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eReuse / workbench

The eReuse.org Workbench is a toolset to assist with the diagnostic, benchmarking, inventory and installation of computers.
https://www.ereuse.org
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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Access data files from server (shared) directory #55

Closed ivilata closed 7 years ago

ivilata commented 8 years ago

Since v7.1a5, the virtual PXE server shares a data directory with clients via SMB. We use SMB instead of the already available NFS because this data directory is shared with the VM host and the vboxsf driver doesn't support exporting via the kernel NFS server, but a user space server like Samba has no problem with that.

The directory is read-only and only contains installation images (for #34), but it could as well hold the config.ini file and, if made read-write, the inventory JSON files. Then accessing these files would look like local access to DDI, so no convoluted configurations to pull or push files via SSH with Paramiko would be necessary. In the eReuseOS ISO we should only take care of mounting the data shared directory on boot with whatever protocol the server supports.

We should check if this also works with USB-based installation.

Edit 2016-12-15: This directory may also host the eReuseOS and installation ISOs. This would simplify the configuration of the VM after importing the OVA, but maybe some conventions should be followed by the user on the placement and naming of the images, like matching the ISO name with the entry in the PXE menu, which would by the way allow different installation ISOs to be available from a single boot.

ivilata commented 7 years ago

Some changes to PXE server and ISO in branch data-directory-55 to support this, the remote directory is accessible R/W on /media/ereuse-data, which makes remote access to config and JSON inventory dir via SSH completely redundant, and allows for early access to config file (e.g. for #52) and capturing the local disk image back to the server (related with #34).

ivilata commented 7 years ago

Currently, the data-directory-55 branch supports having all image files under /home/ereuse/data/images, including ISO images for booting eReuseOS or others, with an accompanying template file of the PXELINUX entry, so that on boot (or when invoking ereuse-refresh-shared), ISO images are located, mounted, shared and PXELINUX boot entries automatically added.

Except some updates to documentation I'd say that the functionality is complete.:)