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Example bootenvs-customize with Sledgehammer

In Digital Rebar Platform (DRP) version v4.4.0 there is a new BootEnv customization capability. This allows you to provide a Profile of relevant changes to a single BootEnv, to express multiple variations and versions of that BootEnv. For example, an operator can support multiple Sledgehammer versions based on the Profiel data, or multiple VMware vSphere ESXi ISOs referenced in the BootEnv.

This helps reduce the sprawl associated with Operating Systems that heavily rely on many (hundreds!!) of custom ISOs for their OS deployments (looking at you ESXi ...).

By setting the bootenv-customize Parameter with the right data structure, you can customize which ISO and BootEnv details are served for a given single BootEnv.

This example solution will show how to use this mechanism to customize which Sledgehammer version is served for discovery and hardware lifecycle management tasks.

Solution

This solution example uses Sledgehammer to demonstrate this feature. Note that the below referenced Sledgehammer versions will likely need to be updated with newer released versions if they are available.

First, download this file for the Sledgehammer "8" referenced.

Note

Ensure you are using DRP v4.4.0 or newer.

The below is a Profile definition named sledge8. The has value is the Sledgehammer version information, found in the tar file name listed above. Adjust the values according to your OS version.

{
  "Name": "sledge8",
  "Description": "Bootenv override for sledgehammer amd64 based on CentOS 8",
  "Documentation": "Describes Sledgehammer based on CentOS 8 version.",
  "Meta": {},
  "Params": {
    "bootenv-customize": {
      "discovery": {
        "Loaders": {
          "amd64-uefi": "a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/shimx64.efi"
        },
        "OS": {
          "Name": "sledgehammer",
          "SupportedArchitectures": {
            "amd64": {
              "Initrds": [
                "a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/stage1.img"
              ],
              "IsoFile": "sledgehammer-a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a.amd64.tar",
              "Kernel": "a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/vmlinuz0"
            }
          }
        },
        "Templates": [
          {
            "ID": "allarch-grub.tmpl",
            "Name": "grub-secure-discovery",
            "Path": "sledgehammer/a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/grub.cfg"
          }
        ]
      },
      "sledgehammer": {
        "Loaders": {
          "amd64-uefi": "a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/shimx64.efi"
        },
        "OS": {
          "Name": "sledgehammer",
          "SupportedArchitectures": {
            "amd64": {
              "Initrds": [
                "a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/stage1.img"
              ],
              "IsoFile": "sledgehammer-a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a.amd64.tar",
              "Kernel": "a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/vmlinuz0"
            }
          }
        },
        "Templates": [
          {
            "ID": "default-grub.tmpl",
            "Name": "grub-secure",
            "Path": "sledgehammer/a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/grub.cfg-{{.Machine.HexAddress}}"
          },
          {
            "ID": "default-grub.tmpl",
            "Name": "grub-secure-mac",
            "Path": "sledgehammer/a4173163ae366f90450e8c41ec54807b0859220a/grub.cfg-{{.Machine.MacAddr \"pxelinux\"}}"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "Profiles": []
}

To use this profile, save the above example to your system with a drpcli client, as sledge8.json, and add it to your system with the following:

drpcli profiles create sledge8.json

Additional Information

Additional resources and information related to this Knowledge Base article.

A helper command was added to make downloading the ISO files in a profile easier. Using the profile name in the above example would look like:

drpcil profiles uploadiso sledge8

See Also

Versions

  • DRP v4.4.0 or newer

Keywords

bootenvs, customization, bootenv-customize, sledgehammer, sledge8

Revision Information

KB Article     :  kb-00044
initial release:  Tue Aug 11 10:34:19 PDT 2020
updated release:  Tue Aug 11 10:34:19 PDT 2020