Discovering hosts on a network

orcharhino can detect hosts on a network that are not in your orcharhino inventory. These hosts boot the Discovery image that performs hardware detection and relays this information back to orcharhino Server. This method creates a list of ready-to-provision hosts in orcharhino Server without needing to enter the MAC address of each host.

Prerequisites for using Discovery

  • Ensure that the DHCP range of all subnets that you plan to use for Discovery does not overlap with the DHCP lease pool configured for the managed DHCP service. The DHCP range is set in the orcharhino management UI, whereas the lease pool range is set by using the orcharhino-installer command.

    For example, in the 10.1.0.0/16 network range, you can allocate the following IP address blocks:

    • 10.1.0.0 to 10.1.127.255 for leases.

    • 10.1.128.0 to 10.1.255.254 for reservations.

  • Ensure the host or virtual machine being discovered has at least 1200 MB of memory. Insufficient memory can cause various random kernel panic errors because the Discovery image is extracted in memory.

Installing the Discovery service

Enable the Discovery service on orcharhino Server. Additionally, you can enable the Discovery service on any orcharhino Proxy Servers that provide the TFTP service.

The Discovery service requires a Discovery image, which is provided with orcharhino. The Discovery image uses a minimal operating system that is booted on hosts to acquire initial hardware information and check in with orcharhino.

The Foreman Discovery image provided with orcharhino is based on CentOS Stream 8.

Procedure

  1. Install the Discovery plugin on orcharhino Server:

    $ orcharhino-installer \
--enable-foreman-plugin-discovery \
--enable-foreman-proxy-plugin-discovery

  2. Install orcharhino-fdi on orcharhino Server:

    $ dnf install orcharhino-fdi

    The orcharhino-fdi package installs the Discovery ISO to the /usr/share/foreman-discovery-image/ directory. The package also extracts the PXE boot image to the /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/fdi-image directory.

  3. If you want to use orcharhino Proxy Server, install the Discovery plugin on orcharhino Proxy Server:

    $ orcharhino-installer \
--enable-foreman-proxy-plugin-discovery

  4. If you want to use orcharhino Proxy Server, install orcharhino-fdi on orcharhino Proxy Server:

    $ dnf install orcharhino-fdi

    The package also extracts the PXE boot image to the /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/fdi-image directory.

  5. Configure the Discovery orcharhino Proxy for the subnet with discoverable hosts:

    1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Subnets.

    2. Select a subnet.

    3. On the Proxies tab, select the Discovery Proxy that you want to use.

    Perform this for each subnet that you want to use.

Discovery in PXE mode

orcharhino provides a PXE-based Discovery service that uses DHCP and TFTP services. You discover unknown nodes by booting them into the Discovery kernel and initial RAM disk images from orcharhino Server or orcharhino Proxy Server. When a discovered node is scheduled for installation, it reboots and continues with the configured PXE-based host provisioning.

Discovery workflow in PXE mode
Figure 1. Discovery workflow in PXE mode

Setting Discovery as the default PXE boot option

Set the Discovery service as the default service that boots for hosts that are not present in your current orcharhino inventory.

When you start an unknown host in PXE mode, orcharhino Server or orcharhino Proxy Server provides a boot menu with a default boot option. The boot menu has two basic options: local and discovery. The default setting of the global PXE templates is to select local to boot the host from the local hard drive. Change the setting to select discovery to boot from the Discovery image.

Prerequisites

  • Your orcharhino account has the view_settings, edit_settings, and view_provisioning_templates permissions.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Administer > Settings.

  2. On the Provisioning tab, enter discovery in the Default PXE global template entry field.

  3. Navigate to Hosts > Templates > Provisioning Templates.

  4. Click Build PXE Default.

    The boot menus are built as the following files:

    • /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

    • /var/lib/tftpboot/grub2/grub.cfg

    orcharhino propagates the default boot menus to all TFTP orcharhino Proxies.

Performing Discovery in PXE mode

Discovery in PXE mode uses the Discovery PXE boot images and runs unattended.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • Power on or reboot your host. After a few minutes, the Discovery image completes booting and the host displays a status screen.

Verification

  • orcharhino management UI displays a notification about a new discovered host.

Next steps

  • In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Discovered Hosts and view the newly discovered host. For more information about provisioning discovered hosts, see Creating Hosts from Discovered Hosts.

Customizing the Discovery PXE boot

orcharhino builds PXE boot menus from the following global provisioning templates:

  • PXELinux global default for BIOS provisioning.

  • PXEGrub global default and PXEGrub2 global default for UEFI provisioning.

The PXE boot menus are available on orcharhino Server and orcharhino Proxies that have TFTP enabled.

The Discovery menu item uses a Linux kernel for the operating system and passes kernel parameters to configure the Discovery service. You can customize the passed kernel parameters by changing the following snippets:

  • pxelinux_discovery: This snippet is included in the PXELinux global default template.

    This snippet renders the Discovery boot menu option. The KERNEL and APPEND options boot the Discovery kernel and initial RAM disk. The APPEND option contains kernel parameters.

  • pxegrub_discovery: This snippet is included in the PXEGrub global default template. However, Discovery is not implemented for GRUB 1.x.

  • pxegrub2_discovery: This snippet is included in the PXEGrub2 global default template.

    This snippet renders the Discovery GRUB2 menu entry. The common variable contains kernel parameters.

For information about the kernel parameters, see kernel parameters for discovery customization.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Templates > Provisioning Templates.

  2. Clone and edit the snippet you want to customize. For more information, see cloning provisioning templates.

  3. Clone and edit the template that contains the original snippet. Include your custom snippet instead of the original snippet. For more information, see cloning provisioning templates.

  4. Navigate to Administer > Settings.

  5. Click the Provisioning tab.

  6. In the appropriate Global default PXE\ template* setting, select your custom template.

  7. Navigate to Hosts > Templates > Provisioning Templates.

  8. Click Build PXE Default. This refreshes the default PXE boot menus on orcharhino Server and any TFTP orcharhino Proxies.

Discovering hosts from multiple orcharhino Proxy Servers

orcharhino deploys the same template to all TFTP orcharhino Proxies and there is no variable or macro available to render the host name of orcharhino Proxy. The hard-coded proxy.url does not work with two or more TFTP orcharhino Proxies.

As a workaround, every time you click Build PXE Defaults, edit the configuration file in the TFTP directory on all orcharhino Proxy Servers by using SSH, or use a common DNS alias for appropriate subnets. To use orcharhino Proxy Server to proxy the Discovery steps, edit /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default or /var/lib/tftpboot/grub2/grub.cfg, and change the URL to the orcharhino Proxy Server FQDN you want to use.

Discovery in PXE-less mode

orcharhino provides a PXE-less Discovery service for environments without DHCP and TFTP services. You discover unknown nodes by using the Discovery ISO from orcharhino Server. When a discovered node is scheduled for installation, the kexec command reloads a Linux kernel with an operating system installer without rebooting the node.

Known issues

  • The console might freeze during the process.

  • On some hardware, you might experience graphical hardware problems.

Discovery workflow in PXE-less mode
Figure 2. Discovery workflow in PXE-less mode

Performing Discovery in PXE-less mode

Discovery in PXE-less mode uses the Discovery ISO and requires you to attend to the process.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Copy the Discovery ISO to a CD, DVD, or a USB flash drive. For example, to copy to a USB drive at /dev/sdb:

    $ dd bs=4M \
if=/usr/share/foreman-discovery-image/foreman-discovery-image-version.iso \
of=/dev/sdb

  2. Insert the Discovery boot media into a host, start the host, and boot from the media.

  3. The Discovery image displays options for either Manual network setup or Discovery with DHCP:

    • Manual network setup:

      1. On the Primary interface screen, select the primary network interface that connects to orcharhino Server or orcharhino Proxy Server. Optionally, enter a VLAN ID. Hit Select to continue.

      2. On the Network configuration screen, enter the Address, Gateway, and DNS. Hit Next to continue.

    • Discovery with DHCP:

      1. On the Primary interface screen, select the primary network interface that connects to orcharhino Server or orcharhino Proxy Server. Optionally, enter a VLAN ID. Hit Select to continue.

      2. The Discovery image attempts to automatically configure the network interface by using a DHCP server, such as one that a orcharhino Proxy Server provides.

  4. On the Credentials screen, enter the following options:

    • In the Server URL field, enter the URL of orcharhino Server or Discovery orcharhino Proxy Server. If you refer to a orcharhino Proxy Server, include the orcharhino Proxy port number.

    • In the Connection type field, select the connection type: Server for orcharhino Server or Foreman Proxy for orcharhino Proxy Server.

    Hit Next to continue.

  5. Optional: On the Custom facts screen, enter custom facts for the Facter tool to relay back to orcharhino Server. Enter a name and value for each custom fact you need.

  6. Hit Confirm to proceed.

Verification

  • orcharhino management UI displays a notification about a new discovered host.

Next steps

  • In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Discovered Hosts and view the newly discovered host. For more information about provisioning discovered hosts, see Creating Hosts from Discovered Hosts.

Customizing the Discovery ISO

You can create a customized Discovery ISO to automate the image configuration process after booting. The Discovery image uses a Linux kernel for the operating system, which passes kernel parameters to configure the Discovery service.

orcharhino Server provides the discovery-remaster tool in the orcharhino-fdi package. By using this tool, remaster the image to include custom kernel parameters.

Procedure

  1. Run the discovery-remaster tool. Enter the kernel parameters as a single string. For example:

    $ discovery-remaster ~/iso/foreman-discovery-image-version.iso \
"fdi.pxip=192.168.140.20/24 \
fdi.pxgw=192.168.140.1 \
fdi.pxdns=192.168.140.2 \
proxy.url=https://orcharhino.example.com:9090 \
proxy.type=proxy \
fdi.pxfactname1=My_Custom_Hostname \
fdi.pxfactvalue1=My_Host \
fdi.pxmac=52:54:00:be:8e:8c fdi.pxauto=1"

    For more information about kernel parameters, see kernel parameters for discovery customization.

  2. Copy the new ISO to either a CD, DVD, or a USB stick. For example, to copy to a USB stick at /dev/sdb:

    $ dd bs=4M \
if=/usr/share/foreman-discovery-image/foreman-discovery-image-version.iso \
of=/dev/sdb
Next steps

  • Insert the Discovery boot medium into a bare metal host, start the host, and boot from the medium.

    For more information about provisioning discovered hosts, see Creating Hosts from Discovered Hosts.

Automatic contexts for discovered hosts

orcharhino Server assigns an organization and location to discovered hosts automatically according to the following sequence of rules:

  1. If a discovered host uses a subnet defined in orcharhino, the host uses the first organization and location associated with the subnet.

  2. If the default location and organization is configured in global settings, the discovered hosts are placed in this organization and location. To configure these settings, navigate to Administer > Settings > Discovery and select values for the Discovery organization and Discovery location settings. Ensure that the subnet of discovered host also belongs to the selected organization and location, otherwise orcharhino refuses to set it for security reasons.

  3. If none of the previous conditions is met, orcharhino assigns the first organization and location ordered by name.

You can change the organization or location manually by using the bulk actions on the Discovered Hosts page. Select the discovered hosts to modify and, from the Select Action menu, select Assign Organization or Assign Location.

Creating hosts from discovered hosts

Provisioning discovered hosts follows a provisioning process that is similar to PXE provisioning. The main difference is that instead of manually entering the host’s MAC address, you can select the host to provision from the list of discovered hosts.

To use the CLI instead of the orcharhino management UI, see the CLI procedure.

Prerequisites

  • Configure a domain and subnet on orcharhino. For more information about networking requirements, see Configuring Networking.

  • You have one or more discovered hosts in your orcharhino inventory.

  • Provide the installation medium for the operating systems that you want to use to provision hosts. For more information, see Syncing Repositories in Managing Content.

  • Provide an activation key for host registration. For more information, see Creating An Activation Key in Managing Content.

  • You have associated a Discovery kexec-kind template and provisioning-kind template with the operating system. For more information, see Associating Templates with Operating Systems.

For information about the security tokens, see Configuring the Security Token Validity Duration.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Discovered hosts.

  2. Select the host you want to provision and click Provision to the right of the list.

  3. Select one of the following options:

    • To provision a host from a host group, select a host group, organization, and location, and then click Create Host.

    • To provision a host with further customization, click Customize Host and enter the additional details you want to specify for the new host.

  4. Verify that the fields are populated with values. Note in particular:

    • The Name from the Host tab becomes the DNS name.

    • orcharhino Server automatically assigns an IP address for the new host.

    • orcharhino Server automatically populates the MAC address from the Discovery results.

  5. Ensure that orcharhino Server automatically selects the Managed, Primary, and Provision options for the first interface on the host. If not, select them.

  6. Click the Operating System tab, and verify that all fields contain values. Confirm each aspect of the operating system.

  7. In Provisioning templates, click Resolve to check if the new host can identify the correct provisioning templates.

  8. Click Submit to save the host details.

When the host provisioning is complete, the discovered host moves to Hosts > All Hosts.

CLI procedure

  1. Identify the discovered host to provision:

    $ hammer discovery list

  2. Select the host and provision it by using a host group. Set a new host name with the --new-name option:

    $ hammer discovery provision \
--build true \
--enabled true \
--hostgroup "My_Host_Group" \
--location "My_Location" \
--managed true \
--name "My_Host_Name" \
--new-name "My_New_Host_Name" \
--organization "My_Organization"

    This removes the host from the discovered host listing and creates a host entry with the provisioning settings. The Discovery image automatically reboots the host to PXE or initiates kernel execution. The host detects the DHCP service and starts installing the operating system. The rest of the process is identical to the normal PXE workflow described in Creating Hosts with Unattended Provisioning.

Creating Discovery rules

As a method of automating the provisioning process for discovered hosts, orcharhino provides a feature to create Discovery rules. These rules define how discovered hosts automatically provision themselves, based on the assigned host group. For example, you can automatically provision hosts with a high CPU count as hypervisors. Likewise, you can provision hosts with large hard disks as storage servers.

To use the CLI instead of the orcharhino management UI, see the CLI procedure.

NIC considerations

Auto provisioning does not currently allow configuring network interface cards (NICs). All systems are being provisioned with the NIC configuration that was detected during discovery. However, you can set the NIC in the OS installer recipe scriptlet, by using a script, or by using configuration management at a later stage.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Configure > Discovery rules, and select Create Rule.

  2. In the Name field, enter a name for the rule.

  3. In the Search field, enter the rules to determine whether to provision a host. This field provides suggestions for values you enter and allows operators for multiple rules. For example: cpu_count > 8.

  4. From the Host Group list, select the host group to use as a template for this host.

  5. In the Hostname field, enter the pattern to determine host names for multiple hosts. This uses the same ERB syntax that provisioning templates use. The host name can use the @host attribute for host-specific values and the rand macro for a random number or the sequence_hostgroup_param_next macro for incrementing the value. For more information about provisioning templates, see provisioning templates and the API documentation.

    • myhost-<%= sequence_hostgroup_param_next("EL7/MyHostgroup", 10, "discovery_host") %>

    • myhost-<%= rand(99999) %>

    • abc-<%= @host.facts['bios_vendor'] %>-<%= rand(99999) %>

    • xyz-<%= @host.hostgroup.name %>

    • srv-<%= @host.discovery_rule.name %>

    • server-<%= @host.ip.gsub('.','-') + '-' + @host.hostgroup.subnet.name %>

      When creating host name patterns, ensure that the resulting host names are unique, do not start with numbers, and do not contain underscores or dots. A good approach is to use unique information provided by Facter, such as the MAC address, BIOS, or serial ID.

  6. In the Hosts limit field, enter the maximum number of hosts that you can provision with the rule. Enter 0 for unlimited.

  7. In the Priority field, enter a number to set the precedence the rule has over other rules. Rules with lower values have a higher priority.

  8. From the Enabled list, select whether you want to enable the rule.

  9. To set a different provisioning context for the rule, click the Organizations and Locations tabs and select the contexts you want to use.

  10. Click Submit to save your rule.

  11. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Discovered Host and select one of the following two options:

    • From the Discovered hosts list on the right, select Auto-Provision to automatically provisions a single host.

    • On the upper right of the window, click Auto-Provision All to automatically provisions all hosts.

CLI procedure

  1. Create the rule by using Hammer:

    $ hammer discovery-rule create \
--enabled true \
--hostgroup "My_Host_Group" \
--hostname "hypervisor-<%= rand(99999) %>" \
--hosts-limit 5 \
--name "My_Hypervisor" \
--priority 5 \
--search "cpu_count  > 8"

  2. Automatically provision a host with the hammer discovery auto-provision command:

    $ hammer discovery auto-provision --name "macabcdef123456"

Extending the Discovery image

You can extend the orcharhino Discovery image with custom facts, software, or device drivers. You can also provide a compressed archive file containing extra code for the image to use.

Procedure

  1. Create the following directory structure:

    .
├── autostart.d
│   └── 01_zip.sh
├── bin
│   └── ntpdate
├── facts
│   └── test.rb
└── lib
    ├── libcrypto.so.1.0.0
    └── ruby
        └── test.rb

    • The autostart.d directory contains scripts that are executed in POSIX order by the Discovery kernel when it starts but before the host is registered to orcharhino.

    • The bin directory is added to the $PATH variable; you can place binary files in this directory and use them in the autostart scripts.

    • The facts directory is added to the FACTERLIB variable so that custom facts can be configured and sent to orcharhino.

    • The lib directory is added to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable and lib/ruby is added to the RUBYLIB variable, so that binary files in /bin can be executed correctly.

  2. After creating the directory structure, create a .zip file archive with the following command:

    $ zip -r my_extension.zip .

  3. Inform the Discovery kernel of the extensions it must use. Place your zip files on your TFTP server with the Discovery image and customize the Discovery PXE boot with the fdi.zips parameter where the paths are relative to the TFTP root.

    For example, if you have two archives at $TFTP/zip1.zip and $TFTP/boot/zip2.zip, use the following syntax:

    fdi.zips=zip1.zip,boot/zip2.zip

    For more information, see Customizing the Discovery PXE Boot.

You can append new directives and options to the existing environment variables (PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, RUBYLIB and FACTERLIB). If you want to specify the path explicitly in your scripts, the .zip file contents are extracted to the /opt/extension directory on the image.

You can create multiple .zip files but be aware that they are extracted to the same location on the Discovery image. Files extracted from in later .zip files overwrite earlier versions if they contain the same file name.

Building a custom Discovery image

You can build a custom Discovery ISO or rebuild an ISO if you change configuration files.

The Discovery image uses a minimal operating system that is booted on hosts to acquire initial hardware information and check in with orcharhino. Discovered hosts keep running the Discovery operating system until they are rebooted into an operating system installer, which then initiates the provisioning process.

Do not use your production orcharhino Server nor orcharhino Proxy Server to perform this procedure. Use either a dedicated environment or copy the repositories and Kickstart file to a separate server.

The following procedure demonstrates the building process on Amazon Linux 8 and uses CentOS Stream 8 repositories.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that hardware virtualization is available on your server.

  • Install the following packages:

    $ dnf install git-core lorax anaconda pykickstart wget qemu-kvm

  • Clone the foreman-discovery-image repository:

    $ git clone https://github.com/theforeman/foreman-discovery-image.git
$ cd foreman-discovery-image
Procedure

  1. Replace the contents of the 00-repos-centos8.ks file with the following:

    url --mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=8&arch=$basearch&repo=baseos
repo --name="AppStream" --mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=8&arch=$basearch&repo=appstream
repo --name="foreman-el8" --baseurl=http://yum.theforeman.org/releases/7.2/el8/$basearch/
repo --name="foreman-plugins-el8" --baseurl=http://yum.theforeman.org/plugins/7.2/el8/$basearch/
module --name=ruby --stream=2.7
module --name=postgresql --stream=12
module --name=foreman --stream=el8

  2. Prepare the Kickstart file:

    $ ./build-livecd fdi-centos8.ks

  3. Build the ISO image:

    $ sudo ./build-livecd-root custom ./result "nomodeset nokaslr"

    nomodeset disables mode setting. nokaslr disables address space layout randomization.

    For example, you can build a fully automated Discovery image with a static network configuration:

    $ sudo ./build-livecd-root custom ./result \
"nomodeset nokaslr \
fdi.pxip=192.168.140.20/24 fdi.pxgw=192.168.140.1 \
fdi.pxdns=192.168.140.2 proxy.url=https://orcharhino.example.com:8443 \
proxy.type=foreman fdi.pxmac=52:54:00:be:8e:8c fdi.pxauto=1"

    For more information about configuration options, see kernel parameters for discovery customization.

  4. Verify that your ./result/fdi-custom-XXXXXXX.iso file is created:

    $ ls -h ./result/*.iso

  5. Convert the .iso file to an .iso hybrid file for local booting:

    $ isohybrid --partok fdi.iso

    If you have grub2 packages installed, you can also use the following command to install a grub2 bootloader:

    $ isohybrid --partok --uefi fdi.iso

  6. Add md5 checksum to the .iso file so that it can pass installation media validation tests in orcharhino:

    $ implantisomd5 fdi.iso

Kernel parameters for Discovery customization

Discovery uses a Linux kernel for the operating system and passes kernel parameters to configure the Discovery service. These kernel parameters include the following entries:

fdi.cachefacts

Number of fact uploads without caching. By default, orcharhino does not cache any uploaded facts.

fdi.countdown

Number of seconds to wait until the text-user interface is refreshed after the initial discovery attempt. This value defaults to 45 seconds. Increase this value if the status page reports the IP address as N/A.

fdi.dhcp_timeout

NetworkManager DHCP timeout. The default value is 300 seconds.

fdi.dns_nameserver

Nameserver to use for DNS SRV record.

fdi.dns_ndots

ndots option to use for DNS SRV record.

fdi.dns_search

Search domain to use for DNS SRV record.

fdi.initnet

By default, the image initializes all network interfaces (value all). When this setting is set to bootif, only the network interface it was network-booted from will be initialized.

fdi.ipv4.method

By default, NetworkManager IPv4 method setting is set to auto. This option overrides it, set it to ignore to disable the IPv4 stack. This option works only in DHCP mode.

fdi.ipv6.method

By default, NetworkManager IPv6 method setting is set to auto. This option overrides it, set it to ignore to disable the IPv6 stack. This option only works in DHCP mode.

fdi.ipwait

Duration in seconds to wait for IP to be available in HTTP proxy SSL cert start. By default, orcharhino waits for 120 seconds.

fdi.nmwait

nmcli -wait option for NetworkManager. By default, nmcli waits for 120 seconds.

fdi.proxy_cert_days

Number of days the self-signed HTTPS cert is valid for. By default, the certificate is valid for 999 days.

fdi.pxauto

To set automatic or semi-automatic mode. If set to 0, the image uses semi-automatic mode, which allows you to confirm your choices through a set of dialog options. If set to 1, the image uses automatic mode and proceeds without any confirmation.

fdi.pxfactname1, fdi.pxfactname2 …​ fdi.pxfactnameN

Use to specify custom fact names.

fdi.pxfactvalue1, fdi.pxfactvalue2 …​ fdi.pxfactvalueN

The values for each custom fact. Each value corresponds to a fact name. For example, fdi.pxfactvalue1 sets the value for the fact named with fdi.pxfactname1.

fdi.pxip, fdi.pxgw, fdi.pxdns

Manually configures IP address (fdi.pxip), the gateway (fdi.pxgw), and the DNS (fdi.pxdns) for the primary network interface. If you omit these parameters, the image uses DHCP to configure the network interface. You can add multiple DNS entries in a comma-separated [1] list, for example fdi.pxdns=192.168.1.1,192.168.200.1.

fdi.pxmac

The MAC address of the primary interface in the format of AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF. This is the interface you aim to use for communicating with orcharhino Proxy Server. In automated mode, the first NIC (using network identifiers in alphabetical order) with a link is used. In semi-automated mode, a screen appears and requests you to select the correct interface.

fdi.rootpw

By default, the root account is locked. Use this option to set a root password. You can enter both clear and encrypted passwords.

fdi.ssh

By default, the SSH service is disabled. Set this to 1 or true to enable SSH access.

fdi.uploadsleep

Duration in seconds between facter runs. By default, facter runs every 30 seconds.

fdi.vlan.primary

VLAN tagging ID to set for the primary interface. If you want to use tagged VLAN provisioning and you want the Discovery service to send a discovery request, add the following parameter to the Discovery snippet:

fdi.vlan.primary=My_VLAN_ID
fdi.zips

Filenames with extensions to be downloaded and started during boot. For more information, see Extending the Discovery Image.

fdi.zipserver

TFTP server to use to download extensions from. For more information, see Extending the Discovery Image.

proxy.type

The proxy type. By default, this parameter is set to foreman, where communication goes directly to orcharhino Server. Set this parameter to proxy if you point to orcharhino Proxy in proxy.url.

proxy.url

The URL of the server providing the Discovery service. By default, this parameter contains the foreman_server_url macro as its argument. This macro resolves to the full URL of orcharhino Server. There is no macro for a orcharhino Proxy URL. You have to set a orcharhino Proxy explicitly. For example:

proxy.url=https://orcharhino-proxy.network2.example.com:9090 proxy.type=proxy

You can use an IP address or FQDN in this parameter. Add a SSL port number if you point to orcharhino Proxy.

Troubleshooting Discovery

If a machine is not listed in the orcharhino management UI in Hosts > Discovered Hosts, it means that Discovery has failed. Inspect the following configuration areas to help isolate the problem:

Inspecting prerequisites
Inspecting problems on orcharhino

  • Ensure you have set Discovery for booting and built the PXE boot configuration files. For more information, see setting discovery as the default PXE boot option.

  • Verify that these configuration files are present on your TFTP orcharhino Proxy and have discovery set as the default boot option:

    • /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

    • /var/lib/tftpboot/grub2/grub.cfg

  • Verify that the values of the proxy.url and proxy.type options in the PXE Discovery snippet you are using. The default snippets are named pxelinux_discovery, pxegrub_discovery, or pxegrub2_discovery.

Inspecting problems with networking

  • Ensure adequate network connectivity between hosts, orcharhino Proxy Server, and orcharhino Server.

  • Ensure that the DHCP server provides IP addresses to the booted Discovery image correctly.

  • Ensure that DNS is working correctly for the discovered hosts or use an IP address in the proxy.url option in the PXE Discovery snippet included in the PXE template you are using.

Inspecting problems on the host

  • If the host boots into the Discovery image but Discovery is not successful, enable the root account and SSH access on the Discovery image. You can enable SSH and set the root password by using the following Discovery kernel options:

    fdi.ssh=1 fdi.rootpw=My_Password

  • Using TTY2 or higher, log in to a Discovery-booted host to review system logs. For example, these logs are useful for troubleshooting:

    discover-host

    Initial facts upload

    foreman-discovery

    Facts refresh, reboot remote commands

    nm-prepare

    Boot script which pre-configures NetworkManager

    NetworkManager

    Networking information

  • For gathering important system facts, use the discovery-debug command on the Discovery-booted host. It prints out system logs, network configuration, list of facts, and other information on the standard output. You can redirect this output to a file and copy it with the scp command for further investigation.

Additional resources

The text and illustrations on this page are licensed by ATIX AG under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International ("CC BY-SA 4.0") license. This page also contains text from the official Foreman documentation which uses the same license ("CC BY-SA 4.0").
1. NetworkManager expects ; as a list separator but currently also accepts ,. For more information, see man nm-settings-keyfile and Shell-like scripting in GRUB