[Spacewalk-list] Recommendation for registering new systems to be provisioned

[Jon Miller]

I'm still in the middle of testing out Spacewalk with the intention of
migrating from a cobbler based imaging system. In an effort to not make my
question an XY problem question[1], let me start with X:
- I would like to control and pre-register machines, perhaps based on their
MAC address, with my Spacewalk server and have their machine name
automatically set properly and registered with Spacewalk with that name as
well.

(Before I get too far, I should mention that I do NOT have control over
DHCP and therefore any PXE options. Using stock ISOs at the moment to boot
and initiate the kickstart)

Here are some of my Y attempts:
1. Tried using the "cobbler system add" command ala "cobbler system add
--name <machinename> --max XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX --profile <myprofile>". I see
no reference of this in the Spacewalk UI, nor have I seen a snippet that
might use some unseen data from cobbler. Am I missing something?
2. (Current approach) Using a little hack where I have both a pre and a
post script that parse '/proc/cmdline' for "HOSTNAME=<name>" after tacking
that on along with my ks= boot options. This is working but I would prefer
a tighter mechanism to associate established machines and their server name
and not rely upon the end user to type the name correctly.
3. (future) I'm tempted to create a small web application that supports
parameters with a MAC address and return the known, registered machine
name. I would then have a pre & post script make those web calls and set
the machine name for me.

So, I'm currently doing #2 and am tempted to explore doing #3 but can't
help but think I'm just over looking or ignorant of other options. What is
the official Spacewalk recommendation?

Thanks,
Jon Miller

[1]: http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=542341
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