Warewulf Configuration

The default installation of Warewulf will put all of the configuration files into /etc/warewulf/. In that directory, you will find the primary configuration files needed by Warewulf.

warewulf.conf

The Warewulf configuration exists as follows in the current version of Warewulf (4.3.0):

WW_INTERNAL: 43
ipaddr: 192.168.200.1
netmask: 255.255.255.0
network: 192.168.200.0
warewulf:
  port: 9873
  secure: false
  update interval: 60
  autobuild overlays: true
  host overlay: true
  syslog: false
dhcp:
  enabled: true
  range start: 192.168.200.50
  range end: 192.168.200.99
  systemd name: dhcpd
tftp:
  enabled: true
  systemd name: tftp
nfs:
  enabled: true
  export paths:
  - path: /home
    export options: rw,sync
    mount options: defaults
    mount: true
  - path: /opt
    export options: ro,sync,no_root_squash
    mount options: defaults
    mount: false
  systemd name: nfs-server

Generally you can leave this file as is, as long as you set the appropriate networking information. Specifically the following configurations:

ipaddr: This is the control node’s networking interface connecting to the cluster’s PRIVATE network. This configuration must match the host’s network IP address for the cluster’s private interface.
netmask: Similar to the ipaddr, this is the subnet mask for the cluster’s PRIVATE network and it must also match the host’s subnet mask for the cluster’s private interface.
dhcp:range start and dhcp:range end: This address range must exist in the network defined above. If it is outside of this network, failures will occur. This specifies the range of addresses you want DHCP to use.

Note

The network configuration listed above assumes the network layout in the [Background](background.md) portion of the documentation.

The other configuration options are usually not touched, but they are explained as follows:

*:enabled: This disables Warewulf’s control of an external service. This is useful if you want to manage that service directly.
*:systemd name: This is so Warewulf can control some of the host’s services. For the distributions that we’ve built and tested this on, these will require no changes.
warewulf:port: This is the port that the Warewulf web server will be listening on. It is recommended not to change this so there is no misalignment with node’s expectations of how to contact the Warewulf service.
warewulf:secure: When true, this limits the Warewulf server to only respond to runtime overlay requests originating from a privileged report port. This makes it so that only the root user on a compute node can request the runtime overlay. While generally there is nothing super “secure” in these overlays, this adds the necessary protection that the user’s can not obtain this information.
warewulf:update interval: This defines the frequency (in seconds) with which the Warewulf client on the compute node fetches overlay updates.
warewulf:autobuild overlays: This determines whether per-node overlays will automatically be rebuilt, e.g., when an underlying overlay is changed.
warewulf:host overlay: This determines whether the special host overlay is applied to the Warewulf server during configuration. (The host overlay is used to configure the dependent services.)
warewulf:syslog: This determines whether Warewulf server logs go to syslog or are written directly to a log file. (e.g., /var/log/warewulfd.log)
nfs:export paths: Warewulf will automatically set up the NFS exports if you wish for it to do this.

nodes.conf

The nodes.conf file is the primary database file for all compute nodes. It is a flat text YAML configuration file that is managed by the wwctl command, but some sites manage the compute nodes and infrastructure via configuration management. This file being flat text and very light weight makes management of the node configurations very easy no matter what your configuration paradigm is.

For the purpose of this document, we will not go into the detailed format of this file as it is recommended to edit with the wwctl command.

Note

This configuration is not written at install time, but the first time you attempt to run wwctl, this file will be generated if it does not exist already.

defaults.conf

The defaults.conf file configures default values used when none are specified. For example: if a node does not have a “runtime overlay” specified, the respective value from defaultnode is used. If a network device does not specify a “device,” the device value of the dummy device is used.

If defaults.conf does not exist, the following values are used as compiled into Warewulf at build-time:

--
defaultnode:
  runtime overlay:
  - generic
  system overlay:
  - wwinit
  kernel:
    args: quiet crashkernel=no vga=791 net.naming-scheme=v238
  init: /sbin/init
  root: initramfs
  ipxe template: default
  profiles:
  - default
  network devices:
    dummy:
      device: eth0
      type: ethernet
      netmask: 255.255.255.0

There should never be a need to change this file: all site-local parameters should be specified using either nodes or profiles.

Directories

The /etc/warewulf/ipxe/ directory contains text/templates that are used by the Warewulf configuration process to configure the ipxe service.