10.2 Creating the Branch Server Definition in the LDAP Directory

To enable the autoinstall system to configure the branch server, detailed information about the hard disk and the network interfaces must be defined in the LDAP directory. Figure 10-1 represents the LDAP objects required to define the structure for a Branch Server.

Figure 10-1 LDAP objects required for Branch Server definition

LDAP objects required for Branch Server definition

Table 10-1 reviews the attributes for each LDAP object required to provide the Branch Server definition. For more information about the LDAP directory, refer to The Novell Linux Point of Service LDAP Directory in the Novell Linux Point of Service 9 Administration Guide.

Table 10-1 Attributes for Branch Server LDAP objects.

LDAP Object

Required Properties

scLocation

Defines general information about the Branch Server network. Required attributes include the following:

  • cn
  • ipNetworkNumber
  • ipNetmaskNumber
  • scDhcpRange
  • scDhcpFixedRange
  • scDefaultGw
  • scDynamicIp

For more information, see Creating an scLocation Object.

scServerContainer

Specifies a container for the Branch Server definition. The only required attribute for this container object is the cn.

For information, see Adding an scBranchServer Object.

scBranchServer

Specifies a container for the hardware objects that provide the Branch Server definition. The only required attribute for this container object is the cn.

For more information, see Adding an scBranchServer Object.

scNetworkcard

Provides the configuration for a Branch Server network interface card. Required attributes include the following:

  • scDevice, the network device (such as eth0 or eth1)
  • ipHostNumber, the IP address of the Branch Server
  • ipNetmaskNumber, the netmask of the Branch Server’s network
  • scModul, the loadable module (driver) that is necessary to activate the network card

For example:

posAdmin.pl --user cn=admin,o=mycorp,c=us --password secret --base cn=bs,cn=server,cn=lab,ou=boston, o=mycorp,c=us --add --scNetworkcard --scDevice eth2 
--ipHostNumber 192.168.1.150 --ipNetmaskNumber 255.255.248.0 --scModul e100

scHarddisk

Provides the configuration for the Branch Server’s boot hard disk. Required attributes include the following:

  • cn
  • scDevice
  • scHdSize
  • scPartitionsTable

The partitioning scheme for Branch Servers is the same as for Point of Service terminals. For scPartitionsTable, use the form ‘size type mount;...’, where size is specified in megabytes, type is either L for Linux file systems or S for swap space, and mount specifies where in the file system hierarchy the partition is mounted.

For size, you can use the wildcard “x” to automatically compute the size of the file system as follows:

  • S partitions are created at twice the RAM size
  • L partitions with mount point /boot get approximately 20 megabytes
  • (Optional) The last partition entry in the list can specify an x to use up the remaining space on the hard disk.

Separate partition entries with a semicolon (;). For swap space partitions, “x” must be used as the mount point.

For a simple branch server, the scPartitionsTable value of ‘x S x;x L /’ is suggested, which creates the default swap space and one large root file system.

For example:

posAdmin.pl --user cn=admin,o=mycorp,c=us --password secret --base cn=bs,cn=server,cn=lab,ou=boston, o=mycorp,c=us --add --scHarddisk --cn sda --scDevice 
/dev/sda --scHdSize 40960 --scPartitionsTable 'x S x;x L /'

scService

Defines Branch Server services, which can include DHCP, DNS, FTFP, NTP, and RSYNC. Required attributes include the following:

  • cn
  • ipHostNumber
  • scDnsName
  • scServiceName
  • scServiceStartScript
  • scServiceStatus

NOTE:High Availability services (scHAServices) are not supported for Automatic Branch Server Installation.

For more information, see Adding an scBranchServer Object.

For more information about using posAdmin to create LDAP objects, see Using posAdmin to Manage the LDAP Directory in the Novell Linux Point of Service 9 Administration Guide.