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PXE dedicated server provisioning module


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PXE dedicated server provisioning module

 

We offer a dedicated server provisioning system that allows you to (re)install the operating system of your servers over the network.

It comes with an optional WHMCS module that adds two extra buttons to the "client area".

 

One that allows your customers to (re)install the operating system of their dedicated server themselves:

 

whmcs-clientarea-provisionserver.png

 

And as a bonus we include an option to reboot servers using IPMI as well:

 

whmcs-clientarea-powermanagement.png

 

 

Features

 

* Operating systems that can be automatically installed:

 

- Ubuntu

- Centos

- Fedora

- Debian

- FreeBSD 8

- Windows Web Server 2008 (R2) *

 

*) only if the hardware is supported out-of-the-box. While adding additional drivers is theoretically possible, no support on this is provided.

 

 

* Installations are conducted using the official network installation method supported by the Operating System (like kickstart, preseed, etc.), and NOT using disk cloning.

 

* Although DHCP is used during the installation procedure, the systems are configured with a static network configuration, and local resolving DNS server, so that no dependencies on other systems exist after installation.

 

* The following rescue and utility systems can be started, for things like resetting a forgotten root password, and repairing broken systems:

 

- Sysrescd

- Clonezilla

 

Limitations

 

* You need to manually assign servers to customers.

 

* Certain options (such as creating post-installation scripts and defining custom partition tables) are only available through the admin interface, and not directly to WHMCS clients.

 

 

System requirements NOC-PS system

 

The NOC-PS management software is provided as a virtual appliance, that needs to be installed on a hypervisor such as VMware ESXi, VSphere, Citrix Xenserver or Virtualbox.

 

A direct Internet connection is required to download the installation files of the operating systems. Proxies are NOT supported.

No DHCP servers should be active in the VLAN in which the NOC-PS system runs.

 

 

System requirements WHMCS module

 

The WHMCS module that communicates with the NOC-PS software requires:

 

- WHMCS 4.2.x

- OpenSSL PHP module

 

 

System requirements dedicated servers

 

If the dedicated servers to be provisioned are in another VLAN than the NOC-PS system, then you need to configure your router to forward DHCP requests to the VLAN of the NOC-PS system.

 

 

Ideally, the dedicated servers should support IPMI (aka BMC/iLO/DRAC) so that the servers can be rebooted automatically, and can be told to boot off the network using PXE.

Alternatively it is also possible to change the boot order manually in the BIOS, and reboot the servers manually.

 

 

Pricing

 

An annual fee is charged based on the number of servers you have in your network.

See: http://www.noc-ps.com/index.php/pricing/'>http://www.noc-ps.com/index.php/pricing/

 

Base pricing includes e-mail only support.

 

 

More information

 

Main website: http://www.noc-ps.com/

WHMCS module installation instructions: http://www.noc-ps.com/index.php/documentation/whmcs_module/

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I noticed on the Ubuntu povision video on your website that you could pre-allocate the primary IP, I also noticed an option for multiple IP's, does this feature pre-configure them for you?

 

Also, does the Windows option pre-configure an IP too?

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I noticed on the Ubuntu povision video on your website that you could pre-allocate the primary IP, I also noticed an option for multiple IP's, does this feature pre-configure them for you?

 

Yes.

Provided that the additional addresses are within the same subnet as the primary IP, and on the same network card.

 

Also, does the Windows option pre-configure an IP too?

 

Yes.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We now include basic data traffic graphs and accounting, at no additional cost.

 

This is a feature supported natively by NOC-PS. Unlike other modules it does NOT depend on Cacti.

The only requirement is that your switch supports SNMP v2c.

 

Setup is simple:

 

- in the NOC-PS webinterface add the switch, specifying IP-address and SNMP community.

- if your switch supports this, and you registered the MAC-addresses of all your servers with NOC-PS, you can let NOC-PS auto-detect which port belongs to which server.

- if not, you have to assign the ports manually to each server.

 

Your customers will then get a "Data traffic" button in the clientarea, next to "Power management" and "(Re)install operating system".

And you can also use the normal WHMCS bandwidth report and overage billing features. *

 

Multiple network connections per server are supported.

And the software takes into account the date on which the server was activated for the current customer.

E.g. the attached screenshot only shows the traffic of the past day, because the server was ordered then. So traffic that may have been generated by the server's previous customer, is not displayed nor counted.

 

 

 

*) this currently requires that you assign your dedicated servers the product type "other" instead of "VPS/dedicated server" in WHMCS.

This oddity is related to: http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?p=157767

adding-a-new-switch-to-noc-ps.jpg

noc-ps-assign-server-to-switch.jpg

client-area-graphs.jpg

bw-report.jpg

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To use this addon, we need to have a private network, right?

 

You need to have your own Ethernet switch for the bandwidth graphs.

 

It is desired that you have a private VLAN, not shared with others, for the provisioning of new servers.

Most colocation providers will give you a private VLAN + subnet, if you hire at least half a rack. But verify with your provider to make sure.

 

 

What do you mean by accounting, it can bill overages or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

 

The module simply reports the amount of data traffic in MB back to WHMCS.

 

And you can use the standard WHMCS overage billing function to automatically invoice your customers on the last day of the month: http://wiki.whmcs.com/Disk_Space_and_Bandwidth_Overage_Billing

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we are very interested in this module however we have found that switch based metering is very unreliable due to internal network traffic and jitter being recorded in the usage

 

is there a way to poll cisco netflow for accounting instead?

 

also as a side issue will this allow for provisioning on Citris Xen 5.6?

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we are very interested in this module however we have found that switch based metering is very unreliable due to internal network traffic and jitter being recorded in the usage

 

You could make an approximate correction for things like broadcast traffic (those are reported separately by most switches as well, but usually only in number of packets and not the exact number of bytes).

 

But yes, internal traffic between local servers is always counted with switch based metering.

 

 

is there a way to poll cisco netflow for accounting instead?

 

No, we don't have any Cisco equipment ourselves, so cannot play with that.

 

Not sure how accurate Netflow is on high traffic networks either. Believe that to prevent it from demanding too much from your router's CPU you have to configure it to analyze every n..th packet, instead of every packet, and then get an estimated traffic count instead of the actual number.

 

 

also as a side issue will this allow for provisioning on Citris Xen 5.6?

 

The module is meant to provision physical servers.

As such we do not include any Xen API support with this module.

 

But if you write your own code that calls the Xen API to create and start a new VM, it will work.

Only with HVM though, their paravirtualisation mode does not support booting from network.

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  • 1 month later...
Just buyed it. How long does it take until the license is in my inbox?

 

Licenses are activated instantly.

 

Just install the software and get going.

No need to enter a license key manually, the software will automatically fetch the license file from our webserver upon first use.

(provided you registered the correct IP-address with us, so our server knows its you, and can send the correct file).

Edited by Max_nl
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  • 8 months later...
  • 7 months later...
  • 1 month later...
Is this still supported/updated?

 

The main product is still being updated.

Last update February 13: http://www2.noc-ps.com/noc-ps-version-v1-36-released/

 

We do not actively check this forum though.

So contact us directly with support questions to get a timely answer ;-)

 

 

There is no download on your site for hyper-v.

 

The ISO for "other hypervisors" on the download page works with pretty much every virtualization product.

In the case of HyperV, make sure you add a "legacy" network adapter to the VM, and not an accelerated one.

Edited by Max_nl
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