Cobbler is a Linux installation server that allows for fast setup of network installation environments. It glues together and automates many associated Linux tasks so you do not have to hop between lots of various commands and applications when rolling out new systems, and, in some cases, changing existing ones.
It manages provisioning using a tiered concept of Distributions, Profiles, Systems, and Repositories.
Cobbler can be configured for PXE, reinstallations, and virtualized guests using Xen, KVM or VMware. Cobbler interacts with a program called Koan for reinstallation and virtualization support. Koan and Cobbler use libvirt to integrate with different virtualization software.
Key Features
- Small and lightweight application.
- Fast with very large configurations.
- Roll out new physical machines in a fully-automated way.
- Centralizes and simplifies control of services including DHCP, TFTP, and DNS to perform network-based operating system installs.
- Supports provisioning via PXE (network booting), reinstallations, and virtualized guests including VMware, Xen, and KVM.
- Command line interface.
- Django-based web interface.
- Help with managing DHCP, DNS, and yum package mirroring infrastructure.
- Saves systems in JSON format for faster edit operations.
- S390/S390X Mainframe PXE simulator.
- Anaconda monitoring features.
Website: cobbler.github.io
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Red Hat, Inc.
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
Cobbler is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Server Provisioning | |
|---|---|
| FAI | High quality tool for fully automatic installation of Linux systems |
| Foreman | Life cycle systems management tool |
| Cobbler | OS provisioning and profile management |
| m23 | Software distribution and management system |
| MAAS | Data centre automation platform |
| Confluent | Handle essential bootstrap and operation of scale-out server configurations |
| xCAT | Extreme Cluster Administration Toolkit |
| OpenQRM | Systems management platform |
| Uyuni | Configuration and infrastructure management solution |
| Warewulf | Stateless, network-boot cluster provisioning system |
| Tinkerbell | Bare metal provisioning engine |
| Ironic | OpenStack service for managing and provisioning bare metal servers |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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