[Starlingx-discuss] Adding hosts (Bare Metal AIO Duplex)

[Wensley, Barton]

Alex,

I don't think you will be able to pre-install controller-1 and then add it to the system. When the first controller is installed, a unique UUID is generated. That UUID is then copied on to each host in the system as it is installed. I'm pretty sure that if you were to pre-install a host (e.g. from an ISO), the UUID will not match and when it boots it will fail to initialize (there will be a configuration failure and the services won't come up).

Bart

From: Williams, Alexander <Alexander.Williams at commscope.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2021 3:07 PM
To: Waines, Greg <Greg.Waines at windriver.com>; starlingx-discuss at lists.starlingx.io
Subject: Re: [Starlingx-discuss] Adding hosts (Bare Metal AIO Duplex)

[Please note: This e-mail is from an EXTERNAL e-mail address]
Hi Greg,

Thanks for your response! I'll be giving the host-add a shot.

The reason I asked is because pre-installing the image potentially provides a speedup to deployment times.
Installing the images beforehand would cut down on the downtime waiting for the second controller to be provisioned without personality and on total time assuming that the images for both controllers are installed simultaneously.

Best,
Alex

From: Waines, Greg <Greg.Waines at windriver.com<mailto:Greg.Waines at windriver.com>>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2021 1:31 PM
To: Williams, Alexander <Alexander.Williams at commscope.com<mailto:Alexander.Williams at commscope.com>>; starlingx-discuss at lists.starlingx.io<mailto:starlingx-discuss at lists.starlingx.io>
Subject: RE: Adding hosts (Bare Metal AIO Duplex)

Hey Alex, For question 1 your understanding of the "host-update" use case is correct i.e. power on host which dhcp's on mgmt. network host gets auto discovered by controller-0 and auto-provisioned wit
Hey Alex,


  *   For question 1

     *   your understanding of the "host-update" use case is correct
i.e.

        *   power on host which dhcp's on mgmt. network

           *   host gets auto discovered by controller-0 and auto-provisioned without personality

        *   user uses host-update to set personality

           *   controller-0 installs software for that personality

     *   "host-add" use case is sort of the opposite ... configure host first, then power it on
i.e.

        *   user uses "host-add" command and configures host in system's inventory with
identifying information such as BMC IP Address, mgmt. network MAC, etc.,
and the host's personality
        *   user uses "host-power-on" command to power on the host via the BMC

           *   host powers on, dhcp's on mgmt. network
           *   gets recognized by controller-0 from previously configured host info (e.g. mgmt. MAC, ...)
           *   controller-0 installs software for the previously configured personality of this host.

  *   For question 2

     *   pretty sure answer is no
     *   I believe starlingx sysinv/mtce/swmgmt software will always want to install software on a new host
     *
     *   ... although, thinking of question 1,
you could try doing a host-add with the identifying information of controller-1, and power on controller-1 and
see if controller-0 will try to re-install or not

        *   no matter what there will be software versioning checks that happen at boot time to ensure controller-1 is
running the same software as controller-0 and is patch current based on controller-0's applied patches

     *
     *   ... however, why do  you want to do this ?

        *   like is this a real use case ?

Greg.

From: Williams, Alexander <Alexander.Williams at commscope.com<mailto:Alexander.Williams at commscope.com>>
Sent: Monday, June 7, 2021 12:23 PM
To: starlingx-discuss at lists.starlingx.io<mailto:starlingx-discuss at lists.starlingx.io>
Subject: [Starlingx-discuss] Adding hosts (Bare Metal AIO Duplex)

[Please note: This e-mail is from an EXTERNAL e-mail address]
Hi all,

My current understanding is that whenever adding a host (esp. controller-1) using the system host-update command after a PXE boot, StarlingX will install the base image and then perform the configuration steps to make it a controller, worker, etc., overwriting anything that was previously installed on the machine.

  1.  Is my understanding of host-update correct, or am I missing something important here? Does host-add do the same thing, but gets run on controller-0 before booting and not after?
  2.  If I install the StarlingX image on a server that will become controller-1, is there any way to add it to the host list of controller-0 and configure its personality without the server reinstalling StarlingX?

Best,
Alex
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