[nycbug-talk] PXE/TFTPd Sanity

[David Lawson]

> - Has any unified software/packaging come about for doing network  
> installs, or is it all still all just a matter of setting up TFTPD and  
> a DHCP server?

Cobbler/Satellite are worth taking a look at, they're both, unfortunately, very linux-centric as they grew out of Red Hat projects, but I believe they can do BSDs.

> - Have any neat accounting utilities/database tools come along for  
> storing MAC addresses, and their corresponding IP/boot-media info?

Cobbler provides a system for that.  There's also at least some Satellite integration.  Also some hooks into Puppet or other config management/accounting type tools.  ZenOSS is another option that has that kind of functionality to it, though I don't know whether it has any network install type stuff in it.  I know of a couple large companies that are using it at least for monitoring if not for machine accounting.

I'm 99% sure I've talked about Cobbler with someone on this list before who was leveraging it more heavily than I am, so there may be some more expert opinions kicking around.  There's a lot of value add to it beyond what you're asking about, so it's possible it's too much gun, but I've found that it's a tool we've grown into using very nicely.

--Dave