[VCL-987] Extend xCAT.pm to attempt to locate a suitable alternate Kickstart image repository directory

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 2.5
• Component/s: vcld (backend)
• Assignee: Andrew Kurth
• Reporter: Andrew Kurth
• Created: 30/Aug/16 18:21
• Updated: 20/Mar/17 22:19
• Resolved: 20/Mar/17 22:19

Description

The xCAT.pm module uses the following database values to determine the installation file location for Kickstart-based Linux loads:

• managementnode.installpath (ex: /install)
• OS.sourcepath (ex: rhel7)
• image.architecture (ex: x86_64)

The load will fail If a directory that exactly matches this combination does not exist, ex: /install/rhel7/x86_64

The VCL schema adds entries to the OS table with OS.sourcepath set to:

• centos6
• centos7
• rhel6
• rhel7

xCAT's current copycds utility does not put installation files in the same location that VCL assumes they'd be in. It uses the full version number. For example:

• /install/centos6.7
• /install/rhels7.2

Out of the box, things don't work. You can create symlinks such as:
/install/rhel7 --> /install/rhels7.2

This is problematic because xCAT doesn't always parse the directory correctly if it doesn't contain a period. Most people probably don't want to have to update the symlink every time a new version is added to the management node.

The could could be updated to more dynamically locate a suitable directory to use.