AutoYaST: Network configuration fails

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Install-Boot
1

AutoYast fails to configure the network with following configuration:

Boot options:
nameserver=192.168.35.240 domain=example.com.local splash=none showopts
netwait=10 gateway=192.168.20.254 hostip=192.168.40.220/24
netdevice=eth1 autoyast=http://192.168.40.141//yast/auto.xml clock=pmtmr

Network settings in the AutoYaST xml file. MAC addresses and IPs have
been adjusted. The installer system boots from the management interface
eth1 (192.168.40.0/24). After running the installation, no network
configuration for eth0 or eth1 is written to /etc/sysconfig/network. Set
up of routing, DNS etc works just fine. Parameters for the interfaces
were taken from the autoinstall.xml file of a previous installation.

false example.com.local.local test5 192.168.35.240 auto example.com,example.com.local false static eth0 192.168.20.255 192.168.20.133 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) 255.255.255.0 24 auto no static eth1 192.168.40.255 eth1 192.168.40.33 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) 255.255.255.0 24 auto no false eth0 ATTR{address} 00:50:56:81:05:56 eth1 ATTR{address} 00:50:56:81:05:57 false default - 192.168.20.254 -

So what is wrong here?

Günther

2

Hi Günther,

autoyast=http://192.168.40.141//yast/auto.xml
Set up of routing, DNS etc works just fine.
Parameters for the interfaces were taken from the autoinstall.xml file of a previous installation.

are you positive that routing, DNS etc were not taken from the other autoyast file, too?

Is the “autoinstall.xml file of a previous installation” still accessible on 192.168.40.141? Would you mind moving it out of the way temporarily? Did it have the same name as the one you’re trying now (I’m thinking about some caching somewhere)?

BTW, not that it should cause any harm, but I believe there’s an extra “/” in the URL… should be “http://192.168.40.141/yast/auto.xml”

Hm, thinking about what else could go wrong… is that “old” file available on the machine to be installed, as a left-over from an old install? Might it then be possible that the installation process tries to retrieve the “new” autoyast file, fails, and instead of bailing out, continues with the former file?

Regards,
Jens

3

jmozdzen wrote:

Thank you very much for the instant reply to my post.
[color=blue][color=green]

autoyast=http://192.168.40.141//yast/auto.xml
Set up of routing, DNS etc works just fine.
Parameters for the interfaces were taken from the autoinstall.xml[/color]
file of a previous installation.

are you positive that routing, DNS etc were not taken from the other
autoyast file, too?[/color]

No, these parts are the same for the old and the new file and were taken
without modifications. I did alter the parameters for the network
interfaces, MAC addresses, and hostnames inserting the values for the
new machine.
Set up of routing and DNS as well as hostnames does work. It is just the
interfaces that are missing in /etc/sysconfig/network. I can add them on
the freshly installed system with YaST or vim without a problem. But
everything set up in AutoYaST which needs networking like all the OES
stuff will fail, of course.
[color=blue]

Is the “autoinstall.xml file of a previous installation” still
accessible on 192.168.40.141? Would you mind moving it out of the way
temporarily? Did it have the same name as the one you’re trying now (I’m
thinking about some caching somewhere)?[/color]

No, this won’t be accessible on the web server.
[color=blue]

BTW, not that it should cause any harm, but I believe there’s an extra
“/” in the URL… should be “http://192.168.40.141/yast/auto.xml”[/color]

I fixed that, but I do not think that it will change much. Access to the
AutoYaST file through http works.
[color=blue]

Hm, thinking about what else could go wrong… is that “old” file
available on the machine to be installed, as a left-over from an old
install?[/color]

No, definitely not.
[color=blue]

Might it then be possible that the installation process tries
to retrieve the “new” autoyast file, fails, and instead of bailing out,
continues with the former file?[/color]

As an example, the new hostname is the right one. So this is very
unlikely. I have the y2log, but this is hard to read and might be too
big for publishing here.

Some lines that might be of interest:
2013-06-05 11:31:59 <1> linux(8278) [YCP]
clients/inst_autoconfigure.ycp:50 removing installation network:
/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth1

So it correctly removes the temporary network setup used for installation.

It seems to read the network configuration correctly from the file:
2013-06-05 11:31:46 <1> linux(8278) [YCP] NetworkInterfaces.ycp:1492
List( ) = [“eth0”, “eth1”]

I do find error messages related to eth1:
2013-06-05 11:32:10 <3> test5(8278) [bash]
ShellCommand.cc(shellcommand):78 cat: /sys/class/net/eth1/carrier: Das
Argument ist ungültig
2013-06-05 11:32:10 <1> test5(8278) [YCP] NetworkInterfaces.ycp:384
Sysfs returned $[“exit”:1, “stderr”:“cat: /sys/class/net/eth1/carrier:
Das Argument ist
ungültig
“, “stdout”:””]
2013-06-05 11:32:10 <1> test5(8278) [YCP] NovellUtils.ycp:206
NovellUtils.GetAllStaticInterfaces:current device is: eth1, active
status is false

What might be unusual is that the automatic installation is done via
eth1 which is part of a management subnet without a gateway, and is also
not the first network device. But for the installation process this
should not be relevant.

Next try will be with just one interface.

regards

Günther

4

Hi Günther,

[QUOTE=Günther Schwarz;13899]jmozdzen wrote:

Thank you very much for the instant reply to my post.
[COLOR=blue][COLOR=green]
[…]
[/COLOR]> are you positive that routing, DNS etc were not taken from the other

autoyast file, too?[/COLOR]

No, these parts are the same for the old and the new file and were taken
without modifications. I did alter the parameters for the network
interfaces, MAC addresses, and hostnames inserting the values for the
new machine.
Set up of routing and DNS as well as hostnames does work. It is just the
interfaces that are missing in /etc/sysconfig/network.[…]
[COLOR=blue]

Is the “autoinstall.xml file of a previous installation” still
accessible on 192.168.40.141? Would you mind moving it out of the way
temporarily? Did it have the same name as the one you’re trying now (I’m
thinking about some caching somewhere)?[/COLOR]

No, this won’t be accessible on the web server.
[COLOR=blue]
[…]
[/COLOR][COLOR=blue]> Hm, thinking about what else could go wrong… is that “old” file

available on the machine to be installed, as a left-over from an old
install?[/COLOR]

No, definitely not.
[COLOR=blue]

Might it then be possible that the installation process tries
to retrieve the “new” autoyast file, fails, and instead of bailing out,
continues with the former file?[/COLOR]

As an example, the new hostname is the right one. So this is very
unlikely.[/QUOTE]

From your description, I fully agree that access to the wrong autoyast file should not be the root cause. Would have been too easy a solution :wink:

[QUOTE=Günther Schwarz;13899]I have the y2log, but this is hard to read and might be too
big for publishing here.

Some lines that might be of interest:
2013-06-05 11:31:59 <1> linux(8278) [YCP]
clients/inst_autoconfigure.ycp:50 removing installation network:
/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth1

So it correctly removes the temporary network setup used for installation.

It seems to read the network configuration correctly from the file:
2013-06-05 11:31:46 <1> linux(8278) [YCP] NetworkInterfaces.ycp:1492
List( ) = [“eth0”, “eth1”]

I do find error messages related to eth1:
2013-06-05 11:32:10 <3> test5(8278) [bash]
ShellCommand.cc(shellcommand):78 cat: /sys/class/net/eth1/carrier: Das
Argument ist ungültig
2013-06-05 11:32:10 <1> test5(8278) [YCP] NetworkInterfaces.ycp:384
Sysfs returned $[“exit”:1, “stderr”:“cat: /sys/class/net/eth1/carrier:
Das Argument ist
ungültig
“, “stdout”:””]
2013-06-05 11:32:10 <1> test5(8278) [YCP] NovellUtils.ycp:206
NovellUtils.GetAllStaticInterfaces:current device is: eth1, active
status is false[/QUOTE]

Those error messages make me believe that that interface eth1 was taken down (not only removing the config file) or for some reason, eth1 could not be associated with the parameters you specified in the autoyast file. The only irregularity I could see is that you have “eth1” twice in your autoyast file, it might be worth a test to correct that.

[QUOTE=Günther Schwarz;13899]What might be unusual is that the automatic installation is done via
eth1 which is part of a management subnet without a gateway, and is also
not the first network device. But for the installation process this
should not be relevant.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I’d expect the same.

If it works with only eth0 in the autoyast file, then fixing the duplicate node is worth a try for sure.

Regards, & good luck

Jens

5

jmozdzen wrote:
[color=blue]

Those error messages make me believe that that interface eth1 was taken
down (not only removing the config file) or for some reason, eth1 could
not be associated with the parameters you specified in the autoyast
file. The only irregularity I could see is that you have
“eth1” twice in your autoyast file, it might be worth a
test to correct that.[/color]

OK I missed this one:

static eth1 192.168.37.255 eth1 192.168.37.33 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) 255.255.255.0 24 auto no

I took out the second one now, and also the broadcast statement which
seems superfluous.
[color=blue]

Günther Schwarz;13899 Wrote:[color=green]

Next try will be with just one interface.[/color]

If it works with only eth0 in the autoyast file, then fixing the
duplicate node is worth a try for sure.[/color]

Also with one interface in the VMWare configuration the network will not
configure successfully. What a shame. I went back to two interfaces and
tried without the above error in the section for
eth1 without success.

And to cut a long story short: The network setup with two interfaces
worked without problems once a fixed an issue with my OES11 setup in
AutoYaST! Following closely the output on the screen showed that the
network setup went through but was abandoned once the installer hit the
problem with configuration of eDirectory.

Thank you very much again for your patience and help with the issue. I’m
new to AutoYaST, and there is a steep learning curve indeed.

Günther

6

Hi Günther,

I’m glad you were able to spot the root cause and I find it especially helpful that you reported it back, so that others like me can learn from it!

Just as an additional pointer: Since you’re installation OES, please note that there are OES-specific forums over at http://forums.novell.com - when it gets into details of that product line, you’ll find the pros over there! (And your login is shared with forums.suse.com, so you won’t have to re-register to access.)

With regards,
Jens

7

jmozdzen wrote:
[color=blue]

Just as an additional pointer: Since you’re installation OES, please
note that there are OES-specific forums over at http://forums.novell.com

  • when it gets into details of that product line, you’ll find the pros
    over there! (And your login is shared with forums.suse.com, so you won’t
    have to re-register to access.)[/color]

Thanks for the pointer to the OES forums. I am well aware of these. Not
knowing that the root of my problem was the OES configuration I chose
the SLES forum for my question about the network setup.
I will not go into detail about my mistake in the OES part of the
AutoYaST file as it will be off topic here.

Günther

8

Hi Günther,

Ok, wasted on you :wink: I couldn’t tell, and because as an NNTP user your message count isn’t displayed I had no hint how experienced you are.

[QUOTE=Günther Schwarz;13948]Not knowing that the root of my problem was the OES configuration I chose
the SLES forum for my question about the network setup.[/QUOTE]

That was perfectly right - my hint was aiming at future more detailed OES questions that might arise from the OES part of AutoYaST.

Case closed :wink:

Regards,
Jens