Preparing provisioning content

You have to configure provisioning content that will be used for installation of the operating system on the provisioned host.

Additional resources

Preparing a synchronized Kickstart repository

orcharhino contains a set of synchronized Kickstart repositories that you use to install the provisioned host’s operating system. For more information about adding repositories, see Synchronizing repositories in Managing Content.

Use this procedure to set up a Kickstart repository.

Prerequisites

You must enable both BaseOS and AppStream Kickstart before provisioning.

Procedure

  1. Add the synchronized Kickstart repository that you want to use to the existing content view, or create a new content view and add the Kickstart repository.

    For Oracle Linux 8, ensure that you add both Oracle Linux 8 for x86_64 - AppStream Kickstart x86_64 8 and Oracle Linux 8 for x86_64 - BaseOS Kickstart x86_64 8 repositories.

    If you use a disconnected environment, you must import the Kickstart repositories from your Oracle Linux binary DVD.

  2. Publish a new version of the content view where the Kickstart repository is added and promote it to a required lifecycle environment. For more information, see Managing content views in Managing Content.

  3. When you create a host, in the Operating System tab, for Media Selection, select the Synced Content checkbox.

To view the Kickstart tree, enter the following command:

$ hammer medium list --organization "My_Organization"

Adding installation media to orcharhino

Installation media are sources of packages that orcharhino Server uses to install a base operating system on a machine from an external repository.

You can view installation media by navigating to Hosts > Provisioning Setup > Installation Media.

Installation media must be in the format of an operating system installation tree and must be accessible from the machine hosting the installer through an HTTP URL.

If you want to improve download performance when using installation media to install operating systems on multiple hosts, you must modify the Path of the installation medium to point to the closest mirror or a local copy.

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

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Provisioning Setup > Installation Media.

  2. Click Create Medium.

  3. In the Name field, enter a name to represent the installation media entry.

  4. In the Path enter the URL that contains the installation tree. You can use following variables in the path to represent multiple different system architectures and versions:

    • $arch – The system architecture.

    • $version – The operating system version.

    • $major – The operating system major version.

    • $minor – The operating system minor version.

      Example HTTP path:

      http://http://download.example.com/oracle_linux/$version/Server/$arch/os/

  5. From the Operating system family list, select the distribution or family of the installation medium. Oracle Linux belongs to the Red Hat family.

  6. Click the Organizations and Locations tabs, to change the provisioning context. orcharhino Server adds the installation medium to the set provisioning context.

  7. Click Submit to save your installation medium.

ATIX AG provides file-type repositories for installation media. You can synchronize them to provision hosts in disconnected environments by using local installation media. For a list of upstream URLs, see Using file repositories for installation media for Debian/Ubuntu in the ATIX Service Portal.

ATIX AG provides the following installation media as file-type repository:

  • Debian 13

  • Debian 12

  • Debian 11

  • Debian 10

  • Ubuntu 24.04

  • Ubuntu 22.04

  • Ubuntu 20.04

  • Ubuntu 18.04
CLI procedure

  • Create the installation medium using the hammer medium create command:

    $ hammer medium create \
--locations "My_Location" \
--name "My_Operating_System" \
--organizations "My_Organization" \
--os-family "Redhat" \
--path "http://http://download.example.com/oracle_linux/$version/Server/$arch/os/"

Creating an installation medium for Oracle Linux

Create an installation medium for Oracle Linux based on an extracted ISO image. You can use this installation medium to provision hosts in disconnected environments. This example uses Oracle Linux 10.0.

Prerequisites

  • You have a host with internet access.

Procedure

  1. On a host with internet access, download the checksum file, ISO image, and GPG public key:

    $ wget https://linux.oracle.com/security/gpg/checksum/OracleLinux-R10-U0-Server-x86_64.checksum
$ wget https://yum.oracle.com/ISOS/OracleLinux/OL10/u0/x86_64/OracleLinux-R10-U0-x86_64-dvd.iso
$ wget https://yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-ol9

  2. Verify the checksum of the ISO image:

    $ sha256sum --check --ignore-missing OracleLinux-R10-U0-Server-x86_64.checksum

  3. Import the GPG public key by Oracle:

    $ gpg --import RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-ol9

  4. Verify the authenticity of the checksum file:

    $ gpg --verify OracleLinux-R10-U0-Server-x86_64.checksum

  5. Remove the checksum file and GPG public key:

    $ rm -f OracleLinux-R10-U0-Server-x86_64.checksum
$ rm -f RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-ol9

  6. Transfer the ISO image from your host to your orcharhino Server:

    $ scp OracleLinux-R10-U0-x86_64-dvd.iso root@orcharhino.example.com:/root/

  7. On your orcharhino Server, create the target directory:

    $ mkdir --parents /var/www/html/pub/installation_media/oracle_linux/10.0/

  8. Extract the ISO image:

    $ cd /var/www/html/pub/installation_media/oracle_linux/10.0/ && \
7z x /root/OracleLinux-R10-U0-x86_64-dvd.iso

  9. Delete the ISO image:

    $ rm -f /root/OracleLinux-R10-U0-x86_64-dvd.iso

  10. Create your installation media for Oracle Linux 10.0:

    $ hammer medium create \
--name "Oracle Linux 10.0" \
--os-family Redhat \
--path "http://orcharhino.example.com/pub/installation_media/oracle_linux/10.0/BaseOS/"

Configuring orcharhino to provision from a Lorax Composer image

In orcharhino, you can enable integration with Cockpit to perform actions and monitor your hosts. Using Cockpit, you can access Lorax Composer and build images. Afterwards, you can use these images to provision hosts.

Additional resources

Provisioning from a Lorax Composer image on orcharhino Proxy

You can upload a Lorax Composer image to orcharhino and use this image to provision hosts by using network boot.

This feature is available for Oracle Linux hosts only.

When you provision from a Lorax Composer image, Anaconda installer partitions disks, downloads and mounts the image, and copies files over to a host.

Prerequisites

  • An existing TAR image created by using Lorax Composer in Cockpit. Ensure that your blueprint to build the image includes the required packages.

  • If you want to use orcharhino Proxy Server URL, then the referenced lifecycle environment, such as Library, must be synchronized to that orcharhino Proxy Server. For more information, see Adding lifecycle environments to orcharhino Proxy Servers in Installing orcharhino Proxy Server.

Procedure

  1. On orcharhino, create a product, add a file type repository to this product, and upload the image to the repository. For more information, see Importing individual ISO images and files in Managing Content.

  2. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Configure > Host Groups.

  3. Select the host group that you want to use.

  4. Click the Parameters tab, and then click Add Parameter.

  5. Create a parameter named kickstart_liveimg with type string and set the value to the full URL of the image location or the file name of the image inside a published content view, for example:

    • Full URL: https://orcharhino-proxy.network2.example.com/pulp/content/My_Organization_Label/Library/custom/My_Product_Label/My_Repository_Label/My_Image_Name.tar

    • Image file name: My_Image_Name.tar

      You can use the image file name only if the host is subscribed to a single content view and lifecycle environment, and the kt_activation_keys parameter is defined for the host. The content view must be published.

      If a content source is assigned to the host, orcharhino will use the content source orcharhino Proxy of the host. If a content source is not assigned, orcharhino will use orcharhino Server.

  6. Click Submit to save your changes.

Additional resources

Provisioning from a Lorax Composer image on an HTTP server

You can upload a Lorax Composer image to an HTTP server and use this image to provision hosts by using network boot.

This feature is available for Oracle Linux hosts only.

When you provision from a Lorax Composer image, Anaconda installer partitions disks, downloads and mounts the image, and copies files over to a host.

Prerequisites

  • An existing TAR image created by using Lorax Composer in Cockpit. Ensure that your blueprint to build the image includes the required packages.

Procedure

  1. Copy the image to an existing HTTP server that your hosts can reach.

  2. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Configure > Host Groups.

  3. Select the host group that you want to use.

  4. Click the Parameters tab, and then click Add Parameter.

  5. Create a parameter named kickstart_liveimg with type string and set the value to the URL of the image location, such as https://webserver.example.com/path/My_Image_Name.tar.

  6. Click Submit to save your changes.

Additional resources

Packages required in a Lorax Composer image

For the use in orcharhino, the Lorax Composer image must contain the following minimum of packages:

  • NetworkManager

  • authselect

  • chrony

  • dnf

  • dracut

  • efibootmgr

  • firewalld

  • grub2

  • grub2-efi

  • grub2-tools-extra

  • insights-client – required only if you plan to use Insights reporting

  • iproute

  • iputils

  • kernel

  • kernel-core

  • lvm2

  • subscription-manager

  • wget

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").