Quick Cobbler Configuration settings

A brief overview of the configurations settings you may activate on Cobbler, according to your needs.

Cobbler's configuration settings have evolved in its various versions, introducing new features and relative parameters.
In the /etc/cobbler/settings file they are defined somehow without an apparent order and might seem more confusing than what they actually are.  
These settings are generally relative to Cobbler 1.0 and later versions, most of them actually apply also to ealier versions, others have been introduced in more recent versions and some old settings have been deprecated.  
Here we refer to production releases (evem numbers, so 0.9 is the development version of 1.0, 1.1 is devel of 1.2, 1.3 is devel of 1.4) but consider that the relevant features may have been introduced in the relative devel versions.  


Here we consider what you have to define according to what you need.  

Probably the most important and, for default behaviour, the only parameter to set it the IP of your cobbler server  
server: 10.42.42.10  


To enable web access you should edit /etc/cobbler/modules.conf and activate an authentication module.  
For a DIGEST local authentication set:  
[authentication]  
module = authn_configfile  
(Then use htdigest /etc/cobbler/users.digest "Cobbler" yourusername to set the password for yourusername )  
More info:  https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/CobblerWebInterface  


If you want to manage a local DHCP server with Cobbler set:  
manage_dhcp: 1  
Other options related to DHCP:  
restart_dhcp: 1  
next_server: 10.42.42.10 # PXE server address (generally the Cobbler server)  
dhcpd_bin: /usr/sbin/dhcpd  
dhcpd_conf: /etc/dhcpd.conf  
dnsmasq_bin: /usr/sbin/dnsmasq  
dnsmasq_conf: /etc/dnsmasq.conf  
In /etc/cobbler/modules.conf you decide which DHCP program to use (isc or dnsmasq):  
[dhcp]  
module = manage_isc  
More info: https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/ManageDhcp  


If you want to manage a local DNS server with Cobbler set:  
manage_dns: 1  
Other options related to DNS;  
restart_dns: 1  
bind_bin: /usr/sbin/named  
manage_forward_zones: []  
manage_reverse_zones: []  
In /etc/cobbler/modules.conf you define which DNS program to use (bind or dnsmasq):  
[dns]  
module = manage_bind  
More info: https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/ManageDns  


Settings applied to the installed hosts  
The root's password (default: "cobbler"):  
default_password_crypted: "$1$mF86/UHC$WvcIcX2t6crBz2onWxyac."  
Default DNS servers set on installed hosts (useless in DHCP environment):  
default_name_servers: [ ]  
If you want to configure on the installed host the yum repo used during installation, set:  
yum_post_install_mirror: 1  


Define Cobbler behaviour for installed systems: Set the following parameters to 1 if you plan to reinstall the same servers, otherwise leave them to 0:  
allow_duplicate_hostnames: 0 # (Version 1.4)  
allow_duplicate_ips: 0  
allow_duplicate_macs: 0  


Default kernel options when kickstarting (can be overriden):  
kernel_options:  
    ksdevice: eth0  
    lang: ' '  
    text: ~  
To enable syslogging of kickstart operations to the cobbler server, add something like:   
    syslog: '10.42.42.10:25150'  


Default settings for virt installations (can be overriden):  
default_virt_bridge: xenbr0  
default_virt_type: xenpv  
default_virt_file_size: 5  
default_virt_ram: 512  


PXE related settings:  
enable_menu: 1 # (Version 1.2)  
pxe_just_once: 0  
pxe_template_dir: "/etc/cobbler/pxe"  
tftpd_bin: /usr/sbin/in.tftpd  
tftpd_conf: /etc/xinetd.d/tftp  


Settings related to Cobbler server internals:  
xmlrpc_port: 25151  
register_new_installs: 0  
run_install_triggers: 1  
snippetsdir: /var/lib/cobbler/snippets
yumreposync_flags: "-l" # (Version 1.2)
yumdownloader_flags: "--resolve"


If you enable the authn_ldap module for Web authentication, here you define your LDAP settings:  
ldap_server: "ldap.example.com"  
ldap_base_dn: "DC=example,DC=com"  
ldap_port: 389  
ldap_tls: 1  
ldap_anonymous_bind: 1  
ldap_search_bind_dn: ''  
ldap_search_passwd: ''  
ldap_search_prefix: 'uid='  


(Version 1.6) To enable auto-tracking via a scm of changes in /var/lib/cobbler set:  
scm_track_enabled: 1  
You can define which scm to use with:  
scm_track_mode: "git"  


(Version 1.4) To enable func installation and configuration on installed hosts set:  
func_auto_setup: 1  
You should then define you func master:  
func_master: overlord.example42.com  
More info: https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/FuncIntegration  


(Version 1.4) Integration with Configuration management systems (such as Puppet)  
More info: https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/UsingCobblerWithConfigManagementSystem  
mgmt_classes: []  
mgmt_parameters:  
   from_cobbler: 1  


(Version 1.4) Power management settings:  
More info: https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/PowerManagement  
power_management_default_type: 'ipmitool'  
power_template_dir: "/etc/cobbler/power"  


(Version 1.6) To enable the sending of a report email after an installation set:  
build_reporting_enabled: 1  
Mail content is based on /etc/cobbler/reporting/build_report_email.template, other related options:  
build_reporting_sender: ""  
build_reporting_email: [ 'root@localhost' ]  
build_reporting_smtp_server: "localhost"  
build_reporting_subject: ""  

Settings to integrate Cobbler with RHN or Spacewalk  
More info: https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/TipsForRhn  
redhat_management_type: "off"  
redhat_management_server: "xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com"  
redhat_management_key: ""  
redhat_management_permissive: 0  

(Version 1.6) If you want to record installations log on the cobbler server's /var/log/cobbler/anamon directory (the kickstart templates must have the pre_anamon snippet ) set:  
anamon_enabled: 1

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