Can we support ubuntu 22.04 in future?

[mytxyang-arm]

Ubuntu 22.04 was released already, do we have a plan to support it on cobbler?

[SchoolGuy]

@mytxyang-arm Feel free to open a PR with the modifications for signatures.json to this repo and the one for our GitHub Pages (https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler.github.io) and we should be good already. Cloud-Init support is missing but the legacy images should work. See #2339 for more detail.

For further investigation and planning additionally I have created #3218, however it is not required to support Ubuntu 22.04.

[opoplawski]

Are there legacy images for 22.04? I'm not finding them.

[btravouillon]

My notes are written into my native language so I have to translate.
First part is below, I will complete asap.

For the context, I must specify that I run Cobbler 3.3.2 + some patches (backports) that are required for my setup. There is no patch to support Ubuntu 22.04 so any 3.3 should work.

First, I created a new distro by specifying the path to initrd and kernel files which were manually extracted from the ISO (no cobbler import, I use this role to manage Cobbler with Ansible).

root@cobblerlab:~# cobbler distro report --name ubuntu-22.04
Name                           : ubuntu-22.04
Architecture                   : x86_64
Automatic Installation Template Metadata : {'install_source_hostname': 'mirror.example.tld', 'install_source_directory': '/mirror/ubuntu/'}
TFTP Boot Files                : {}
Boot loaders                   : <<inherit>>
Breed                          : ubuntu
Comment                        : 
Fetchable Files                : {}
Initrd                         : /var/lib/tftpboot/ubuntu/22.04/ubuntu-installer/amd64/initrd
Kernel                         : /var/lib/tftpboot/ubuntu/22.04/ubuntu-installer/amd64/vmlinuz
Kernel Options                 : {}
Kernel Options (Post Install)  : {}
Management Classes             : []
OS Version                     : 
Owners                         : ['admin']
Redhat Management Key          : 
Remote Boot Initrd             : 
Remote Boot Kernel             : 
Template Files                 : {}

I also created a profile linked to the distro above, and a system linked to the profile.

Here is the PXE config file generated by Cobbler 3.3:

timeout 1
prompt 0
default jammy01
ontimeout jammy01
LABEL jammy01
        MENU LABEL jammy01
        kernel /images/ubuntu-22.04/vmlinuz
        append initrd=/images/ubuntu-22.04/initrd  auto-install/enable=true priority=critical netcfg/choose_interface=auto url=http://172.31.0.10/cblr/svc/op/autoinstall/system/jammy01 hostname=jammy01 domain=local.lan suite=
        ipappend 2

This file does not work with the new installer.
To make it work, one needs to:

• add autoinstall
• update url to provide an URL to the installation ISO (:warning: this must be the ISO that initrd and vmlinuz were extracted from. Do not mix 22.04.1 initrd/vmlinuz and 22.04.2 ISO)
• add ip=dhcp
• add cloud-config-url=/dev/null to download the ISO only once during the installation process
• add ds=nocloud-net;s=http://x.x.x.x/path/to/cloud-init-dir/ which should include answer files user-data and meta-data

So, the workaround is to:

1. update the PXE config file to apply the changes above
2. generate the user-data file from a template
3. generate an empty meta-data file

[btravouillon]

Update the PXE config file

It is possible to add the missing parts as Kernel Options in the profile.

root@cobblerlab:~# cobbler profile report --name cloud-vm-ubuntu-22.04 | grep Kernel
Kernel Options                 : {'autoinstall': '~', 'ip': 'dhcp', 'cloud-config-url': '/dev/null', 'url': 'http://mirror.example.tld/mirror/iso/ubuntu-22.04.2-live-server-amd64.iso'}
Kernel Options (Post Install)  : {}

With this, most of the parameters are defined when Cobbler templates the PXE config file. The next step is to update the URL to the user-data and meta-data files in ds.
I do this with this Ansible task:

    - name: Update PXELinux configuration file
      ansible.builtin.replace:
        path: "/srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/01-{{ mac_address }}"
        regexp: '^(\t+append.*)  auto-install.*url=([a-z0-9:/.]*) .*$'
        replace: '\1 ds=nocloud-net;s=\2/'
      delegate_to: cobblerlab

Generate the user-data file from a template

Interestingly, the Cobbler service for the system will return the automatic installation file whatever the path after the system name. The URLs below will return the same file:

• http://172.31.0.10/cblr/svc/op/autoinstall/system/jammy01
• http://172.31.0.10/cblr/svc/op/autoinstall/system/jammy01/foo
• http://172.31.0.10/cblr/svc/op/autoinstall/system/jammy01/user-data

With this, it is possible to generate the user-data from a Cobbler template, as one would do for Kickstart or pre-seed installation.

A template could be /var/lib/cobbler/templates/cloud-init-user-data:

#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  identity:
    ## If hostname is not defined, use system name
    #if $getVar('hostname','') != ''
    #set $myhostname = $getVar('hostname')
    #else
    #set $myhostname = $getVar('system_name', 'cobbler').replace("_","-")
    #end if
    hostname: $myhostname
    password: $default_password_crypted
    username: ubuntu
  late-commands:
      ## Figure out if we're automating OS installation for a system or a profile
      #if $getVar('system_name','') != ''
      #set $what = "system"
      #else
      #set $what = "profile"
      #end if
    - wget "http://$http_server/cblr/svc/op/nopxe/$what/$name" -O /dev/null
  version: 1

root@cobblerlab:~# cobbler profile report --name cloud-vm-ubuntu-22.04 | grep 'Automatic Installation Template'
Automatic Installation Template : cloud-init-user-data

Generate an empty meta-data file

By default, the URL http://172.31.0.10/cblr/svc/op/autoinstall/system/jammy01/meta-data will also return the automatic installation file.

To avoid this, edit the Apache configuration for Cobbler to add AliasMatch ^/cblr/svc/.*/meta-data$ "/dev/zero" so the server will always provide an empty file. For Debian, the config file is /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/cobbler.conf. Reload the service with systemctl reload apache2.

[btravouillon]

Here is the full task file I include in the Ansible playbooks used to deploy systems:

# This will create the system if it does not exist.
# To enable netboot, use `-e netboot_enabled=true`.
- name: Ensure the system exists in Cobbler
  community.general.cobbler_system:
    host: "{{ cobbler_api_host }}"
    use_ssl: "{{ cobbler_api_use_ssl }}"
    username: "{{ cobbler_api_username }}"
    password: "{{ cobbler_api_password }}"
    name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
    properties:
      netboot_enabled: "{{ netboot_enabled | default(omit) }}"
      profile: "{{ profile }}"
    interfaces: "{{ interfaces }}"
  delegate_to: localhost
  throttle: 1

# This block is a workaround to deploy Ubuntu with the new autoinstall tool.
# This is required until Cobbler add support of cloud-init deployments
# See https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/issues/3218
- name: Workaround to deploy Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  vars:
    _distro_query: "cobbler_profiles[?name=='{{ profile }}'].properties.distro"
  when:
    # Check the profile's distro in the Cobbler server's inventory
    - hostvars['cobblerlab'] | community.general.json_query(_distro_query) | first == 'ubuntu-22.04'
    # Do not apply the workaround if netboot is not requested
    - netboot_enabled is defined
    - netboot_enabled
  block:
    - name: Add AliasMatch to Apache2 config to answer with empty cloud-init meta-data file
      ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
        path: /etc/apache2/conf-available/cobbler.conf
        insertafter: '^AliasMatch'
        line: 'AliasMatch ^/cblr/svc/.*/meta-data$ "/dev/zero"'
      delegate_to: cobblerlab
      register: apache2_conf

    - name: Reload Apache2 configuration
      ansible.builtin.systemd:
        name: apache2
        state: reloaded
      when: apache2_conf.changed
      delegate_to: cobblerlab

    - name: Find MAC address of management interface
      ansible.builtin.set_fact:
        _mgmt_mac: |
          {% for iface in interfaces %}
          {% if interfaces[iface].management is defined and interfaces[iface].management %}
          {{ interfaces[iface].macaddress }}
          {% endif %}
          {% endfor %}

    - name: Update PXELinux configuration file
      ansible.builtin.replace:
        path: "/srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/01-{{ _mgmt_mac | trim | replace(':', '-') }}"
        regexp: '^(\t+append.*)  auto-install.*url=([a-z0-9:/.]*) .*$'
        replace: '\1 ds=nocloud-net;s=\2/'
      delegate_to: cobblerlab

[pvl1]

I was able to get 22.04 to pxe boot from cobbler 3.3.3 without any patches (mainline?)

[fsiefken]

Yes pv1, I could pxe boot as well, but the installer doesn't kick-off. For this one needs autoinstall, user-data and meta-data. Appearently this is worked on but it takes time and will not land in version 3.4.0. See issue 3218 #3218

[Alex-Gal]

Hello. I have cobbler version 3.2.2 installed. Can anyone share a template for installing Ubuntu 22.04?

[NileshChandekar]

#3573

if this not help lets connect remotely.

[Alex-Gal]

Thanks for the instructions. The installation of Ubuntu 22 was successful. But how to set up the config for RAID 1 partitioning when installing Ubuntu 22. Maybe you have an example of the settings?