SUSE Studio 1.3

Installation Instructions

SUSE Studio Onsite 1.3

To deploy and install SUSE Studio Onsite you just need to dump a raw image on your server and proceed with the installation in a Web browser. This section provides step-by-step instruction to successfully complete deployment and installation of SUSE Studio Onsite on your designated server.

SUSE Studio Onsite is delivered in two variants, a compressed raw image and a CD. The raw image is a bitwise copy of a complete hard disk and contains a full Linux operating system including a boot sector and partition information. The CD is bootable and will deploy the SUSE Studio Onsite image.

The following sections describe two methods for the installation of SUSE Studio Onsite: using the installation from the installation CD and the raw disk image. Using the raw image requires network access and a second machine on your network to store the raw image.

Installing from CD

To start the installation process, proceed as follows:

Deploying a Raw Image from CD

1. Boot your future SUSE Studio Onsite server with the installation CD. Select Install/Restore SUSE Studio Onsite.
2. Answer the question "This will destroy ALL data on?/dev/sda, continue?" with "Yes" to proceed. The deployment process is taking over.
3. Remove the CD and reboot your server. The boot loader GRUB is started and the firstboot system takes over.

This completes the installation of SUSE Studio Onsite using the install CD.

Installing Over a Network

This method is useful if your server does not have a CD/DVD drive or you prefer installation over a network. You need two machines which are connected to your network: the first machine contains the raw image, the second machine is your future SUSE Studio Onsite server. Installing over a network usually takes these steps:

1. Preparing Your Future SUSE Studio Onsite Server
2. Decompressing the Image on the Clien
3. Deploying the Raw Image

Preparing Your Future SUSE Studio Onsite Server

1. Boot your future SUSE Studio Onsite server with a rescue system. Such systems are available on all SUSE? installation CDs or DVDs. Alternatively boot from a Live CD.
2. Log in as root. A password is not needed.
3. If the network in the rescue image has not been configured automatically via DHCP, it must be configured. Check for an IP address with the following command:

   ifconfig

   If you only get one item with an 127.0.0.1 address, you must configure your network. To configure a DHCP-based network setup use:

   ifup-dhcp eth0

   Remember the IP address of your system, it is needed later.

4. Set up a listener on an unused port (in our example, 1234) and dump the incoming data to the system disk. Generally, this is the first hard drive, in our example?/dev/sda. This will destroy any data on this disk! To use the example parameters enter the following command:

   netcat -l -v -p1234 | dd of=/dev/sda

5. Make sure you do not clean the screen as you need the output of the last step to compare it with the output of another command later.

Decompressing the Image on the Client

1. Check the file type of your image with file IMAGENAME:
   • If you get the following output (as one line), skip this procedure and proceed with "Deploying the Raw Image":

     ...raw: x86 boot sector; GRand Unified Bootloader, stage1 version 0x3, stage2 address 0x2000, stage2 segment 0x200, GRUB version 0.97; partition 1: ID=0x83, active, starthead 1,startsector 63, 4192902 sectors

   • If you get one of the following outputs, your raw image is compressed: gzip compressed data, extra field, from Unix, last modified:

     or

     bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k

2. Decompress the raw image with one of the following commands, depending on the file extension of the image:
• For an image compressed with gzip (file extension .gz), use:

  gunzip IMAGENAME

• For an image compressed with bzip2 (file extension .bz2), use:

  bunzip2 IMAGENAME

• For an image compressed with tar and gzip (file extension .tar.gz), use:

  tar xzvf IMAGENAME

  At the end of decompression you will have a raw image with the .raw extension.

Deploying the Raw Image

1. Send the raw image to the machine designated as the SUSE Studio Onsite server using the following command. Replace the RAW_IMAGE with the path to your image and IP_of_Client with the IP address from Step 3 of "Preparing Your Future SUSE Studio Onsite Server":

   dd if=RAW_IMAGE | netcat IP_of_Client 1234

2. Compare the output from the last step with the output from Step 5 of ?Preparing Your Future SUSE Studio Onsite Server?. The following shows an example of the output:

   2625536+0 records in
   2625536+0 records out
   1344274432 bytes (1.3 GB) copied, 113.989 s, 11.8 MB/s

   The time (113.989 s), the throughput (11.8 MB/s), the number of records (2625536+0), and the total size (1.3 GB) may be different in your case. However, the records in and records out as well as the size must match between the two machines. If you see any discrepancies, repeat the previous steps.

3. Reboot the server and remove the rescue medium from your CD or DVD drive. The boot loader GRUB is started and the firstboot system takes over.

This completes the deployment of SUSE Studio Onsite using the raw disk image.

SUSE Studio Extension for System z 1.3

SUSE Studio Extension for System z is delivered as an add-on product for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 for System z.

Deploying SUSE Studio Extension for System z

SUSE Studio Onsite supports building appliances for IBM System z. To enable this functionality, you need a runner that is able to build IBM System z appliances. Make sure you fullfill all of the following prerequisites:

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 for System z
• Your IBM System z server is registered and contains the update repository URL in YaST (needed to get the latest kernel update, for example.)
• A rebooted system after the installation
• Minimum of 3 GB RAM
• Minimum of 6 GB disk space
• The downloaded SUSE Studio Extension add-on for System z on a System z instance
• It is recommended to use the LPAR mode for performance reasons as hardware resources are divided into "logical partitions"

To install the SUSE Studio Extension for System z, proceed as follows:

1. Prepare your IBM System z machine:
   • Reboot the runner
   • After the reboot, run yast2 add-on
   • Select Add and go to Local ISO image
   • Select the add-on image for System z and accept the End User License Agreement (EULA). The software selection dialog appears
   • Register your System z add-on
2. Select the filter SUSE Studio Extension for System z for add-on repository
3. Select all packages in that repository
4. Choose Install and accept the suggestion
5. Finish with OK to close the YaST module
6. Reboot the system

Your SUSE Studio Extension for System z 1.3 is successfully installed.

WebYaST 1.3

WebYaST is a web-based remote console plugging into a stateless interface exposed by an SLE-based appliance and providing a set of configuration modules appropriate to enable minimal user control of the appliance "black box" environment.

Installation

WebYaST is a component available for building of appliances. To build appliances including WebYaST, set up the repository in your SUSE Studio instance and select a set of packages based on your need. The base is covered by webyast-base, to add more functionality, select proper set of packages.

Usage

After starting your appliance, the WebYaST console is running at port 4984 (https). Point the webbrowser to: https://:4984

Log in as root, with password set by the creator of the appliance.

If the appliance has base system set-up workflow defined by its creator, go through the base setup (e.g. language, eulas, admin, network, time, mail, registration). Otherwise you will get directly to the control center.

SUSE Lifecycle Management Server 1.3

Installation

Adding SLMS During Base Product Installation

• Select the "Include Add-On Products from Separate Media? box on the Installation Mode screen.
• Depending on your installation, you can add SLMS from CD1 or from a remote installation SLMS source, such as an FTP server, on the next screen.

Adding SLMS Post-SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Installation

• Under YaST2, Select "Software? - "Add-On Product?, add CD1 of SLMS or a remote installation SLMS source.
• Follow the installation workflow steps presented.

Deploying SLMS as an Appliance

Apart from installing SLMS as an add-on, it is also possible to deploy it as an appliance. The main advantage is that you can skip the installation procedure and start with the SLMS configuration after booting the appliance. This deployment is mainly intended for virtualization purposes, which helps you run more virtual machines on one physical hardware. There are several virtualization solutions, such as Xen, KVM, VMware, or VirtualBox. For more information, see the related Web pages.

The SLMS appliance is shipped as an ISO 9660 image suitable for booting from (virtual) CD drive. To run the appliance, you need to connect this image in the virtual CD drive and set up and connect at least one hard drive in your virtual machine. All data on that drive will be destroyed and used by SLMS.

To run SLMS as an appliance, follow these steps:

1. Create and configure a new virtual machine.

2. Create at least one virtual hard drive and connect it to the virtual machine.

3. Connect the SLMS appliance ISO image to the machine's virtual CD drive.

4. Start the virtual machine. It must boot from the CD drive containing the SLMS appliance ISO image. If not, check the boot order in the virtual machine's BIOS setup.

5. Select Install/Restore SLE-11-SP1-SLMS-1.2 from the boot menu and press Enter.

6. Select Yes to destroy all the data on the connected hard drive (like /dev/sda). Installation of the appliance on the hard drive will start. After the appliance is installed, it will boot and start the required WebYaST services.

Initial configuration

When SLMS is installed as add-on or deployed as an appliance, it needs to be confitured. In case of add-on installation, make sure that the webyast service is running. On boot, the webyast service prints a line with WebYaST is running at https://appliance_ip_address:4984/

Point your Web browser to the printed address. A WebYaST login screen appears. Now you are ready to configure your SLMS server.

Configuring SLMS to Use SUSE Studio Onsite

By default, SLMS is configured to use SUSE Studio Online version. To use it with SUSE Studio Onsite, make sure to set up the SUSE Studio host in the WebYaST configuration module and, unless your SUSE Studio Onsite has proper SSL certificate, select HTTP as the transport protocol.

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