[Sisuite-devel] proposed patch: parse $DEVICE to dhclient in start_network

[Ramon Bastiaans]

Installing a new cluster at SARA, I came across the following issue with
systemimager 3.8.0.

We have multiple network interfaces, which are all configured through
DHCP. Now a problem arises when the SystemImager initrd does a
"start_network", which is that dhclient is called for _all_ ethernet
interfaces.

This causes in turn a race condition: whichever network responds first
to the dhcp requests, is used to (try to) install the node. This is turn
doesn't work when the network with incorrect dhcp settings wins.

However according to the wiki page the kernel/environment argument
DEVICE=<something> should be used to contact the imageserver.

This can be fixed/prevented easily by using $DEVICE as cmdline argument
to dhclient in the initrd functions, attached my patch for this. That
way only $DEVICE gets configured through dhcp (during installation).

Kind regards,
- Ramon.
--
ing. R. Bastiaans

Systems Programmer / High Performance Computing & Visualisation /
SARA Computing and Networking Services
Kruislaan 415 PO Box 194613
1098 SJ Amsterdam 1090 GP Amsterdam
---
There are really only three types of people:

Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen
and those who say, "What happened?"

[Andrea Righi]

Post by Ramon Bastiaans
Installing a new cluster at SARA, I came across the following issue with
systemimager 3.8.0.
We have multiple network interfaces, which are all configured through
DHCP. Now a problem arises when the SystemImager initrd does a
"start_network", which is that dhclient is called for _all_ ethernet
interfaces.
This causes in turn a race condition: whichever network responds first
to the dhcp requests, is used to (try to) install the node. This is turn
doesn't work when the network with incorrect dhcp settings wins.
However according to the wiki page the kernel/environment argument
DEVICE=<something> should be used to contact the imageserver.
This can be fixed/prevented easily by using $DEVICE as cmdline argument
to dhclient in the initrd functions, attached my patch for this. That
way only $DEVICE gets configured through dhcp (during installation).
Kind regards,
- Ramon.

Ramon,

I like it! I've checked it into the trunk. I'd want to do a test ASAP
just to see if it doesn't introduce some unexpected problems (but I
don't think), then I'll check it also in the 3.8.x branch.

Thanks,
-Andrea