Foreman

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h1. I'm not using Storeconfigs, how can I still use Foreman?

Foreman does not require puppet storeconfigs, however, Foreman can work with puppet db schema natively as Foreman extends it.

If you just want to import hosts inventory (facts), you can use the rake task:

<pre>RAILS_ENV=production rake puppet:import:hosts_and_facts</pre>

This will import your exists facts yaml file (defaults to vardir/yaml/facts), if you wish to import from another directory use:

<pre>RAILS_ENV=production rake puppet:import:hosts_and_facts dir=/my/dir/with/yaml/files</pre>

*NOTE:* its probably a good idea to clean up your yaml file directory, as you might have a lot of old data in there.

h1. I'm using Storeconfigs, how can I populate various settings in Foreman that are required for hands free (unattended) installations?

<pre>RAILS_ENV=production rake puppet:migrate:populate_hosts</pre>

This will try to auto-generate all operating systems,  puppet environments etc into Foreman's DB.

h1. How do I use unattended installations (Kickstart, jumpstart, preseed)?

see [[Unattended installations]]

h1. How do I use Foreman with Puppet external nodes?

see [[External Nodes]]

h1. Where is the DB?!

By default, Foreman will use sqlite3 as a database, its configuration can be found at 

<pre>config/database.yml</pre>

By default, the  database can be found at the db subdirectory.

Foreman is a rails application, therefor, anything that is supported under RAILS (sqlite, mysql, postsql, oracle etc) can be used.

h1. What about other operating systems?

Foreman currently supports RedHat/Fedora, Debian/Ubuntu and Solaris Jumpstart

it has been successfully tested on CentOS 3,4,5 Fedora 10-11, Ubuntu 9.04 and Solaris 8-10 on Sparc.

If you have any other operating system you would like to see added to Foreman, please contact us and we would be happy to add it.

for Jumpstart support, as Solaris doesn't support nativity accessing the profile data dynamically, its required to create some workarounds

example for those are found at the *extras/jumpstart* directory.

You may find the dynamic profile and dynamic finish at the following URL's:

<pre><code>http://Foremanhost:3000/unattended/jumpstart_profile

http://Foremanhost:3000/unattended/jumpstart_finish</code></pre>

It is also required to add vendor options to your dhcp server if you plan to boot from network on the sparc platform.

h1. Will Foreman manage non OpenSource services (e.g. DNS/DHCP etc) ?

Yes! we understand that many enterprises relay on non opensource infrastrucutre as well

Currently it is plan to support MS DNS and DHCP services (its actually easier than ISC DHCP and BIND).

If you have any additional requirements, please enter a feature request.

h1. Whats planned for the next major release?

The next major release of The Foreman will include DNS and DHCP management, this should allow:

* Subnet management (e.g. install servers in different subnets with no effort)

* IP address management, Foreman will suggest you free IP Addresses, and basically allow you to relay on it to manage your IP address assignments.

Additionally, we plan to add support for:

* Puppet reports

* User Authentication

* Audit Log

*..

If you want additional features, please open a new feature request!