hosts <em>demohost</em> and <em>ant01</em>. Replace the string
<tt>FAISERVER</tt> with the name of your install server. If the
install server has multiple network cards and host names, use the host
@@ -813,7 +850,7 @@
optional. Tags with prefix <tt>T</tt> (starting from T170) are generic
tags which are used to transfer some FAI specific data to the
clients<footnote>T170=FAI_LOCATION (now defined in
-<file>fai.conf</file> and T171=FAI_ACTION. You can define theses
+<file>fai.conf</file>) and T171=FAI_ACTION. You can define theses
variables in a class/*.var script. But for backward compatibility, you
can define theses variables also from a BOOTP or DHCP
server.</footnote>
@@ -857,15 +894,17 @@
<example># bootpd -d7</example>
<sect id="bootdhcp">Configuration of the DHCP daemon <p>
-An example for <manref name="dhcp.conf" section="5"> is available in
+An example for <manref name="dhcpd.conf" section="5"> is available in
<file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/etc</file>, which is working with
version 3.x of the DHCP daemon. Start using this example
and look at all options used therein.
+<!--MT: give the full path to the dhcpd.conf file-->
One issue to bear in mind when configuring your DHCP daemon is that the
daemon needs to supply the nfsroot path to the client because
the kernel uses a path different from
<file>/srv/fai/nfsroot</file> by default.
+<!--MT: nfsroot may also be set using the PXE config-->
If you make any changes
to the DHCP daemon configuration, you must restart the daemon.
@@ -903,14 +942,14 @@
When the copyright message of FAI is shown, the install client has mounted
the nfsroot<footnote> <p><file>/srv/fai/nfsroot</file> from the
install server</p> </footnote> to the clients' root directory
-<file>/</file>. This is the whole filesystem for the client at this
+<file>/</file>. This is the whole file system for the client at this
moment.
After <tt>task_confdir</tt> is executed, the configuration space is
mounted or received from a CVS repository.
Before the installation is started (<var>FAI_ACTION=install</var>) the computer
-beeps three times. So, be watchful when you hear three beeps
+beeps three times. So, be careful when you hear three beeps
but you do not want to perform an installation!
<sect1 id=booterror>Troubleshooting the boot messages<p>
@@ -1003,15 +1042,16 @@
directory of the last fai action performed. The symlinks
<file>last-install</file> and <file>last-sysinfo</file> point to the
directory with of the last corresponding action.
+<!--MT: I think it should be <tt>~$LOGUSER/$HOSTNAME/$FAI_ACTION-`DATE`/</tt>-->
Examples of the log
files can be found on the FAI homepage.
</footnote>
<p>
-A very nice feature is that FAI mounts all filesystems it finds on
+FAI mounts all file systems it finds on
the local disks read only. It also tells you on which partition a file
-<file>/etc/fstab</file> exists. When only one filesystem table is found, the
+<file>/etc/fstab</file> exists. When only one file system table is found, the
partitions are mounted according to this information. Here's an
example:
<example>
@@ -1037,7 +1077,7 @@
<strong>This method can be used as a rescue environment!</strong> In the
future it will be possible to make backups or restore data to existing
-filesystems. If you need a filesystem with read-write access use the
+file systems. If you need a file system with read-write access use the
<prgn>rwmount</prgn> command:
<example>demohost:~# rwmount /target/home</example>
@@ -1067,12 +1107,13 @@
<item> <p>Define classes</p> </item>
<item> <p>Define variables</p> </item>
<item> <p>Partition local disks</p> </item>
- <item> <p>Create and mount local filesystems</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>Create and mount local file systems</p> </item>
<item> <p>Install software packages</p> </item>
<item> <p>Call site specific configuration scripts</p> </item>
<item> <p>Save log files</p> </item>
<item> <p>Reboot the new installed system</p> </item>
</enumlist>
+ <!--MT: debconf, update base missing-->
You can also define additional programs or scripts
which will be run on particular
@@ -1092,7 +1133,7 @@
<example>
Athlon XP1600+ , 896MB,SCSI disk, 1 GB software 6 min
-AMD-K7, 500MHz , 320MB, IDE disk, 780 MB software 12 min
+AMD-K7 500MHz , 320MB, IDE disk, 780 MB software 12 min
PentiumPro 200MHz , 128MB, IDE disk, 800 MB software 28 min
Pentium III 850MHz, 256MB, IDE disk, 820 MB software 10 min
Pentium III 850MHz, 256MB, IDE disk, 180 MB software 3 min
@@ -1108,25 +1149,26 @@
output. In the future, there will be a graphical frontend available.
<sect id=bootkernel>Booting the kernel<p>
-The install client receives and loads the kernel and initial ramdisk. The kernel
-boots up and load the ramdisk. It does some hardware detection and
+The install client receives and loads the kernel and initial RAM disk. The kernel
+boots up and load the RAM disk. It does some hardware detection and
then tries to figure where the root file system is located. When
booting from network, this is determined by parameters from additional
kernel parameters. When booting from CD-ROM or USB stick the kernel
-and initial ramdisk probes removable devices and tries to figure out
+and initial RAM disk probes removable devices and tries to figure out
where the root file system is located. This may also be a compressed
file system (using squashfs).
After the root file system is mounted read only, it is made writeable
-by mounting a ramdisk via unionfs on top of it. So it's possible for
+by mounting a RAM disk via unionfs on top of it. So it's possible for
programms or daemons to write to files inside a read-only mounted file system.
We are using the package <tt>live-initramfs</tt> to mount the nfsroot and
-to make this file system writeable using the unionfs.
+to make this file system writeable using unionfs.
<sect id=isetup>Set up FAI<p>
+<!--MT: CVS, SVN missing-->
After the install client has booted, only the script
-<file>/usr/sbin/fai</file><footnote><p>Since the root filesystem on
+<file>/usr/sbin/fai</file><footnote><p>Since the root file system on
the clients is mounted via NFS, <prgn>fai</prgn> is located in
<file>/srv/fai/nfsroot/usr/sbin</file> on the install server.</p>
</footnote> is executed. This is the main script which controls the
@@ -1150,6 +1192,7 @@
Scripts ending in <tt>.source</tt>
are sourced, so they can define new classes by adding these classes to
the variable <var>newclasses</var> (see <file>20-hwdetect.source</file> for an
+<!--MT: 20-hwdetect.source does not really use newclasses-->
example). The output of these scripts is ignored.
These classes are defined for the
install client. You can also say this client belongs to these
@@ -1171,12 +1214,12 @@
<manref name="fai-chboot" section="8">.
-<sect id=ipartition>Partitioning local disks, creating filesystems<p>
+<sect id=ipartition>Partitioning local disks, creating file systems<p>
For disk partitioning exactly one disk configuration file from
<file>/fai/disk_config</file> is selected using classes. This file
describes how all the local disks will be partitioned, where
-filesystems should be created (and their types like ext2, ext3,
+file systems should be created (and their types like ext2, ext3,
reiserfs), and how they are mounted. It's also possible to preserve
the disk layout or to preserve the data on certain partitions. It's
done by the command <prgn>setup_harddisks</prgn>, which uses
@@ -1184,16 +1227,16 @@
file is described in <ref id="diskconfig">.
<p>
-During the installation process all local filesystems are mounted
+During the installation process all local file systems are mounted
relative to <file>/target</file>. For example
<file>/target/home</file> will become <file>/home</file> in the
new installed system.
<sect id=ipackages>Installing software packages<p>
-When local filesystems are created, they are all empty (except for
+When local file systems are created, they are all empty (except for
preserved partitions). Now the Debian base system and all requested
-software packages are installed on the new filesystems. First the
+software packages are installed on the new file systems. First the
base archive is unpacked, then the command
<manref name="install_packages" section="8"> installs all packages using <manref
name="apt-get" section="8"> or <manref name="aptitude" section="1">
@@ -1240,7 +1283,7 @@
selected method is defined by the <var>$FAI_LOGPROTO</var> variable in
file &fc;:
<taglist>
- <tag>rsh</tag> <item><p>Use the rcp command to copythe log files to
+ <tag>rsh</tag> <item><p>Use the rcp command to copy the log files to
the log server.</p></item>
<tag>ftp</tag><item><p>
@@ -1273,10 +1316,10 @@
<chapt id=plan>Plan your installation, and FAI installs your plans<p>
<p>
-Before starting your installation, you should spend much time in
+Before starting your installation, you should spend a lot of time in
planning your installation. When you're happy with your installation
concept, FAI can do all the boring, repetitive tasks to turn your plans
-into practice. FAI can't do good installations if your concept is
+into reality. FAI can't do good installations if your concept is
imperfect or lacks some important details. Start planning the
installation by answering the following
questions:
@@ -1284,7 +1327,7 @@
<taglist>
<tag></tag> <item> <p>Will I create a Beowulf cluster, or do I
have to install some desktop machines?</p> </item>
- <tag></tag> <item> <p>How does my LAN topology looks like?</p> </item>
+ <tag></tag> <item> <p>What does my LAN topology look like?</p> </item>
<tag></tag> <item> <p>Do I have uniform hardware?
Will the hardware stay uniform in the future?</p> </item>
<tag></tag> <item> <p>Does the hardware need a special kernel?</p> </item>
@@ -1292,14 +1335,17 @@
<tag></tag> <item> <p>How should the local hard disks be partitioned?</p> </item>
<tag></tag> <item> <p>Which applications will be run by the users?</p> </item>
<tag></tag> <item> <p>Do the users need a queueing system?</p> </item>
+ <!--MT: what is a queueing system?-->
<tag></tag> <item> <p>What software should be installed?</p> </item>
<tag></tag> <item> <p>Which daemons should be started, and what
should the configuration for these look like?</p> </item>
- <tag></tag> <item> <p>Which remote filesystems should be mounted?</p> </item>
+ <tag></tag> <item> <p>Which remote file systems should be mounted?</p> </item>
<tag></tag> <item> <p>How should backups be performed?</p> </item>
<tag></tag> <item> <p>Do you have sufficient power supply?</p> </item>
+ <!--MT: not a problem of using FAI-->
<tag></tag> <item> <p>How much heat do the cluster nodes produce and how are
they cooled?</p> </item>
+ <!--MT: not a problem of using FAI-->
</taglist>
You also have to think about user accounts, printers, a mail system, cron jobs,
@@ -1310,7 +1356,7 @@
and administration is a process, not a product. FAI can't do things
you don't tell it to do.
<p>
-But you need not to start from scratch. Look at all files and scripts
+But you need not start from scratch. Look at all files and scripts
in the configuration space. There are a lot of things you can use for
your own installation.
@@ -1337,7 +1383,7 @@
define classes and variables and to load kernel modules.</p> </item>
<tag><tt>disk_config/</tt></tag> <item> <p>Configuration
- files for disk partitioning and filesystem creation.</p> </item>
+ files for disk partitioning and file system creation.</p> </item>
<tag><tt>debconf/</tt></tag> <item> <p>This directory holds
all <manref name="debconf" section="8"> data. The format is
@@ -1403,7 +1449,7 @@
</example>
These files contain simple configuration for some example
-hosts. Depending on the hostname used, your computer will be
+hosts. Depending on the host name used, your computer will be
configured as follows:
<taglist>
@@ -1414,7 +1460,7 @@
<tag>gnomehost</tag> <item> <p>A GNOME desktop is installed, and
the account demo is created. <p>
- <tag>other hostnames</tag> <item> Hosts with other hostname will
+ <tag>other host names</tag> <item> Hosts with other host name will
most notably use the classes FAIBASE, DHCPC and GRUB.<p>
</taglist>
@@ -1424,7 +1470,7 @@
<sect id=tasks>The default tasks<p>
-After the kernel has booted, it mounts the root filesystem via NFS
+After the kernel has booted, it mounts the root file system via NFS
from the install server and <manref name="init" section="8"> starts the script
<file>/usr/sbin/fai</file>. This script controls the
sequence of the installation. No other scripts in
@@ -1435,6 +1481,7 @@
<file>/usr/share/fai/subroutines</file>, and an operating system specific
file <footnote><file>/usr/share/fai/subroutines-linux</file> for Linux,
<file>/usr/share/fai/subroutines-sunos</file> for Solaris.</footnote>.
+<!--MT: no more Solaris-->
All important tasks of the
installation are called via the subroutine <tt>task</tt>
appended by the name of the task as an option (e.g. <tt>task
@@ -1457,6 +1504,8 @@
The location of the configuration space is defined by the variable
<var>$FAI_CONFIG_SRC</var>. You can use NFS, cvs or svn to access the
configuration space. See section <ref id="isetup"> for how to set the variable.
+<!--MT: there is no info about that at id="isetup"-->
+<!--MT: config is also mounted/checked out in this task-->
<p>
After that, the file
<file>/fai/hooks/subroutines</file> is sourced if it exists. Using
@@ -1514,6 +1563,7 @@
definitions for the root and boot partition and device (<var>$ROOT_PARTITION,
$BOOT_PARTITION, $BOOT_DEVICE</var>) to
<file>/tmp/fai/disk_var.sh</file> and creates an <file>fstab</file> file.</p></item>
+ <!--MT: file systems are created here-->
<tag>mountdisks</tag> <item><p>Mounts the created partitions
according to the created <file>/tmp/fai/fstab</file> file relative to
@@ -1548,13 +1598,13 @@
<tag>instsoft</tag> <item><p>Installs the desired software
packages using class files in
- <file>/fai/package_config</file>.</p> </item>
+ <file>/fai/package_config/</file>.</p> </item>
<tag>configure</tag> <item><p>Calls scripts in
<file>/fai/scripts/</file> and its subdirectories for every
defined class.</p> </item>
- <tag>finish</tag> <item><p>Unmounts all filesystems in the
+ <tag>finish</tag> <item><p>Unmounts all file systems in the
new installed system and removes diversions of files
using the command <prgn>fai-divert</prgn>.</p></item>
@@ -1570,6 +1620,7 @@
the account <var>$LOGUSER</var> on <var>$LOGSERVER</var> (defaults to
the install server). Currently the file <file>error.log</file>
will not be copied to the log server.</p> </item>
+ <!--MT: why is error.log not copied?-->
</taglist>
@@ -1577,7 +1628,7 @@
<sect id=s1>The setup routines of the install clients<p>
After the subroutine <prgn>fai_init</prgn> has done some basic
-initialization (create ramdisk, read <file>fai.conf</file> and all
+initialization (create RAM disk, read <file>fai.conf</file> and all
subroutines definitions, set path, print copyright notice), the setup
continues by calling the task <tt>confdir</tt> and the task
<tt>setup</tt>. The command <prgn>get-boot-info</prgn> is called to
@@ -1626,6 +1677,7 @@
<sect id=classc> The class concept<p>
+<!--MT: as marked above, this section should be put in chapter 1-->
Classes determine which configuration file to choose from a list of
available templates. Classes are used in all further tasks of the
@@ -1634,7 +1686,7 @@
configuration files that match a class name. It's also possible to use
only the configuration file with the highest priority since the order
of classes define the priority from low to high. There are some
-predefined classes (DEFAULT, LAST and the hostname), but classes can
+predefined classes (DEFAULT, LAST and the host name), but classes can
also be listed in a file or defined dynamically by scripts. So it's
easy to define a class depending on the subnet information or on some
hardware that is available on the install client.
@@ -1678,7 +1730,7 @@
There are different possibilities to define classes:
<enumlist>
<item><p>Some default classes are defined for every host:
- DEFAULT, LAST and its hostname.</p> </item>
+ DEFAULT, LAST and its host name.</p> </item>
<item><p>Classes may be listed within a file.</p> </item>
<item><p>Classes may be defined by scripts.</p> </item>
</enumlist>
@@ -1686,13 +1738,13 @@
The last option is a very nice feature, since these scripts will
define classes automatically. For example, several classes are
defined only if certain hardware is identified. We use Perl and shell
-scripts to define classes. All names of classes, except the hostname,
+scripts to define classes. All names of classes, except the host name,
are written in uppercase. They must not contain a hyphen, a hash or a
dot, but may contain underscores. A description of all classes can be
found in <file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/classes_description.txt</file>.
<p>
-Hostnames should rarely be used for the configuration files in the
+host names should rarely be used for the configuration files in the
configuration space. Instead, a class should be defined and
then added for a given host. This is because most of the time the
configuration data is not specific for one host, but can be shared
@@ -1703,7 +1755,7 @@
The task <em>defclass</em> calls the script <manref
name="fai-class" section="1"> to define classes. Therefore, scripts
matching <tt>[0-9][0-9]*</tt> in <tt>/fai/class</tt> are
-executed. Additionally, a file with the hostname may contain a list of
+executed. Additionally, a file with the host name may contain a list of
classes.
For more information on defining class, read the manual pages for <manref
name="fai-class" section="1">. <p>
@@ -1742,7 +1794,7 @@
You can find messages from modprobe in <file>/tmp/fai/kernel.log</file> and
on the fourth console terminal by pressing <tt>Alt-F4</tt>.<p>
-<sect id=classvariables> Defining Variables<p>
+<sect id=classvariables> Defining variables<p>
The task <tt>defvar</tt> defines the variables for the install
client. Variables are defined by scripts in
@@ -1790,7 +1842,7 @@
<sect id=diskconfig>Hard disk configuration<p>
-The script <prgn>setup_harddisks.pl</prgn> partitions and formats
+The script <prgn>setup_harddisks</prgn> partitions and formats
the local disks. It uses all configuration files in
<file>/fai/disk_config/</file> which are also defined as classes.
Lines beginning with # are comments. The config file
@@ -1799,7 +1851,7 @@
can't partition your hard disk using this script <footnote><p>Currently
this script uses the command <tt>sfdisk(8)</tt>, which isn't available
on SUN SPARC, IA64 and PowerPC.</p> </footnote>, use a hook instead. The hook should
-write the new partition table, create the filesystems and create the
+write the new partition table, create the file systems and create the
files <file>/tmp/fai/fstab</file> and <file>/tmp/fai/disk_var.sh</file>, which
contains definitions of boot and root partitions.
@@ -1844,21 +1896,21 @@
<taglist>
<tag>Type</tag> <item> <p>There are two types of partitions: primary
and logical. Primary partitions are bootable, but there is a maximum
- of four primary partitions on each disk. The Linux root filesystem
+ of four primary partitions on each disk. The Linux root file system
must be of this type.
<p>
All other partitions are called logical. Because logical partitions
are gathered internally in one big primary partition, only three
primary partitions can be used if logical partitions are defined.
- Normally only one primary partition for the root filesystem is
+ Normally only one primary partition for the root file system is
created and all others are logical, like <tt>disk1</tt> in the example above.
<tag>Mount point</tag> <item> <p> The mount point is the full path
- (beginning with a slash) for the filesystem. The value <tt>swap</tt>
+ (beginning with a slash) for the file system. The value <tt>swap</tt>
defines a Linux swap partition. Both types will be automatically
- added to <file>/etc/fstab</file>. A dash <tt>-</tt> indicates that
+ added to <file>/etc/fstab</file>. A dash (<tt>-</tt>) indicates that
the partition will not be mounted and can be used for other types of
- filesystems (FAT, NTFS, UFS, MINIX, ...)
+ file systems (FAT, NTFS, UFS, MINIX, ...)
<tag>Size</tag> <item> <p> This is the size of the partition in
megabytes. This value is rounded up to fit to a cylinder
@@ -1870,7 +1922,7 @@
"-300" sets a minimum of 1MB and a 300MB maximum
</example>
<p>
- By default, a new filesystem (currently of type ext2 or swap) will be
+ By default, a new file system (currently of type ext2 or swap) will be
created, and all data on the partition is lost. The meaning of
<tt>preserve<no></tt> will be described later.
<p>
@@ -1888,17 +1940,17 @@
separated extra options list. The following options are known:
<example>
boot : Make this partition the boot-partition (the
- Linux root filesystem is the default).
+ Linux root file system is the default).
-i <bytes> : bytes per inode (ext2/3 only)
-m <blocks> : reserved blocks percentage (ext2/3 only)
--j : Create the filesystem with an ext3 journal.
+-j : Create the file system with an ext3 journal.
-c : Check for bad blocks.
ext2 : Flag as ext2 instead of auto in /etc/fstab.
ext3 : Flag as ext3 instead of auto in /etc/fstab.
swap : swap partition
-dosfat16 : DOS 16 bit FAT filesystem
-winfat32 : Win95 FAT32 filesystem
-reiser : Create a ReiserFS filesystem, not an ext2.
+dosfat16 : DOS 16 bit FAT file system
+winfat32 : Win95 FAT32 file system
+reiser : Create a ReiserFS file system, not an ext2.
xfs : XFS
format : Always format even if preserve is specified.
writable : Mounts a preserved partition writable.
@@ -1919,7 +1971,7 @@
ext3 : An ext2 fs flagged as ext3 in the fstab. !!BAD!!
</example>
<p>
- Using <tt>auto</tt> in the fstab for ext3 filesystems enables a
+ Using <tt>auto</tt> in the fstab for ext3 file systems enables a
non-ext3-enabled kernel or tool to cope with these partitions.
</taglist>
@@ -1975,8 +2027,14 @@
partition. <prgn>setup_harddisks</prgn> will write some variables
containing the information about boot partition and boot device to
<file>/tmp/fai/disk_var.sh</file>.
+<!--MT: I think you did not say how to preserve data-->
<sect id=packageconfig>Software package configuration<p>
+<!--MT: This section is pretty much a chaos:
+ - which commands belong to which package tools
+ - you say something about PRELOADRM and PRELOAD commands, but give no example
+ and don't list them otherwise
+-->
The script <prgn>install_packages</prgn> installs the selected software
packages. It uses all configuration files in <file>/fai/package_config</file>
whose file name matches a defined class. The syntax is very
@@ -2005,7 +2063,7 @@
Comments are starting with a hash (#) and are ending at the end of
the line. Every command begins with the word <tt>PACKAGES</tt>
-followed by a command name. The command defines which commnd will be
+followed by a command name. The command defines which command will be
used to install the packages named after this command. The list of all
available commands can be listed using <tt>install_packages -H</tt>.
Supported package tools are: <tt>aptitude, apt-get, smart, y2pmsh,
@@ -2067,7 +2125,7 @@
It's possible to append a list of class names after the command for
apt-get. So this <tt>PACKAGE</tt> command will only be executed when
the corresponding class is defined. So you can combine many small
-files into the file DEFAULT. <tt>WARNING!</tt> Use this feature only
+files into the file DEFAULT. WARNING! Use this feature only
in the file DEFAULT to keep everything simple. See this file for some
examples.
@@ -2091,7 +2149,7 @@
execute all scripts in this directory. If a directory with a class
name exists, all scripts matching <file>[0-9][0-9]*</file> are executed in
alphabetical order. So it's possible to use scripts of different
-lanuages (shell, cfengine, Perl,..) for one class.
+languages (shell, cfengine, Perl,..) for one class.
<sect1 id=shell>Shell scripts<p>
@@ -2132,6 +2190,8 @@
you can't change the BIOS from a running Linux system as far as I
know. If you know how to perform this, please send me an email. But there's
another way of swapping the boot device of a running Linux system.
+<!--MT: recently, there has been some discussion on linux-fai, add a link to the
+archives-->
<p>
So, normally the boot sequence of the BIOS will remain unchanged and
your computer should always boot first from its network card and the
@@ -2196,7 +2256,7 @@
the hook <file>partition.DISKLESS</file> is called for every client
belonging to the class <tt>DISKLESS</tt> before the local disks would
be partitioned. If it should become a diskless client, this hook
-can mount remote filesystems via NFS and create a <tt>/tmp/fai/fstab</tt>.
+can mount remote file systems via NFS and create a <tt>/tmp/fai/fstab</tt>.
After that, the installation process will not try to partition and
format a local hard disk, because a file <file>/tmp/fai/fstab</file>
already exists.
@@ -2209,12 +2269,13 @@
redefine variables for the installation scripts.
<p>
-In the first part of fai, all hooks with prefix <tt>confdir</tt> are called.
+In the first part of FAI, all hooks with prefix <tt>confdir</tt> are called.
Since the configuration directory <file>/fai</file> is mounted in the
default task <tt>confdir</tt>, the hooks for this task are the only
hooks located in <var>$nfsroot</var><file>/fai/hooks</file> on the
install server. All other hooks are found in
<file>$FAI_CONFIGDIR/hooks</file> on the install server.
+<!--MT: what about softupdates?-->
All hooks that are called before classes are defined can only use the
following classes: <tt>DEFAULT $HOSTNAME LAST</tt>. If a hook for
@@ -2245,7 +2306,7 @@
<item> <p>Do not mount the configuration directory, instead get a
compressed archive via HTTP or from floppy disk and extract it into a
-new ram disk, then redefine <var>$FAI_LOCATION</var>.</p></item>
+new RAM disk, then redefine <var>$FAI_LOCATION</var>.</p></item>
<item> <p>Load kernel modules before classes are defined
in <file>/fai/class</file>. </p></item>
@@ -2270,7 +2331,7 @@
<example>egrep "tftpd|bootpd|dhcpd" /var/log/*</example>
If the installation process finishes, the hook
-<file>faiend.LAST</file> searches all log files for common errors and
+<file>savelog.LAST.source</file> searches all log files for common errors and
writes them to the file <file>error.log</file>. So, you should first
look into this file for errors. Also the file <file>status.log</file>
give you the exit code of the last command executed in a script. To be
@@ -2289,6 +2350,7 @@
available on the FAI homepage.
<chapt id=beowulf>How to build a Beowulf cluster using FAI<p>
+<!--MT: I did not read this chapter-->
This chapter describes the details about building a Beowulf
cluster using &dgl; and FAI. This chapter was written for FAI
@@ -2653,13 +2715,13 @@
<example>fai <options> dirinstall <target-directory></example>
and using either the option <tt>-c <classes></tt> or
<tt>-N</tt> you get a FAI installation, without the partitioning
-action, right into the target directory. The hostname for the target
-installation can be specified using <tt>-u <hostname></tt>
+action, right into the target directory. The host name for the target
+installation can be specified using <tt>-u <host-name></tt>
This, for example, can be used to combine FAI with the tool <tt>xen-tools</tt>, which
helps you to build Xen guest domains. <tt>xen-tools</tt> are very nice for
-generating config files and block devices for new guests based on simple
-commands and/or config files, but they can only assign one role per installation
+generating configuration files and block devices for new guests based on simple
+commands and/or configuration files, but they can only assign one role per installation
for customization.
FAI-users need and want more, as they are used to have the class system.
They get them even in xen-tools installations, by using the following code as
@@ -2679,7 +2741,7 @@
<sect id=softupdate>Using FAI for updates
<p>FAI is even usable for system updates, using the same configuration
as if initially installing. System update means updating the running
-system without doing a reinstallation. An updated client will almost
+system without doing a re-installation. An updated client will almost
look like a newly installed machine, though all local data is
preserved (except of course newer configuration files introduced in
the FAI config).</p>
@@ -2693,7 +2755,8 @@
initial installation) is used, so <prgn>fai-class</prgn>
is not called to define a new list of classes. This can be
changed by calling <tt>fai -N softupdate</tt>.</item>
- <item>No partitioning and filesystem creation is performed.</item>
+ <!--MT: Is this still the current behavior?-->
+ <item>No partitioning and file system creation is performed.</item>
<item>The basesytem isn't bootstrapped.</item>
<item>FAI skips tasks only useful when installing, such as setting up
a keymap or starting special daemons.</item>
@@ -2861,7 +2924,7 @@
You can merge two directories which contain configuration
information, if one is a global one, and the other a local one. We use
-it to merge the templates from the fai package, and our local
+it to merge the templates from the FAI package, and our local
configuration, which contains encrypted passwords and other
information that should not be readable by others.
If you remove a file in your local configuration, do not forget to
@@ -2888,8 +2951,9 @@
the new system.
<p>
+<!--MT: has been said already
The only task which has to be done manually for new hardware is to
-assign the MAC address to a hostname and to an IP address, and to define
+assign the MAC address to a host name and to an IP address, and to define
classes for this host if the existing configuration files are not generic
enough to deal with this new host.
<p>
@@ -2898,6 +2962,7 @@
distinguish classes by using case statements, the <tt>ifclass</tt>
test or with class mechanisms for <tt>cfengine</tt> scripts.
<p>
+-->
If your computer can't boot from the network card, you do not always need to boot
from floppy. Add the class
<tt>FAI_BOOTPART</tt> and FAI will automatically create a
@@ -2913,6 +2978,7 @@
will find an example how to fully automatically install a system using the Debian
Installer (d-i) in conjunction with FAI's new softupdate (see <ref id=softupdate>).
+<!--MT: has been said already
<p>
You should get the program <prgn>imggen</prgn>,<footnote>Available at
the download page <httpsite>www.ltsp.org</httpsite> or from the FAI
@@ -2932,6 +2998,7 @@
<tag>skiptask</tag> <item> <p>This given list of tasks are
skipped. For use e.g. in <file>partition.DISKLESS</file>.</p> </item> </taglist>
+-->
</book>
</debiandoc>
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