Add Custom Drivers Into Cloudboot Image

Question

How to add customer drivers into Cloudboot image?

Answer

In order to add drivers to the cloudboot image, the following steps are to be taken:

• Boot up a liveCD on the same version of CentOS as the cloudboot image and ensure the kernel version is the same.
• Compile driver that you want to incorporate into the cloudboot image and extract the <module>.ko file.
• Copy the file to the control panel server in the following location:
  

  /tftpboot/images/centos5/diskless/snapshot/<HV MAC ADDRESS>/overlay/

  You will probably need to create the overlay folder. You will also need to copy the file separately for each hypervisor.
  
  Note: Even for CentOS 6 images, you should still use the Centos5 directory!
• Make a file called 'earlyboot.sh' and set permissions - 'chmod +x earlyboot.sh'. The file should look similar to the following:
  

  #!/bin/sh
  PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
  export PATH
  modprobe ptp
  modprobe configfs
  insmod /i40e.ko

  The overlay folder that you created is copied to the root filesystem when a cloudboot hypervisor boots, hence the location of /<module.ko.
  
  If you wanted it in /home/onapp, then you would change the insmod command to /home/onapp/<module>.ko and you would also need to create the /home/onapp directories inside the overlay folder for each hypervisor.
• Some modules will need dependencies installed first, hence, the modprobe commands should go prior to the insmod. You can check the dependencies of the module as follows:
  

  [root@172.17.0.20 ~]# modinfo /i40e.ko
  filename: /i40e.ko
  version: 1.2.38
  license: GPL
  description: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection XL710 Network Driver
  author: Intel Corporation, <e1000-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>
  srcversion: 2DD4F2DA0C801BE6DFE8ECB
  alias: pci:v00008086d00001586sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias: pci:v00008086d00001585sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias: pci:v00008086d00001584sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias: pci:v00008086d00001583sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias: pci:v00008086d00001581sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias: pci:v00008086d00001580sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias: pci:v00008086d0000157Fsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias: pci:v00008086d00001574sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias: pci:v00008086d00001572sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  depends: configfs,ptp
  vermagic: 2.6.32-358.6.2.el6.x86_64 SMP mod_unload modversions
  parm: max_vfs:Number of Virtual Functions: 0 = disable (default), 1-128 = enable this many VFs (array of int)
  parm: debug:Debug level (0=none,...,16=all) (int)