linuxstudio / RHVH-Provisioning-Satellite

How to do unattended provisioning of RHV Hypervisors using Satellite

Unattended installation of RHVH Hosts using Red Hat Satellite

What you need

• A running Satellite server
• Some bare metal hosts to provision
• The latest RHVH ISO from the Red Hat Customer Portal (subscription needed)

Setting up Satellite : the files

The next steps are all performed on the Satellite server itself for practical reasons.

Download the RHVH ISO and place it somewhere in the filesystem, i.e. /var/tmp

Create the needed directory structure on the Satellite server (or capsule) under the public directory for direct access:

mkdir -p /var/www/html/pub/rhvh/images/pxeboot /var/www/html/pub/rhvh/LiveOS

Mount the ISO file and extract the needed files in the public directory. We need the kernel, the initram image, the LiveOS squashfs image, and the RHVH squashfs image which is inside an rpm:

mkdir -p /mnt/rhvh
mount -t iso9660 -o ro /var/tmp/RHVH-4.3-*-RHVH-x86_64-dvd1.iso /mnt/rhvh/

mkdir -p /tmp/rhvh && cd /tmp/rhvh

rpm2cpio /mnt/rhvh/Packages/redhat-virtualization-host-image-update* | cpio -imdv  \*img
mv ./usr/share/redhat-virtualization-host/image/redhat-virtualization-host-*img /var/www/html/pub/rhvh/images/

cp -a /mnt/rhvh/images/pxeboot/{initrd.img,vmlinuz} /var/www/html/pub/rhvh/images/pxeboot/
cp -a /mnt/rhvh/images/product.img /var/www/html/pub/rhvh/images/
cp -a /mnt/rhvh/.treeinfo /var/www/html/pub/rhvh/
cp -a /mnt/rhvh/LiveOS/squashfs.img /var/www/html/pub/rhvh/LiveOS/

umount /mnt/rhvh

Note: Using a custom Product / Repository for this would seem a perfect fit for this need, so why haven't we used it?

Because custom repositories have no directories and a proper file structure is required, in this case.

Setting up Satellite : the objects

In the Satellite WebUI, create a new InstallationMedia named i.e. RHVH with the following specs:

• Name: RHVH
• Path: http://satellite.example.com/pub/rhvh/

The path here should point to the publicly accessible directory we created earlier. Please note it's http and not https

In the Satellite WebUI, create a new OperatingSystem named i.e. RHVH 4.3 with the following specs:

• Name: RedHat
• Major: 4
• Minor: 3
• Description: RHVH 4.3
• Family: Red Hat
• Arch: x86_64
• Partition Table: Kickstart default thin
• Installation Media: RHVH

In the Satellite WebUI, associate the RHVH templates Kickstart oVirt-RHVH and Kickstart oVirt-RHVH PXELinux with the newly created OperatingSystem RHVH 4.3

• Hosts -> Provisioning Templates -> select the template -> Association

Of course you may use your own provisioning and pxelinux templates. In this repo you'll find a slightly modified version of the two templates:

• Baremetal Kickstart oVirt-RHVH providing automated remote execution user creation
• Baremetal Kickstart oVirt-RHVH PXELinux providing kernel cmdline parameters for setting up static ip during boot, when subnet is not set on DHCP.

Set the default templates in the Operating System RHVH 4.3 and set some parameters:

• PXELinux Template: Kickstart oVirt-RHVH PXELinux
• Provisioning Template: Kickstart oVirt-RHVH
• Parameters:
  • disable-firewall (boolean) = false ; RHVH hosts need Firewalld to be enabled
  • liveimg_name (string) = http://satellite.example.com/pub/rhvh/images/redhat-virtualization-host-4.3.9-20200324.0.el7_8.squashfs.img ; This is the file we extracted earlier. It is used in the provisioning template
  • [optional] kt_activation_keys (string) = myactivationkey Set this if you plan on subscribing hosts during installation

You may also set the activation key parameter in a hostgroup, if you prefer.

[Optional] Create a new HostGroup to speed up host creation. Be sure to set all default values you need for this group, such as Location, OperatingSystem, Subnet, Domain, and activation key.

Provisioning

Now create a new Host. Make sure you specify all information needed, especially the network info (mac, IP, etc.). Failing to do so may prevent from provisioning correctly or even accepting the new Host request at all.

After hitting submit, if you are using Satellite's DHCP, you may turn the machine on and it would provision itself automatically.

If you're not using DHCP, you may download the Full Host image ISO file and use it via OOB management interface.

Assuming your host is named mynewhost, the image is available:

• via WebUI: Hosts -> mynewhost -> Boot Disk -> Full Host "mynewhost" image
• or via API: curl -k -u mysatuser:mypassword -vL https://satellite.example.com/bootdisk/api/hosts/mynewhost.example.com?full=true -o mynewhost.example.com.iso