Port of Igntite-UX to Linux

[Pyers Symon]

Over the weekend, I succesfully used a Ubuntu box to act as a Jumpstart server so I could install Solaris 10 (sparc) onto a 420R with a duff DVD drive.

Although the basics of Ignite are pretty much the same as Jumpstart (bootp, bootparamd, nfs) the sticking point would be the absence of swagentd in order to manage the software depot on the Linux box.

Does anyone know whether HP have any plans to port Ignite to Linux, or whether there is a work around?

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi,

I do not agree that the basics are the same, Ignite uses an Ignite Server (software). Building this software on linux is not possible because the source is not available.

Best regards,
Robert-Jan

[VK2COT]

Hello,

Whilst the Ignite-UX sources are still
proprietary, there is little
chance of porting it to Linux.

Maybe one day.

However, take a look at this thread (specifically, Bob Vance's comments):

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=979640

He successfully made the Linux server be
able to support Igniting an HP box from a
Golden Image.

I always wanted to try it in the labs but
never got the time.

Now that you reminded me, I might
allocate some time and go for it :)

Cheers,

VK2COT

[Pyers Symon]

The basics are very much similar:

they both use tftp to copy a basic kernel image (inetboot in solaris; entries in /opt/ignite/boot in HP-UX), some form of boot protocol - bootp in HP-UX bootparamd in Solaris - is used to provide basic network information and finally NFS is used to mount the depots or packages. It is at THIS point that the major differences occur with Solaris installing the packages and HP then using swagentd ....

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

HP can be asked to do this. In fact, they probably have been asked.

Fact is Linux has good tools already that are open source: http://www.mondorescue.org

There is also competition on the revenue front: http://www.acronis.com

HP is a business. They will produce Ignite for Linux if in my opinion one of two criteria is met:

1) There is a profit to be made. With open source out there, I can't see that happening.
2) It will make their customers happy and improve customer satisfaction, therefore indirectly improving sales.

Item two might happen, I have my doubts on item 1.

This is a long standing question and I see no sign of progress on this front.

SEP

[Pyers Symon]

Many thanks to VK2COT (good luck with the Ashes :-) ) and Steven.

The reason behind my thoughts was to replace the need for an expensive HP-UX box to be a Ignite server with a much cheaper Linux one - I would still be installing only HP-UX onto the clients but it would just give me a lot more flexibility :-)

[Scot Bean]

Check out a newer section in the Ignite admin guide:

http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-5309/ch06.html

It covers some Linux/Ignite interoperability topics that may be helpful on this topic, tho it is not a port.

[Pyers Symon]

Thanks Scot .. It seems that Ignite will install Linux boxes from an HP-UX server but not the other way round .....

[Jozef_Novak]

Well, Ignite-UX does not require a dedicated server. Therefore you can select a system which you normally use to host applications as an IUX server.

J.

[Matti_Kurkela]

More like "the components that are guaranteed to be present in an Ignite server (DHCP server, TFTP server, NFS server) can be used to install Linux too."

This is not a feature of Ignite: it is a feature of Linux distributions (and PXE-boot-capable hardware) that a network install can be performed using just these commonly-available components.

But for HP-UX installation, the swagentd component is required in addition to these. This component is currently not available for the Linux platform.

MK