To electronically distribute new or updated client images, you must first copy the images into the central RSYNC directory of the Administration Server and then transfer the images to the Branch Servers. From there the images are distributed to the Point of Service terminals when they boot.
This section reviews each step in the electronic distribution process.
NOTE:If you are unable to electronically distribute Point of Service
images over your network, you must manually distribute the images
uses CDBoot images. For more information on creating a CDBoot image,
see Building
a CDBoot Image
in the Novell Linux Point
of Service 9 Administration Guide.
The first step to distribute new client images is to copy the images from the /opt/SLES/POS/image directory to the RSYNC directory, /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/. Before the RSYNC service can transmit the images to the Branch Server, client images must be located in the /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/image/ directory on the Administration Server, and the boot image must be located in /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/boot/.
NOTE:Copying the client images to the RSYNC directory is done manually to control which client image types and versions are distributed to the Branch Servers.
The following example demonstrates how to put a previously-extended Browser client image in the Administration Server’s RSYNC directory so it can be received, on request, by the Branch Server:
Copy the extended Browser client image:
cp /opt/SLES/POS/image/Browser-2.0.21-2004-12-05 /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/image/browser-2.0.21
Copy the corresponding Browser image MD5 checksum file:
cp /opt/SLES/POS/image/Browser-2.0.21-2004-12-05.md5 /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/image/Browser-2.0.21.md5
The following example demonstrates how to copy the first and second stage boot images to the Administrations Server’s RSYNC directory so they can be received, on request, by the Branch Server:
NOTE:Point of Service terminals boot two images, a first stage image (initrd.gz) and a second stage image (linux). For more information, see Section 11.4, Booting the Point of Service Terminal.
Copy the initrd-disknetboot image as initrd.gz:
cp /opt/SLES/POS/image/initrd-disknetboot-version-date.gz /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/boot/initrd.gz
Copy the kernel image as linux:
cp /opt/SLES/POS/image/initrd-disknetboot-version-date.kernel. kernel_version /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/boot/linux
If you create a new image or change an image version, you can run the possyncimages.pl command at the Branch Server to transfer new or updated images to the Branch Server after the images are in the Administration Server’s RSYNC directory.
IMPORTANT:The RSYNC service must be properly configured and running on the Administration Server for the possynimages.pl script to run. For more information, see Adding an scBranchServer Object.
Additionally, each client image must have an associated scPosImage object in LDAP and the object’s scPosImageVersion attribute must be set to active before possyncimages.pl will transfer the images to the Branch Server. For more information, see Activating Images.
The basic process is as follows:
The possyncimages.pl script initially checks via the PID file to determine if an instance is already running.
The image files are then copied from the Administration Server to the Branch Server. Boot images are copied from the /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/boot/ directory on the Administration Server to the /tftpboot/boot/ directory on the Branch Server. Client images and their associated MD5 checksum files are copied from /opt/SLES/POS/rsync/image/ to /tftpboot/image/.
During this process, the TFTP server must be stopped or otherwise prevented from transmitting the image files to clients.
For more information on the possyncimages.pl script,
see possyncimages.pl
in
the Novell Linux Point of Service 9 Administration Guide.
IMPORTANT:Remember that distributing client images from the Administration Server to the Branch Servers is only one part of the process required to deploy new versions of a client image. You must also update the scPosImageVersion attribute within the Image Reference object (scPosImage) in the LDAP tree; otherwise, Point of Service terminals already registered in LDAP cannot boot the new client image version.
For more details, refer to Creating scPosImage
Objects and posldap2crconfig.pl
in the Novell
Linux Point of Service 9 Administration Guide. For an
illustration of Novell Linux Point of Service system dependences,
see Dependencies
Between LDAP, Branch Server, and Point of Service Terminal
in
the Novell Linux Point of Service 9 Administration Guide.
After executing the possyncimages.pl script, verify the result by checking the contents of the following directories:
New or updated images are distributed to Point of Service terminals at boot time. For information on this process, see Section 11.4, Booting the Point of Service Terminal.
When the Branch Server distributes a new image to a Point of Service terminal, the system provides notification that the image was successfully installed on the Point of Service terminal. The notification is stored in the scWorkstation object in the LDAP directory on the Administration Server.
When the image is successfully installed on the Point of Service terminal, the linuxrc script running on the Point of Service terminal creates the bootversion.MAC_Address file in the /tftpboot/upload directory on the Branch Server.The posleases2ldap process then transfers the information to the scNotifiedimage attribute in the scWorkstation object in LDAP and deletes the bootversion.MAC_address file.