Hello, Not sure how much of this is relevant now I know the problem has changed, but I'll reply anyway :-) Mattijs: I don't specify the machine to give out the DHCP hostname in the XML file, because I don't like relying on remote servers unless I have to. The machine will have a static IP address eventually, so I'd like to specify that as soon as possible. 2) I don't use VNC. I have a KVM switch plugged into the back of every single machine. Hans-Joachim: That is correct. I do not have a rules.xml file anywhere, and autoyast points to the directory. As I said, it is picking up the correct XML file based on the MAC address, but it's hanging at 56% of "emacs-21.3". Thanks again, Richard. -- Richard Hobbs (Systems Administrator) Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. - Speech Technology Group Web: http://www.toshiba-europe.com/research/ Normal Email: richard.hobbs@crl.toshiba.co.uk Mobile Email: mobile@mongeese.co.uk Tel: +44 1223 376964 Mobile: +44 7811 803377

-----Original Message----- From: Hans-Joachim Ehlers [mailto:HansJoachim.Ehlers@eumetsat.int] Sent: 14 February 2006 10:43 To: Richard Hobbs; suse-autoinstall@suse.com Subject: RE: [suse-autoinstall] Simultaneous SuSE 10.0 Autoyastinstalls fail!

So if you have for each machine a seperate config file then check if autoyast points to a directory or file. In your case it must point to a directory and no ./rules/rules.xml must exist.

All from memory.

hth Hajo

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"Richard Hobbs" 14/02/06 11:34:36

Hello,

Mattijs: I can appreciate that if I boot all 8 machines simultaneously, they might overload the DHCP Server, but if I boot one machine up first, wait for it to begin installing the packages, and then boot a second machine up, as soon as the second machine starts it's installation, the first machine (and the second machine) hangs.

And yes, the machines can see the XML file (or else they won't not begin installing) and they can also see the installation source (or they would not start installing the packages).

Remember, it breaks after installing quite a few packages (maybe 25% complete).

Hans-Joachim: I have a different XML config file for each MAC address of the machine I am installing, see below:

============================================================ nfsserver:/install/configProfiles # ls -l total 220 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 400 Feb 14 10:14 . drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 176 Feb 8 08:52 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24032 Feb 14 10:12 000E0C062613 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24021 Feb 13 16:21 001422B0351F -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24020 Feb 13 16:25 001422B0C567 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24021 Feb 13 16:42 001422B0C624 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24020 Feb 13 16:25 001422B0C633 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24020 Feb 13 16:23 001422B0C666 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24020 Feb 13 16:28 001422B0C726 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24021 Feb 13 16:28 001422B0C993 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24021 Feb 13 16:29 001422B0C9FC drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 88 Feb 7 15:59 oldProfiles -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 610 Feb 3 11:26 template.xml nfsserver:/install/configProfiles # ============================================================

So, if I want to install a new machine of identical hardware, I simply copy an existing profile, and modify the hostname and IP address. Why will this approach not work?

Also, I am using DHCP to boot the machines, but the XML file has a static IP address (which is the same as the IP address given to the machine from DHCP).

Thanks again, Richard.

-- Richard Hobbs (Systems Administrator) Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. - Speech Technology Group Web: http://www.toshiba-europe.com/research/ Normal Email: richard.hobbs@crl.toshiba.co.uk Mobile Email: mobile@mongeese.co.uk Tel: +44 1223 376964 Mobile: +44 7811 803377

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-----Original Message----- From: Mattijs Janssens [mailto:m.janssens@opencfd.co.uk] Sent: 14 February 2006 09:59 Cc: suse-autoinstall@suse.com Subject: Re: [suse-autoinstall] Simultaneous SuSE 10.0 Autoyast installs fail!

I don't know whether this is applicable to your situation but I have a cluster where if I boot them all at the same time some of the machine

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don't get their hostname set. Don't know whether the network isn't ready or maybe the dhcp server gets overloaded. I can imagine for your booting this might upset the installation.

Another thing: the machines can see the xml file. Can they also see the installation source?

Richard Hobbs wrote:

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Hello,

I have a working and fully tested DHCP server, TFTP server, NFS file server and XML config profile which I have used to build the first of many servers.

The whole system has worked fine, but now I've hit a rather critical problem - doing more than one server at a time seems to break them all!

I have rebuilt our first server perhaps 15 times due to testing the XML profile, and each time it worked perfectly. I now have 8 machines which I would like to install, so I've copied the 001422B0C61F XML file to a filename which matches the other MAC addresses, and I have told our DHCP server to give out the necessary MAC addresses as well.

The only things I have changed in our XML config profile is the any reference to the hostname, and the MAC address and IP address. Everything else is the same.

When I boot up all 8 machines from the network, they all boot into the boot loader from the TFTP server, and they all boot into autoyast. They all load their own XML config files, but part of the way through installing the packages, the machines hang. Ctrl + Alt + F[1-6] does nothing, so all I can do is reboot using Ctrl + Alt + Del.

The TFTP Server, NFS Server and the server hosting the config profiles (also over NFS) is the same machine, which can easily keep up with the demand for files... So much so, in fact, that the system load hardly increases at all during an install of a remote machine.

What could be stopping me doing multiple NFS autoyast installs??

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance, Richard.

-- Best regards,

Mattijs

Mattijs Janssens

OpenCFD Ltd. The Mews, Picketts Lodge, Picketts Lane, Salfords, Surrey RH1 5RG. Tel: +44 (0)1293 821272 Email: M.Janssens@OpenCFD.co.uk URL: http://www.OpenCFD.co.uk

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