Warewulf Installation

There are multiple methods to install Warewulf. This page describes the installation process for some of those methods.

Binary RPMs

The Warewulf project builds binary RPMs as part of its CI/CD process. You can obtain them from the GitHub releases page.

Rocky Linux 8

# dnf install https://github.com/warewulf/warewulf/releases/download/v4.5.8/warewulf-4.5.8-1.el8.x86_64.rpm

openSuse Leap

# zypper install https://github.com/warewulf/warewulf/releases/download/v4.5.8/warewulf-4.5.8-1.suse.lp155.x86_64.rpm

Container images

Warewulf is prepared to be built inside and packaged into a Linux container. This can be especially useful for testing and development or just replace classic package installation. It is also possible to only use the container for building and the install it in the host system afterwards. For that look at the INSTALL, UNINSTALL and PURGE labels inside the Dockerfile

Docker

# docker build -t warewulf .
# docker run -d --replace --name warewulf-test --privileged --net=host -v /:/host -v /etc/warewulf:/etc/warewulf -v /var/lib/warewulf/:/var/lib/warewulf/ -e NAME=warewulf-test -e IMAGE=warewulf warewulf

Systemd-nspawn

Since Warewulf runs multiple services inside one single container it uses systemd as init system. Since a full privileged Docker container running a systemd can cause some side effects, it might be a better option to use systemd-nspawn in some cases which was explicitly made to run containers with a full init system.

# docker build -t warewulf .
# mkdir warewulf-nspawn
# docker export "$(docker create --name warewulf-test warewulf true)" | tar -x -C warewulf-nspawn
# systemd-nspawn -D warewulf-nspawn/ passwd
# systemd-nspawn -D warewulf-nspawn/ --boot

Compiled Source code

Before you build the Warewulf source code you will first need to install the build dependencies:

  • make: This should be available via your Linux distribution’s package manager (e.g. dnf install make)

  • go: Golang is also available on most current Linux distributions, but if you wish to install the most recent version, you can find that here: https://golang.org/dl/

  • Depending on your Linux Distribution, you may need to install other development packages. Typically it is recommended to install the entire development group like dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"

Once these dependencies are installed, you can obtain and build the source code as follows:

Release Tarball

The Warewulf project releases source distributions alongside its binary RPMs. You can obtain them from the GitHub releases page.

Select the version you wish to install and download the tarball to any location on the server, then follow these directions making the appropriate substitutions:

curl -LO https://github.com/warewulf/warewulf/releases/download/v4.5.8/warewulf-4.5.8.tar.gz
tar -xf warewulf-4.5.8.tar.gz
cd warewulf-4.5.8
make all && sudo make install

Git

Warewulf is developed in GitHub, a source code management platform that allows collaborative development and revision control. From the Git repository, you can download different versions of the project either from tags or branches. By default, when you go to the GitHub page, you will find the default branch entitled main. The main branch is where most of the active development occurs, so if you want to obtain the latest and greatest version of Warewulf, this is where to go. But be forewarned, using a snapshot from main is not guaranteed to be stable or generally supported for production.

If you are building for production, it is best to download a release tarball from the main site, the GitHub releases page, or from a Git tag.

git clone https://github.com/warewulf/warewulf.git
cd warewulf
git checkout main # or switch to a tag like 'v4.5.8'
make all && sudo make install

Runtime Dependencies

In Warewulf’s default configuration, it will require some operating system provided services. Generally these are provided by your installation vendor and can be installed over the network.

These are the services you will need to install:

  • dhcp-server

  • tftp-server

  • nfs-utils

If you are using an Enterprise Linux compatible distribution you can install them with yum install dhcp-server tftp-server nfs-utils.