"pump" times out -- extend a few seconds more?

Shabazian, Chip Chip.Shabazian at bankofamerica.com
Fri Feb 23 17:56:09 UTC 2007


I think there was a "nicdelay" or something similar introduced around
RHEL3U7, so you might want to try that.  Also, make sure that portfast
is enabled on the switches.  The other thing we do is set the
speed/duplex via ethtool to avoid autonegotion delays:

eth0_ethtool="autoneg=on speed=1000 duplex=full"

When we have to build via iLO, we embed the kickstart file in the initrd
and then use ks=file:

 

-----Original Message-----
From: kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com
[mailto:kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Ramthun, William
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 9:50 AM
To: Discussion list about Kickstart
Subject: RE: "pump" times out -- extend a few seconds more?

In our normal data centers, we build HP DL385/585 daily as well.  The
data center with issues is from an acquired company with older Cisco
switches (5 years +).

Installing RHEL 3 Update 5

The install client accesses the RHEL 3 media server via eth0.  When
Anaconda times-out, I can run thru the install setup manually and
RHEL3U5 will install over the network.  The problem is the Kickstart
config is highly configured and doing a manual install is not really an
option that I want to consider.

What I want is to access the ks.cfg via the network.  Which implies that
the network needs to "come up" before Anaconda times out.

	OR

Read the ks.cfg from the cdrom.  But the cdrom is virually mounted over
the ILO port and is not accessible like ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg from the boot
prompt.  I don't know what the <cdrom> device is.
-Bill

> -----Original Message-----
> From: kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:kickstart-list- 
> bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Shabazian, Chip
> Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 10:34 AM
> To: Discussion list about Kickstart
> Subject: RE: "pump" times out -- extend a few seconds more?
> 
> We build HP DL 380/385/580/585 servers every day while connected to 
> Cisco switches that we don't have any access to.  Are you using RHEL 3

> or 4?  If 4, do you have spare NIC's in the box? RHEL 4 enumerates the

> bus backwards from RHEL 3, so if you have a NIC, it's going to be eth0

> instead of the onboard...
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com 
> [mailto:kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Ramthun,
William
> Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 8:01 AM
> To: Discussion list about Kickstart
> Subject: RE: "pump" times out -- extend a few seconds more?
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:kickstart-list- 
> > bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of nate
> > Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 10:33 AM
> > To: kickstart-list at redhat.com
> > Subject: Re: "pump" times out -- extend a few seconds more?
> >
> > Bill-Schoolcraft said:
> > > Hello Family,
> > >
> > > I have a series of switches, in racks, and one of them seems to be
a
> bit
> > > slow so when kickstart goes for it's dhcp request, pump times out.
> The
> > > initial PXE takes much more time to get an "ack" at the initial
> contact
> > > than the same boxes in other racks with other switches but then
> finally
> > > starts chugging away -- it's the next dhcp request that fails,
times
> out.
> > >
> > > Today I took the same box, draped a cat6 cable to another, less 
> > > populated switch, and it kicked fine.
> > >
> > > (question)
> > > So my question is, how or where can I place an argument to tell 
> > > kickstart's "pump" request to try longer before timing out.
> >
> > just curious, what type of switch? many older cisco switches have
STP
> > on by default, if you set the port(s) to 'portfast' the links come
up
> > immediately rather than waiting ~45 seconds.
> >
> > I'm not a cisco guy but if your switches are cisco the command is 
> > something like
> >
> > int (interface)
> > spanning-tree portfast
> > ^Z
> > wr mem
> >
> >
> > e.g. on my old 3500s (IOS 12.0 is the latest they'll run) int fa0/5 
> > spanning-tree portfast
> >
> > I haven't encountered any other switch vendors that have this 
> > 'feature' enabled by default. You can tell if it's on without even 
> > logging in(to the switch) by checking to see if the link light for
the
> 
> > port spends a long time in the orange color before turning green.
I've
> 
> > been told more modern cisco switches ship with this feature off by 
> > default.
> >
> > as for extending the pump times, I'm not sure, so I can't answer
your
> > specific question :) maybe the above will help a bit..
> >
> > I did a quick search on pump timeout, and what I did see was that it

> > may be possible to extend the timeout by adding a 
> > /etc/pump_device.conf and using the option 'timeout <some number>'.
> >
> > though you'll need to add that to the initrd image..not the easiest 
> > thing in the world.
> >
> > nate
> >
> 
> 
> I am experiencing a similar problem; however, my situation is slightly

> different.
> 
> I have HP DL385's connected to a 48 port 10/100 module in a Cisco 6509

> (with Sup 2 routing module).  I'm using the virtual CDROM via the HP
ILO
> (Integrated Lights Out) interface to perform the initial boot.  I
mount
> a customized version of RHEL3U5 CD1.  My kickstart file is specified
as
> an url.  The system boots and Anaconda starts, but before the link 
> negotiation can complete Anaconda times-out and I am dumped into an 
> interactive install.
> 
> A couple of data points:
> 
> 1) The HP DL385 on-board NICs are manufactured by Broadcom.  I've read

> about a known bug with link negotiation between the Broadcom NICs and 
> Cisco 48-port line cards.  The link negotiation works, it just takes a

> "longer" time than with any other kind of NIC.
> 
> 2) Setting the switch port NIC to enable "spanning-tree portfast" does

> shorten the link negotiation time, but not enough to get around my 
> problem.
> 
> Work Arounds:
> 
> 1) I will prebuild the kickstart configs and place them on my
customized
> RHEL3U5 CD.  I've been unsuccessful at reading the kickstart config
from
> the CDROM.  The driver supporting the ILO virtual cdrom does not name 
> the cdrom device as "cdrom".  Still reading up on this.
> 
> That's it so far,
> -Bill
> 
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