[Spacewalk-list] Re: VMware from spacewalk kickstart

[James Hogarth]

For reference to the source material (and proper credit) I used these as
guides to getting this working:

http://www.linuxdynasty.org/how-to-automate-the-install-of-vmware-tools-after-any-kernel-update.html

http://drcs.ca/blog/?p=181

2009/12/18 James Hogarth <james.hogarth at gmail.com>

> After a little head scratching and hiccups I managed to get my vmware
> guests kickstarting and including the vmware tools install and config as
> part of the kickstart process... using the vmxnet driver.
>
> Testing in our environments has shown the vmxnet driver to be superior and
> we wanted to use it on our guests but of course since it isn't part of the
> kernel source the guests had to be built with e1000 emulated NICs and then
> changed over afterwards....
>
> Seeing that there are probably others in the same situation I thought that
> popping the steps I took onto the mailing list would be good for others -
> and when I have to do it in 6 months for Centos 5.5 again (or 6) I can
> search this list for the instructions ;)
>
> This should work in any rpm based kickstartable distrobution but was tested
> on Centos 5.4 x86_64.
>
> First you will need a reference system with VMwareTools already installed
> onto in order to get the kernel module and check the PCI IDs your modules
> are.
>
> From the PXE or kickstart ISO you are using unpack your initrd to a work
> directory....
>
> mkdir /tmp/work
> cd /tmp/work
> cp /mnt/dvd/images/pxeboot/initrd.img .
> mkdir initrd
> cd initrd
>
> zcat ../initrd.img | cpio -id
>
> On the reference PC check the PCI ID for your modules....
>
>
> lspci | grep -i -E 'vmware.*ethernet|ethernet.*vmware'
>
>
> It will look something like:
>
>
> 00:11.0 Ethernet controller: VMware VMXNET Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
>
>
> Next get the full vendor/product ID for the driver where the PCI ID is
> 00:11.0 in the example above.
>
>
> lspci -n | grep -i  '15ad'
>
>
> Look for the line matching the PCI ID found above and make a note of the
> product ID...
>
> The example from my case is:
>
> lspci -n00:11.0 0200: 15ad:0720 (rev 10) | grep -i  '15ad'
>
>
> Where the vendor ID can be seen as 15ad and the product ID to make a note
> of is above is 0720
>
> Next we need to expand the modules cpio archive to add our vmware module to
> it.
>
> mkdir /tmp/work/modules
>
> cd /tmp/work/modules
> zcat ../initrd/modules/modules.cgz  | cpio -id
> cd /tmp/work/modules/2.6.*/x86_64
> cp /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/vmxnet*.ko .
> chmod 744 vmxnet*
>
> Depending on the version of VMwareToosl you have you may have separate
> vmxnet.o and vmxnet.ko modules in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc - and you may
> also jave vmxnet and vmxnet3 modules.... For the 2.6 kernel you will need
> the vmxnet*.ko modules. If your module is symlinked to the .o version (as in
> my case) make sure you grab the actual file ;)
>
> Next pack back up the modules cpio archive....
>
> cd /tmp/work/modules
> find . | cpio -o -H crc | gzip -9 > /tmp/work/initrd/modules/modules.cgz
>
>
> Note that the type is crc here....
>
> Next we need to tell our kernel/initrd about our new modules....
>
> cd /tmp/work/initrd/modules
> vi pci.ids
>
>
> Look for the section with the vmware vendor ID of 15ad and add your
> ethernet modules to this... for reference here is my part of that file after
> the addition:
>
> 15ad  VMware
>         0405  SVGA II Adapter
>         0710  SVGA Adapter
>         0720  VMware VMXNET Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
>
>
> Note that you might need the vmxnet3 driver added too depending on your
> version of VMwareTools....
>
> Next append to the initrd modules-info alias info....
>
> vmxnet
>         eth
>         "VMware VMXNET Ethernet Controller (rev 10)"
>
> Remember to add a vmxnet3 section if required... On the reference system
> get the entries required for the modules.alias file....
>
> grep vmxnet /lib/modules/2.6.18-164.6.1.el5/modules.alias
> alias pci:v000015ADd00000720sv*sd*bc*sc*i* vmxnet
>
> alias pci:v00001022d00002000sv*sd*bc*sc*i* vmxnet
>
>
> Append these to the modules.alias file in /tmp/work/initrd/modules
>
> Next pack all this back up....
>
> cd /tmp/work/initrd
> find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -9 > /tmp/work/initrd.img.vmxnet
>
>
> Copy this initrd.img file to your PXE tree or ISO or however you want to
> use this (renaming it if need be)...
>
> That's the hard work done and that will allow a kickstart of the system
> using the vmxnet network driver instead of the e1000 driver. But that is
> only good for the kickstart itself this next final bit is to allow the
> system to still have a network interface after the kickstart is over....
>
> On the spacewalk server create a post script for your kickstart containing
> something like the following:
>
> /usr/bin/yum install -y --nogpgcheck VMwareTools
> sed -i -e '/^\#.*$/d' -e '/^HWADDR=.*$/d' /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
>
> echo "rkernel=`uname -r`
> if [ -e /etc/vmware-tools/not_configured ]; then
>     echo "vmware-tools not configured for running kernel $rkernel"
>     echo "running vmware-config-tools.pl"
>
>     /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl -d
>     echo "vmware-tools now compiled for running kernel $rkernel"
>     echo "restarting system"
>     reboot
> fi" >> /etc/rc.local
>
> This assumes that the VMwareToosl rpm is somewhere in your channels. It
> removes any comments from the ifcfg-eth0 file and removes the HWADDR
> restriction so that the system doesn't rename it to ifcfg-eth0.bak or
> somesuch on changes to network interface - this was valid for Centos 5.4
> YMMV.... The rc.local addition is important as vmware-tools-config.pldetects module to install based on the running kernel - this is of course
> different in the kickstart. This will also allow a kernel upgrade and if
> need be the system will auto-configure on next boot. The reboot is there to
> ensure that any network services etc or any dependencies on network/vmware
> running during start up are met.
>
> Hope this is helpful to someone apart from me next distro update ;)
>
> James
>
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