Node Profiles

Node profiles provide a way to scalably group node configurations together. Instead of redundant configurations for each node, you can set common fields in a profile and then apply one or more profiles to each node.

Profiles may, themselves, reference other profiles, supporting complex mixtures of profile configuration and negation.

The Default Profile

A default Warewulf installation will come with a single “default” profile pre-defined in nodes.conf.

# wwctl profile list
PROFILE NAME  COMMENT/DESCRIPTION
------------  -------------------
default       This profile is automatically included for each node

If the default profile exists, each new node automatically includes it when it is added.

You can view the fields of a profile with wwctl profile --all.

# wwctl profile list default --all
PROFILE  FIELD             VALUE
-------  -----             -----
default  Profiles          --
default  Comment           This profile is automatically included for each node
default  ClusterName       --
default  ImageName         --
default  Ipxe              default
default  RuntimeOverlay    hosts,ssh.authorized_keys
default  SystemOverlay     wwinit,wwclient,fstab,hostname,ssh.host_keys,issue,resolv,udev.netname,systemd.netname,ifcfg,NetworkManager,debian.interfaces,wicked,ignition
default  Kernel.Version    --
default  Kernel.Args       quiet,crashkernel=no
default  Init              /sbin/init
default  Root              initramfs
default  PrimaryNetDev     --
default  Resources[fstab]  [{"file":"/home","mntops":"defaults,nofail","spec":"warewulf:/home","vfstype":"nfs"},{"file":"/opt","mntops":"defaults,noauto,nofail,ro","spec":"warewulf:/opt","vfstype":"nfs"}]

wwctl node list --all indicates which profile defines each field.

# wwctl node list n1 --all
NODE  FIELD             PROFILE  VALUE
----  -----             -------  -----
n1    Profiles          --       default
n1    Comment           default  This profile is automatically included for each node
n1    Ipxe              default  default
n1    RuntimeOverlay    default  hosts,ssh.authorized_keys
n1    SystemOverlay     default  wwinit,wwclient,fstab,hostname,ssh.host_keys,issue,resolv,udev.netname,systemd.netname,ifcfg,NetworkManager,debian.interfaces,wicked,ignition
n1    Kernel.Args       default  quiet,crashkernel=no
n1    Init              default  /sbin/init
n1    Root              default  initramfs
n1    Resources[fstab]  default  [{"file":"/home","mntops":"defaults,nofail","spec":"warewulf:/home","vfstype":"nfs"},{"file":"/opt","mntops":"defaults,noauto,nofail,ro","spec":"warewulf:/opt","vfstype":"nfs"}]

Setting Profile Fields

(Almost) any node fields can be set on a profile, but some fields don’t really make sense anywhere but a node (e.g., --hwaddr and --ipaddr).

wwctl profile set default \
  --image=rockylinux-9 \
  --netmask=255.255.255.0

Multiple Profiles

It’s possible to create multiple profiles, and even to apply multiple profiles to each node.

wwctl profile add net
wwctl profile set net --netmask=255.255.255.0

wwctl profile add image
wwctl profile set image --image=rockylinux-9

wwctl node set n1 --profile="default,net,image"

Note

If two profiles set the same field, the right-most profile in the node’s list takes precedence. Field values set directly on nodes take precedence over profile field values.

# wwctl node list n1 --all
NODE  FIELD                     PROFILE  VALUE
----  -----                     -------  -----
n1    Profiles                  --       default,net,image
n1    Comment                   default  This profile is automatically included for each node
n1    ImageName                 image    rockylinux-9
n1    Ipxe                      default  default
n1    RuntimeOverlay            default  hosts,ssh.authorized_keys
n1    SystemOverlay             default  wwinit,wwclient,fstab,hostname,ssh.host_keys,issue,resolv,udev.netname,systemd.netname,ifcfg,NetworkManager,debian.interfaces,wicked,ignition
n1    Kernel.Args               default  quiet,crashkernel=no
n1    Init                      default  /sbin/init
n1    Root                      default  initramfs
n1    NetDevs[default].Netmask  net      255.255.255.0
n1    Resources[fstab]          default  [{"file":"/home","mntops":"defaults,nofail","spec":"warewulf:/home","vfstype":"nfs"},{"file":"/opt","mntops":"defaults,noauto,nofail,ro","spec":"warewulf:/opt","vfstype":"nfs"}]

Using multiple profiles makes it easy to work with multiple, heterogeneous groups of cluster nodes and to test new configurations on smaller subsets of nodes. For example, you can use this method to run a different kernel on only a subset or group of cluster nodes without changing any other node attributes.

Negating Profiles

Profiles may be negated by later profiles. For example, a profile list p2,~p1 adds the profile p2 to a node and removes a previously-applied p1 profile from a node.

Using Profiles Effectively

There are a lot of ways to use profiles to facilitate complex cluster configurations; but they are not required. It is completely possible to not use profiles at all, and to simply set all fields directly on cluster nodes.

If you do use profiles, some fields lend themselves most naturally to being set on profiles. Network subnet masks (--netmask) and gateways (--gateway) are common profile fields, as is --image. Most IPMI fields make sense on a profile, and it is also common to configure tags and resources on a profile for easy application to multiple nodes.

Node-specific information, like HW/MAC addresses (--hwaddr) and IP addresses (--ipaddr, --ipmiaddr) should always be put in a node configuration rather than a profile configuration.